Your carbon footprint in Hawaii

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I eat beef almost exclusively. The Kobe flown in from Japan is the best.

I hear the Wagyu is pretty good too.

In Yumoto we had dinner at an old Japanese restaurant, every course was a different type of tofu, with a different sauce, and different preparation.  In Aizu we went into a shop with various prepared foods, in the back was a room with an all tofu restaurant.  It was packed, every seat taken, a line out the door.

I can guess what you’re thinking. Tofu? That white tasteless stuff with a 3 month sell by date?

In Japan the sell by dates for tofu are days or a week, not months.  It’s oishi. Ono. And low carbon. Here’s the tofu aisle at a grocery store in Japan:

   

[randomq]

My primary motivation for living off-grid was not to save the planet or virtue signal. It was to be free. I believe a man's home should be his castle, and he should be able to do whatever he wants on his property as long as it doesn't hurt the neighbors. The freedom I have experienced here feels more like my own ideals of "America" than anything I've ever experienced on the mainland. I build how I want, live how I want, don't have utility bills or rent or mortgage over my head. I'm not a wage slave; if my boss annoys me too much I can say **** you and move on because the sun will keep shining on my solar panels and the rain will keep falling into my catchment.

I guess I don't get the folks that want to sign up for payments on a $50k truck, pay hundreds a month for utility bills, thousands for mortgages and insurance, etc. It's no wonder no one can afford a home, and why people are so desperate. The whole system is designed to enslave you and make you dependent on that paycheck while you make your boss, bank, and everyone else richer.

[MyManao]

I don’t know right or wrong, but I haven’t bought new in a very long time.. if I did I am sure I'd get da kine… I always was into good quality best technology save the (fill in the blank) but as I said I ain't bought new in something like forever. 

My truck, a more recent purchase, is 20 years old.. and has less than 40k on it. I occasionally go to Maui and Molokai, I fly Mokulele. The last cordless drill I got was a Makita when they came out with their newest... 9v batteries. A kid came over recently to help patch a leak on my roof and forgot his drill so I gave him mine to use, after he came down he said ‘uncle, I think your drill stay broke, no more da kine brah’. A few weeks later I pulled it out to take apart the dryer, to replace the motor, belt and rollers, and it worked great for me. I still got an entire wood shop, and auto shop, and it’s chock full of all you need to do whatever you want.. old school. Plug ‘em in vroom.. but if I was to build new I am sure I’d have that buggah decked out with the latest and greatest.. panels, batteries, but god knows nothing with the name Tesla on it. I vote with my dollars and don’t support Nazis.

I did get a Dewalt chop saw when they came out with their 12” blade model.. back in maybe 2000 or 2001? What a kick ass tool. Being able to whack a 4x8 in a single cut.. that’s a dream come true.

Long before the Farm Lots I lived in the three acre squares.. in what many, probably to this day, called the Church house. Back then we were cool.. fully wired.. two outlets side by side throughout. One 12v the other 110. And we did fine completely off grid.. with a large array of panels on the roof, two step (square) wave Trace inverters, and a diesel Onan generator in a house of it’s own we’d fire up on weekend to do the laundry and top up the batteries. Solar panels weren’t what they are today, a large bank of 3v batteries inline were a whole other story, and that rainforest had its own challenges, but that house hummed.

Then came the SSPP program. HELCO was going 'round lobbying all the substandard subs to pay them to string the wires.. and all my neighbors were like YES! And I asked, hey if you wanted to live on the grid why in the f*ck did you move into the squares? And this one pregnant wahine was like ‘I am so sick and tired of..’ Mine was not the popular vote. But I had it good, my house was decked out, while most folks were hauling batteries and living off portable generators, and now HELCO’s poles line the streets.

Then there was a stretch, as computers became central in life and the net was born, where off grid square and modified waves became a hurdle.. we needed a pure sine wave..

Interesting how when I was young I was all in for all that kine stuff.. now I just replace parts and keep what I got going and hope they’ll out live me. The idea of throwing something away and asking the planet to give me a new one just don’t make sense.. even if the new one is better, faster, more this or that. I did buy a new set of brushes and a switch for my wormdrive Skilsaw the other day. I bought that saw new in the ‘60s and have replaced those parts at least 4 - 5 times over the years. And it's still an awesome saw. I was at some parts website (getting what I needed to revitalize the dryer) and so many of the parts I wanted were listed as no longer available I figured I’d be proactive and buy what I imagine I might need bumbai. Same with the weedwhacker, an old Stihl FS200, that was the latest greatest thing they had ever made when I got it.. back when Garden Exchange was the only Stihl dealer on the island.. thank all the gods for Chinese replacement carbs!

So maybe by comparison I use.. but then I ain't asking the planet to cough up anymore.. and I only do a tenth of what I did when I was younger and woke up every morning raring to go. Now I write script or push pixels around.. and sometimes make some graphical element wiggle around, and do a few hours a day in the yard to be sure to keep the machine (me) in working order.. and top up the vitamin D. 

Overall, I think folks doing 'their part' is all well and good, but I doubt there's much difference between one system and another on a personal level, it's societal that counts. Are we going to quit making excessive heat or not? And yeah fossil fuels are a biggie. But, overall, I think the real difference is what makes us happy. We can be happy with less. We can be content because the kids are good and fulfilled by the sounds of the keiki laughing, or we can think we need and those who want our dollars are sure to parade a long list of things they want us to think we need in front of us. You can have the latest and greatest, and yeah you can make asinine cartoonish art with AI, or be just as happy with the stuff you already have. It's a choice, but mother, she's run out of stuff to give. And we'd be fools not to take that into account. Dead fools bumbai if we don't.

And yes, I think the kids have a vested interest in standing up and protecting mother from those still bent on gratifying their own greed. And they will. Someday the people of this planet are going to push back, and push back hard against those who think their desires outweigh the future.

[ironyak]

Wao nahele wahine - folks out there are eating red meat...lol. We stopped for health reasons
Where did I say there weren't any? You think the vegans at the Natch aren't motivated by health reasons? I'd say Crunchy Granola is as Crunchy Granola does, but doesn't really matter the motivation - fewer cattle being raised and slaughtered is a good thing regardless.

Well...duh that flights have a high carbon usage. My point was that it was work related so it was necessary
Is it though? There really is no other possible way to make a living? While our infrastructure may be dictated by fossil fuel use, it doesn't mean our thinking has to be. You live in Puna - visualize man! ;)

It's for nuclear energy related work, which has a high EROI
That it does, but also slow to build, expensive, prone for misdirection into weapon development that results in the US killing school girls, and generates some extra-special long lived pollution. Gotta love those nuclear semiotics though - fascinating field on how to communicate without language to all future generations just how bad and dangerous the end results of nuclear power are.

I think stating a gram is fair. I'm sure you'll tear me apart for that answer
It was less a question about the exact number than the lack of attribution. Those matching Hilo Hattie's outfits apparently fit well on a couple sockpuppets, one parroting Gemini and the other Grok. Instead of just regurgitating whatever the AI expels at you after a few strokes of the keyboard, maybe write your own words instead. (@randomq - there has to be "a shoggoth wearing a human mask puppeting a human wearing a shoggoth mask" image by now?)

Yak -  The issue is that the physics of atmospheric warming don't care if we fly for work, or medical, or a weekend fling in Las Vegas, on stand-by or pre-booked.
Durien Fiend - It does matter, in the sense that the number of flights allocated by an airline for specific city pairs is determined by paid passenger demand.
Hmm, imagine the new allocation considerations when those stand-by seats in ITO and KOA don't get filled, or most of the other seats, when people choose not to fly at all?

We can go back-and-forth on the abstract self-justifications, but the material physics still don't care. Maybe some need to take guidance from former Big Islander Terrance McKenna or Michael Pollan, and plasticize those neurons until they can recognize and feel the connection between the Lahaina fires and taking a flight.

terracore - For a second I thought maybe you were my neighbor.
That's the neat thing about atmospheric pollution, is that we all are.

randomq - He should be able to do whatever he wants on his property as long as it doesn't hurt the neighbors.
Howdy neighbor!

Edge - Just saying, I wouldn’t blame today’s keiki one bit for marching, protesting, and/or voting to change the status quo
But you draw the line on them turning you into a nutrient rich goo? Would it help to know that GenZ is roughly 5x more likely to be vegetarian than the Baby Boomers, so you're probably won't be eaten, but used instead to feed the soybeans and kale? And before the finger-waggers start in with the OMGs as to where such a reprehensible idea could come from, I'd invoke the messaging resultant from the collective voting choices in the 80s, I learned it by watching you! ;)

MyManao - OMG! are you threatening us!?!
Well maybe not you, but if feeling threatened results in actual action, then sure, maybe feel a threat; although with temperatures rising, storms brewing, and animals mass extincting, it's not coming from me. Gotta take action before the invisible hand of the market finishes stabbing us all in the back.

[HiloJulie]

Ms Wao: Well...duh that flights have a high carbon usage. My point was that it was work related so it was necessary

YakYak: Is it though? There is no other possible way to make a living? While our infrastructure may be dictated by fossil fuel use, it doesn't mean our thinking has to be. You live in Puna - visualize it man! 

All self-righteous correcting lectures aside, imagine those Puna workers whose jobs exist, but maybe over in Kona. Or those workers, that had to find work by commuting over to Maui, where their now needed to help rebuild. The Doctors and Nurses who have to come here from the mainland, or other parts of the world, due to staff shortages, local first responders flying Flight for Life transports, workers that are flown in in emergencies like when the Kona runway decides to bust out a few cracks. Or Federal first responders who have to come during natural disasters, our politicians flying back and forth, just imagine none of that possibility, because, man, visualize it - MAN!

[MyManao]

just imagine none of that possibility,..

The day couldn't come soon enough.

And hopefully, with it, all those that thrive on all that will leave too.

[Wao nahele wahine]

Yes, my work flights are necessary. I wish my work could be done remotely from home...as do many of my coworkers. We joke that that will probably happen after we retire. I don't plan on changing my career for now. My work at existing nuclear power plants in no way means I support nuclear weaponry that results in senseless killing.

As for regurgitating AI 'slop'...your link gave a similar calculation. Not sure if you are thinking everything I write is run through AI, but it isn't. More Hilo Hattie slop? Talk about regurgitation. Never been in the place, but if throwing more insults floats your boat...you do you.

Enjoy your day...I'm off to enjoy mine.

[MyManao]

Yes, my work flights are necessary.

necessary /nĕs′ĭ-sĕr″ē/

adjective

1. Needed or required: synonym: indispensable. 
   "a contract complete with the necessary signatures; conditions necessary to life."
   Similar: indispensable
   
2. Unavoidably determined by prior conditions or circumstances; inevitable. 
   "the necessary results of overindulgence."
   
3. Logically inevitable. 
   "a necessary conclusion."
   

Your work, and where you live, is a choice.

[HiloJulie]

And hopefully, with it, all those that thrive on all that will leave too.

It is a two-way street you know. There is also the departure section at ITO, KOA and HNL.

Hopefully, the door does not hit YOUR backside. Visualize it, MAN!

[Wao nahele wahine]

Yes, my work flights are necessary.

necessary /nĕs′ĭ-sĕr″ē/

adjective

1. Needed or required: synonym: indispensable. 
   "a contract complete with the necessary signatures; conditions necessary to life."
   Similar: indispensable
   
2. Unavoidably determined by prior conditions or circumstances; inevitable. 
   "the necessary results of overindulgence."
   
3. Logically inevitable. 
   "a necessary conclusion."
   

Your work, and where you live, is a choice.

No kidding. Thanks for stating the obvious. My work is exactly that. My work skills are required at power plants throughout the U.S. and overseas. Regardless of where I live, flying to different job sites is a requirement. Did you miss my earlier comment that I would prefer to work remotely?

But then if you want to play gotcha I did a lot of time in a helicopter.. as part of the HVO monitoring crew we flew out to the vent once a week.. and for quite a while I had a contract to do mapping run photos through the belly of fixed wings, for government agencies around the islands. ’Tang, I used to have to fly 20,000 feet above terrain in a little twin engine Cessna.. it was how we made maps before we had satellites.. imagine the gas brah!