Green Issue 2023
“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which itʻs loveliness arises.”
—Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pili Pū (Get Involved)
A brief guide to Maui’s community environmental stewards
Maui’s Marine Protected Areas
Is Something Fishy Going On?
What Passage of Seabird Lighting Bill Means for You
Bill 21 will help protect Maui’s seabird populations.
Letters to the Editor: Environmental Coverage & Affordable Housing
Environment and Sustainability: What Should Maui Times Cover? Maui Times’ first community brainstorming discussion garnered dozens of suggestions for important stories that our publication (and others) should research and report on in the coming year. The...
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz: The Green Issue Interview
In 2009, Brian Schatz walked into our office on North Main St. in Wailuku. At the time, the 41-year-old, fresh-faced Michigan-born Democrat was campaigning for lieutenant governor on the ticket with U.S. Rep. and soon-to-be-Governor Neil Abercrombie.
Nonpoint Source Pollution Threatens Environment and Health
Polluted runoff, the often-untreated murky brown water that oozes out into Maui’s ocean after every large storm, contains a toxic stew of oil, gas, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals along with plastics, animal waste, detritus, sand, soil and rocks.
The Rising Tide of Microplastic Pollution on Land and Sea
At best 10% of US plastic waste gets recycled. Another 13% gets burned, sometimes to generate electricity. Most of the remaining plastic is buried in landfills, but each year at least 1 billion pounds of plastic finds its way into our oceans.
Building Maui
Is Maui destined to rely on imports to build its homes or do local materials stand a chance?
Up a steep driveway in Kīpahulu, past fruit trees and dense jungle, outcroppings of bamboo begin to appear, stitched into the mountainside. Dusky black stalks and tea-green shoots adorn the landscape at Whispering Winds, a 230-acre farm cooperative where Rich von Wellsheim has been growing bamboo for nearly two decades.