• Home sweet home • Bicyclist’s lament • Sell our carbon offsets • Vote for candidates with a plan Home sweet home We are all so lucky. We live in a giant postcard. Some people save all year or longer
• Home sweet home
• Bicyclist’s lament
• Sell our carbon offsets
• Vote for candidates with a plan
Home sweet home
We are all so lucky.
We live in a giant postcard. Some people save all year or longer to come and play here for a few fleeting days. The people here are like nowhere else in the world. They’re so caring and sharing and aloha oozes out of their pores.
I was recently on the Mainland for many weeks and oh how I missed this place. When the homesickness got really bad I went down to the theatre in Pennsylvania and saw “Tropic Thunder.”
Those mountains and all those shades of green that defy belief you would swear it was the work of special effects or an airbrusher’s sweat and time. All us islanders know the truth. Sigh … it’s so good to be home.
Rebecca Gorsline
Kapa‘a
Bicyclist’s lament
I write this letter in regards to the young driver in the small metallic-red import truck carrying at least three other kids and some fishing poles who deliberately pulled out in front of two bicyclists from Niumalu Road to Nawiliwili Road (by the bulk sugar warehouse) this past Sunday morning.
You’re fortunate that I didn’t choose to get your license number. Your action caused both of us riders to brake hard and swerve to avoid a collision with your truck. You might have thought it was funny but I’d remind you that, had a crash happened, serious injury would have resulted and your parents and your insurance company would have been held fully responsible for your actions.
I mention two bicyclists that morning: The rider behind me was Police Chief Darryl Perry of the Kauai Police Department.
It just goes to show that you never know who’s behind the handlebars …
Ann Leighton, Kaua‘i bicyclist
Lihu‘e
Sell our carbon offsets
We should be investigating another viable energy revenue source for Kaua’i — selling our carbon offsets to large corporations.
Carbon offsets are the hidden value of our green plants and their ability to soak up carbon dioxide.
Carbon offsets mean that we preserve our green lands to help absorb the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, rather than developing the land. We can sell the value of doing nothing to our beautiful mountains and green lands, but nurture them.
Preserving our forests, uplands and planting more native trees, rather than invasive species, to accumulate and store excess carbon, can be extremely profitable.
More and more, we will see larger corporations required to purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the effects of the wastes they are adding to our atmosphere.
Micronesia and Malaysia have innovative programs, in which their forest reserves are being valued for their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide. These trees are the lungs of the planet, cleansing the air.
Their governments are collecting revenue for doing this, while preserving the land.
The carbon offsets are then sold as a commercial commodity and investment product. They receive cash for this. These are new “products” that will be in higher demand as global governments tighten the regulations to reduce global warming.
The new “dotcom traders” are developing corporations which buy and sell these carbon offsets similar to commodities.
Some travel Web sites will let you buy personal carbon offsets to cancel out the negative effect of your plane trip, which produces more pollution.
We should look at Kaua‘i and the beautiful forested areas and green ‘aina with additional appreciation as the state/county/agricultural businesses can “sell” the ability of plants to do nothing but grow freely and clean the air.
It would take no additional energy, chemicals or pollution to “harvest” the value of this new commercial application.
It would preserve the forested uplands and lower forests forever. And our young people could have employment in guarding, preserving and nurturing the forests.
What a happy occupation. Also, with no pollution, no county burden of infrastructure, this would provide revenue for the county to use for our own waste programs.
Think about it … they really are money trees.
Virginia Beck
Lawa‘i
Vote for candidates with a plan
Elections are nothing more than a bunch of egotists running in a popularity contest. Usually the wealthy ones win, the ones who have spent the most on advertising, lying and brainwashing the public have the upper edge.
The presidential election has lost principle of its issues and platforms, instead bringing up dirt and lies about their opponents which has nothing to do with how they will govern.
Wouldn’t it be nice if smear campaigns were illegal and commercials were outlawed, allowing only the candidates to be seen in debates?
Voting for someone only because they are the same color or gender as you, or go to your same place of worship is not how one should vote.
One should vote for the candidate who has a plan to make the country and your hometown a better and safer place, and a vice president who has a higher IQ than George W. Bush.
Kimo Rosen
Kapa‘a
