Briefing to be held to discuss threats climate change poses to Hawaiʻi
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Have you felt it getting hotter? Maybe even more the past few years?
It may not all be in your head. According to the State, the past ten years have been the hottest years recorded in history globally.
Last year was the hottest one yet.
The urgency the threat that climate change poses to Hawaii is an issue officials want taken more seriously.
The ongoing climate issues have resulted in more extreme weather events, such as droughts, storms and flooding.
Officials even accredit the Lahaina wildfire disaster as an example of this, due to the 60-mile per hour winds and grasses dried by drought fueled wildfires that tragically claimed at 100 lives and destroyed more than 2,000 structures.
“Climate change has been misunderstood, downplayed, or even denied by many people — and denial does not make a problem go away, it just forestalls any action and makes the problem worse,” said Senator Gabbard. “To address a problem, we must first recognize that the problem exists and then understand its scope, scale and timing. Therefore, the purpose of this Informational Briefing is to bring public attention to the immediacy and magnitude of climate change. We need everyone’s help to do the long, hard work of countering climate change as much as we can, mitigating it where we can and adapting to it as well as we can.”
A joint Informational Briefing will be held at the State Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 11, by Senator Mike Gabbard, Chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment, and Representative Nicole Lowe, Chair of the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection.
“Despite many years of warnings from scientists nationwide, the climate is still on track to reach
nearly 3C degrees of warming, a milestone that has been called ‘the point of no return,’” said
Representative Lowen. “Even with years of global climate action, the anticipated level of
warming continues to rise, as do local impacts like increased temperatures, natural disasters,
droughts, and coral bleaching. It is imperative for legislators and the public alike to fully
understand the scope of the climate crisis and its impacts, and I hope that this Briefing will
further those efforts.”
The Briefing will take place on Thursday at 1 p.m., in conference room 325 at the State Capitol.
Presentations from the State Climatologist and the Interim Dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, along with many other credible sources have been scheduled.
