The Center for American Progress reports
Hawaii's Governor David Ige (D) signed a bill on [June 4] implementing the most ambitious climate law in the United States. The new law, which comes into effect July 1, sets the goal for the state to become carbon neutral by 2045.
Along with the carbon neutral bill, Governor Ige also signed two other climate bills into law. A second bill requires the state to use carbon offsets to restore the state's forests by planting trees which will help absorb carbon from the atmosphere. And a third law mandates that sea level rise be factored into the review process for building projects.
[...] Ige [noted]: "Sea level rise is already having an impact on beaches, roadways, and homes near the shoreline. As a result, we face difficult land-use decisions, and requiring an analysis of sea level rise before beginning construction is just plain common sense."
The carbon neutral bill notes that Hawaii could see $19 billion worth of damage from sea level rise.
Hawaii now surpasses Rhode Island as the most ambitious state when it comes to tackling climate change. Rhode Island aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Before introducing the three laws, Hawaii already had some of the strongest climate policies in the country. This includes a target introduced in 2015 to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. And last year, despite President Trump's announcement to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, Hawaii became the first state the introduce a law to uphold the Paris climate target of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
As an archipelago in the Central Pacific, however, Hawaii relies on carbon-heavy modes of transport: planes and ships. This is one reason why the state chose to pursue a carbon offset program, Scott Glenn, head of the state's environmental quality office [said].
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 07 2018, @04:56AM (9 children)
I'm actively look for some unimproved land in northwest Oregon or southwest Washington. Five acres is just ten grand.
Very first thing I'm going to rent a tractor plow it then scatter a whole lotta meadow in a can. Then I'm gonna buy some beehives
Then I'll pick out spots for my house, workshop and a 1.5 acre garden that I'll start a few years from now.
The rest of my land will get Solar Citied
Such homesteading is what grandma and grandpa Crawford did to recover from losing everything in the depression
I only need one or two helpers to build a house. I'm an experienced carpenter and have my tools, my father's tools and his father's tools. I even have a full size table saw. Grandpa was a general contractor
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:19AM
Get some adjacent forest too, if you can. Great for materials, and also hunting/trapping.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:36AM (5 children)
You should have reported having received your ancestor's tools and duly declared them as income for the purpose of taxation.
The only reason you can dream of your little homesteading experiment is because you've stolen resources from The State, you resource-centralizing capitalist pig–dog! Not everyone had fathers or grandfathers who had the wherewithal to learn the art of stroking wood competently, and so you should Think of the Children instead of being the selfish, gluttonous, bourgeoisie that you are!!!11
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:16AM (2 children)
Get Back To Me When _YOU_ Can Claim A Charitable Deduction On Your Form 1040 Schedule A.
Portland Rescue Mission [portlandrescuemission.org].
They also have transitional housing. They can sleep 56 men year round as well as an additional 96 from late fall until early spring. They give free clothes to the men in the year-round dorm. (Who gets to sleep where is determined by a lottery.)
They serve both men and women during the day: hot nutritious meals, showers, restrooms. Each evening at 9:00 PM they hand out blanket to those who must sleep outside.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:29PM (1 child)
I donate more than 15K per year.
Well.
I don't get a say in it per say but still that's money from my back pocket straight to the poor starving politicos who really need it
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:04PM
We don't have any money for poor starving politicos. They're probably incels anyway. That's why we need to bomb the shit out of the Middle East. We need to give our military more handouts, otherwise we'll be overrun by incels just looking for handouts!
Stop being an incel pussy and sign up today. Service guarantees that you get to rape illegal immigrants and other brown people in the great concentration camps we're building for Mexicans. You'll get to serve so many women being detained without trial in our great concentration camps, you'll forget you were ever a pussy incel. #MAGA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:23PM
Thank you very much I spent much of my teenage years learning how to properly stroke wood.
Even today I continue to benefit from my own self education.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 07 2018, @04:57PM
You should have reported having received your ancestor's tools and duly declared them as income for the purpose of taxation.
I'm pretty sure a few tools aren't worth $5.6 million dollars. [forbes.com]
But don't worry, the hero of the common-man has raised that limit to $11.2 million dollars! We wouldn't want our trust fund babies, like the Trumps, to help pay for the operation of the country. Or worse, need to get a job!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:24AM
I've already done this, but in AZ. I have land in WA also, but the solar potential there absolutely sucks. My girlfriend's grandparents set up a homestead on as few acres with a very big house built with lumber they felled and milled themselves not far from Seattle and were able to live 100% self sufficiently with everything they grew. Her grandfather did all this by himself after retiring from Lockheed.
If you're serious, check out sunelec.com, they had the best prices from all of my research. Prices vary a lot and are high again (tariffs), but I've seen prices as low as $0.23/wp, though once they did a free giveaway for the price of shipping.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @08:32AM
Sucker. It will be like paying rent, except you own the land you are paying rent on.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Sulla on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:05AM
I like the idea of the different states tryng different ideas, states taking risk and successfully implementing "green" plans that work out for the economy are a great way to show other states the possibilities.
There are good ideas and reasons to go for renewables and reduction of carbon that should be attractive even to the most ravent conservative, but they are not being sold correctly. Sell the ideas and show how they will be beneficial from a stance of energy independence, high paying new jobs, and increases in effeciency rather than just saying that anyone who doesnt like them is a retard and a denyer. Green tech is too wrapped up in being a good political way for either side to split the population and stay in power, but the merit of the tech itself is breaking through that barrier slowly.
A redneck should love an electric truck based just on the drastic increase in possible torque, sell the idea that way and you can get more people on board without resorting to the traditional angry tactics.
Good luck hawaii.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:16AM (2 children)
Some people (Trump voters) do not realize that Hawaii is a State of the United States. They think it is part of Kenya! But then, they have no idea where Kenya is! Ha! What maroons! But the real kicker, is that Donald J(oker) Trump was not born in the United States! He was born in Bermuda, and his mother was an illegal immigrant! Donald is an anchor baby, and anchor who brought in Ivana, Marla, and Melania, and probably Melanie as well. So there it is, an illegal president, bringing in illegal immigrants, and making Fox News pay for it!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:59AM
Born in Panama!!
Who ever let him run for president of USA??
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @12:58PM
Found the incel! Everybody knows that Hawaii is a territory of Kenya! Our President made a tremendous deal with Pele. A fantastic deal to get rid of the Kenyan imperialists! And Pele is a very fit woman. Very hot. You sound like somebody who is scared by alphas like Trump and the effect he has on women like Pele, the tremendous deals he can make with such an amazing goddess! We're going to free Hawaii from Kenyan domination and make Hawaii great again!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @08:56AM (3 children)
Taking climate change and sea level rise into account definitely is a common sense, but spending money on going green for a such a small island archipelago is just a token gesture which does little to solve the global problem affecting it.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:35AM
The peak of Mauna Kea on the big island has an altitude of 14,000 feet. There's not many other mountains in the rest of the US that can match that.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:52AM
How many tonnes of atmospheric CO2 is Kilauea kicking out?
(Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:25PM
When you have to import all of your energy taking steps to go green and independent does make sense. It might not compare on the scale of moving the entire USA to solar, but in conversion from carbon to alternative energy we need to look for the easiest conversions first.
(Score: 1, Troll) by requerdanos on Thursday June 07 2018, @10:37AM
Another way to do this besides planting trees is to gently squeeze snakes (indigenous or imported, the results are about the same) until they express natural oils rich in carbon. Burying this oil sequesters the carbon, since the oils are thick and don't evaporate readily nor travel quickly through the underlying rock strata. The same snakes can be carbon-harvested almost indefinitely.
-----
Note: This "Carbon Offset Snake Oil" post is satire. No actual snakes were harmed, but if you send me money I will certify that I collected snake oil and buried it for you.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:04PM
I'd be interested in hearing more about that. The U.S. East most of the most important species of trees were logged out by about 1900. With selective harvesting after that, almost everything that has grown back since has been useful only for pulp, stick house building and firewood. Gone are the vast forests of adirondack spruce, white oak, chestnut etc. etc.
Quality woods are now so expensive that instrument makers fly buyers all over the country to inspect and buy individual trees, one at a time.
It isn't just that you plant, it is what you plant. I know in Hawaii it is illegal to cut down Koa for example, which is one of the rarest of the tone woods, and is always in extremely high demand. If they are actively encouraging the planting of it for future generations, that would be nice to see, and would make a good example for other states.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by leftover on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:21PM
Once, in a previous millennium, I did a study on implementing wind concentrators to boost output from vertical-axis wind turbines. The concentrators were only feasible if they did not need to turn, so I looked for places with the most consistent winds. Hawaii was the hands-down winner with consistent direction and speed most of the year. Of course they also have volcanic heat sources, deep-ocean cooling, and plentiful hydro. These are certainly more "shovel-ready" and likely less obtrusive. Those resources combined with exceptionally high fuel cost would seem to make this move quite realistic.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:04PM
I'll give 10 to 1 odds that somebody repeals/amends it into irrelevance in the next 27 years.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:26PM
Are they trying to offset the tonnes of CO2 their volcanos thrust into the air?
(Score: 1) by CZB on Thursday June 07 2018, @04:52PM (1 child)
They should only allow people to visit with sailing ships. No fossil fuels allowed. It would make the islands a truly exclusive, once in a lifetime experience again.
And no cars, only donkeys.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:36PM
What iz rong with electric bikes?