Gratitude for honesty Before I even realized I had lost my wallet, it was found and returned by a young girl and her father on Sunday, Dec. 18. They left before I could get their names or reward their gesture
Gratitude for honesty
Before I even realized I had lost my wallet, it was found and returned by a young girl and her father on Sunday, Dec. 18.
They left before I could get their names or reward their gesture with something other than a sincere thanks.
Upon the chance of this being read, please return so I can gift your honesty.
James Skylar Brown, Kilauea
Kudos to KIUC
I’m so excited to see the ramp up of solar installations on Kaua‘i’s homes and businesses that I put a picture of a chart up on my Facebook page.
Installed capacity by households is climbing out from 1 megawatt, with another 3 MW by our businesses, and both trends are accelerating upward.
I’m hopeful that this signals a continuing surge of investment in our town’s renewable-energy future. It’s certainly a smart-money move, with the cost of solar falling fast.
I’m proud that our co-op is leading the nation in the rate of adoption of this clean tech. And I’m thrilled that KIUC is an early investor in smart-grid technology that can enable better load management and distributed generation as we switch to renewables.
I also want to honor the work of Ben Sullivan, who has been the leading advocate of a renewables strategy on the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative’s Board of Directors. He will be missed — although I’m stoked he’s joining the county’s sustainability team.
Ken Stokes, Kapa‘a
Beware of smart-meter brochures
The health controversy with the planned “smart” meters exists because the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative safety study being used to reassure us is at odds with the reality on Mainland of people getting sick.
The KIUC safety study by Yakov P. Shkolnikov is itself flawed because Shkolnikov is an industry insider with patents for RFID (wireless identification) technology. He is pro wireless and has a conflict of interest in testing the meters, which are designed to communicate with RFID tags (chips).
As a result of the 2007 Bio-Initiative Report, the European Parliament advised 27 European member states that they should introduce more effective protection of the general public from electromagnetic fields. This report found that radio frequency levels far lower than the FCC standards used by Shkolnikov are dangerous, especially when exposure is 24-7 and long-term.
Smart meters are designed to transmit constantly with other meters in a MESH network and with the “smart” appliances coming soon. If the appliances throughout your home can hear the smart meter, so can your body cells. We will be surrounded and penetrated by wireless signals, called electro-smog, without escape. As with cell towers and power lines, the smart grid will increase incidences of cancer in the community.
Many people now choose to hold their cell phones away from their heads when they talk, or use an ear phone, or even air-tube ear phones because we now understanding that wireless technology is not safe. It is dangerous to have children near cell phones, baby monitors or portable phones.
Once we realize that Shklnikov’s study is biased and as irrelevant as the FCC standards, we can see it is a mistake to allow the smart grid here. Rather than try to dampen public scrutiny, KIUC should lead the community in becoming aware of all controversies, so a true island cooperative can make informed decisions.
It is not too late to just say no to the poorly researched smart grid program. Let’s wait a couple years and see how all the lawsuits against smart meters pan out on the Mainland.
Ray Songtree, Hanalei
Are smart meters really what we need?
I read a letter published the other day and, boy, it sounded just like what I
went through to get answers about what the dangers are with the smart
meter. There is so much information about the pros and lots of cons because it is still being researched.
Why should we put new meters on every house when there still is not enough research done?
Our property values could lose more than they have, when people say I will not buy in Kaua‘i because of the meters or I will not visit Kaua‘i because of all the radio waves it generates.
Please, let’s do more work before it is too late and look at the big picture. Is this really what we need now?
Donna Perlman, Kapa‘a Homesteads
Politicians, leave narcissism behind
There are many elections taking place in 2012, everything from local council to the president of the United States. Thousands of political campaigns will commence all over America in 2012.
Why not start a special fund to help bail out America by asking all politicians to donate all campaign funds to a special fund that could be called “Get America Back on its Feet.”
If you consider how much each political campaign costs, and if all campaign monies were to be used in a pono (righteous) manner, America would be on its way to recovery.
Politicians would need to rely on word of mouth, social media and human interest stories from the media to get their voice heard. That alone would be a great incentive for political candidates to leave their narcissistic world behind in the hope of a new tomorrow.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
