• Companies not being very good neighbors • Smart meters and climate change • Conspiracy folks have gone too far Companies not being very good neighbors So, Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Agrigenetics filed a lawsuit Friday which argues that the disclosure
• Companies not being very good neighbors • Smart meters and climate change • Conspiracy folks have gone too far
Companies not being very good neighbors
So, Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Agrigenetics filed a lawsuit Friday which argues that the disclosure requirements of Kauai’s Bill 2491 expose the companies to risks of “corporate espionage, vandalism and environmental terrorism.”
Hasn’t there been a law, which the biotech companies helped engineer, on the Hawaii state books that gives those companies the opportunity to voluntarily disclose what, how much, when and where they’re applying herbicides and pesticides? My understanding is that Kauai Council Member Gary Hooser introduced Bill 2491 after the biotech companies balked at that very disclosure.
The Star-Advertiser’s editorial from Nov. 19 finishes with this: “The biotech companies have voiced a willingness, even eagerness, to be good neighbors and to allay community fears. Now is their golden opportunity to step up to the accountability plate. To all parties and stakeholders: Take a deep breath and step away from the legal threats and obstacle-hurling. Keep in sight the goals of community health and safety, and transparency. Recognize there are reasonable ways to communicate and to ease valid concerns, concerns that have been fostered by lack of disclosure and information.”
In December, in response to a FOIA request for access to public records, Syngenta pressured the state to black out material which it claimed contains “confidential business information that, if publicly disclosed, could undermine the company’s ability to compete in the marketplace.” According to the state’s pesticides program manager however, the redacted material includes the location of fields where pesticides were sprayed, the rate of pesticide application and the chemicals’ dilution rates, photographs of fields that could indicate the distance from the school and any information related to pesticides that were mixed together.
The information that was redacted is of clear public interest. The biotech companies are leasing 13,000-plus acres on Kauai, of which over 6,000 acres are public lands. Syngenta is a multi-billion dollar biotech company with headquarters in Switzerland. Their good-neighbor practices should include assuring and proving to the residents of the Garden Isle that theirs is not a scorched-Earth policy.
Anna Nimatee
Kapaa
Smart meters and climate change
As a physician, I am concerned about the effects of radio frequency (RF) exposure and I am also very concerned about climate change. I recommend to my patients that cellphones be turned to airplane mode when children are playing with them and that headsets be used when calls are made. However, electromagnetic waves obey the inverse square law (meaning that as you double your distance from the source, the power reduces to one quarter). If you stand 10 feet from a smart meter that is emitting (only a cumulative of two minutes per day), then you are exposed to 250-1,250 times less RF than you are if you’re on a cellphone. Assuming the low end of that spectrum, it would take you a year and a half of standing near a smart meter for 24 hours a day in order to be exposed to the same level of RF as you are on a 10-minute cellphone conversation.
There are, though, very clear health related issues that arise from our reliance on fossil fuels. Annually, there are over 34,000 deaths and 18 million hospitalizations directly related to pollution from fossil fuels. Further, our rapidly changing climate due to carbon emissions is necessitating that we strive now for a future of 100 percent clean, renewable energy for Kauai. We have to replace our big power plants with wind and solar and we need wireless technology to do it. A smart electrical grid is a necessary step for that future and a smart meter is necessary for a smart grid.
Because of this, I am voting “yes” in the KIUC meter fee election.
Lee A. Evslin, M.D.
Kapaa
Conspiracy folks have gone too far
I try to keep my letters to the editor light. But I’m just getting too angry. The conspiracy theorist minority on Kauai that wants to force its beliefs on the rest of us is going too far.
If they want to have their little conspiracy theory community with concerts and parties where they sit around confirming each others’ beliefs in ridiculous ideas, that’s fine. But I am sick of their self-righteous, arrogant, narcissistic belief that the other 65,000 people on Kauai who don’t agree with them should pay for it.
The Mana March social parade that they stiffed us taxpayers with, the Bill 2491 Hooser-Bynum Circus that’s costing us millions, and now wanting everyone else to pay for their special electric meters because their little Radio Shack EMF detectors made noise near homes they knew had smart meters is too much
They’ve pushed too far trying to change Kauai into their hippie utopia, and the people — the majority — are starting to push back. If they want unicorn land, they should buy an island or move to Colorado (pakalolo is legal there, hint, hint) instead of trying to make Kauai into something it is not. I moved here because I love Kauai as it is. These others moved here wanting to change it. Enough is enough.
It’s time for the silent majority to stop being silent, for the locals who historically ignore politics to start participating, or Kauai will be completely overrun by nutcases, hippie idealists and professional activists. In 2013 the 5 percent radicals took over Kauai. In 2014 the 95 percent will take back Kauai.
Chuck Lasker
Kalaheo
