If you have visited Maui, and in particular its historical port town of Lahaina, then you can better appreciate the tragic loss wrought by the world’s latest wildfire. It’s been years since I vacationed on this magical island, but it was a place evocative of the word paradise.
I particularly recall time spent within the cool “biosphere” produced by the banyan tree planted in 1873 in Lahaina. The solitary tree had grown to encompass almost two acres with over 40 connecting root-trunks before the fire struck. I loosely describe it as a biosphere because the tree felt like a self-contained life system.
When news accounts first reported the fire, my preliminary hope was that the banyan tree survived. I assumed the public had been able to safely evacuate Lahaina, but as details regarding the utter devastation and mounting loss of life began filtering in, worrying about the tree’s status started feeling trivial.
At this point, we can only hope that the conflicting news accounts of how many people are missing are exaggerated. Claims from several hundred to several thousand have been reported. It does appear that the deaths currently exceeding 100 will rise significantly. The fire burned so hot some of the missing may never be located or identified.
Before the fires have even been extinguished, lawsuits have already been filed seeking to place blame for what happened upon the island’s electrical utility company. They couldn’t have been symbolically filed in the historical courthouse in Lahaina as that museum was destroyed by the fire. Reports have also surfaced that speculators have floated inquiries about buying land in Maui seeking to capitalize on people who have lost everything.
Catastrophic events tend to bring out the best and worst in humans. Many stories of people risking their lives to help others have been reported, and ultimately, no matter where fault is assessed, the city was destroyed and no amount of money will bring back lost relatives. The post-fire images of Lahaina are reminiscent of recent war photos from Ukraine, or arguably Hiroshima; knowing nature was the primary cause of this disaster brings no comfort to the survivors.
What is becoming evident from daily reports all over the planet is that climate change is wreaking havoc upon everything in its path. Our local communities have also felt the impacts from wildfires. We have been “lucky” so far in not having experienced significant loss of human life from these events.
The naysayers who proclaim climate change is a myth are less vocal these days. Political and financial interests that previously contended we can’t afford to invest in efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are wrong.
Recall that former President, Donald Trump, pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. Given that America is one of the biggest fossil fuel polluters, that’s not leadership during a time of mounting crisis.
China, the planet’s largest producer of carbon dioxide, is engaged in extensive efforts to reduce its carbon print upon the planet. The choking pollution, severe heat waves, droughts and flooding regularly occurring there have awakened this industrial giant. The Biden Administration is also focusing extensive resources upon developing green energy.
Given the loss of life that has occurred in Maui and elsewhere on the planet, worrying about a single banyan tree is seemingly trivial. However, at the end of the day efforts to preserve rain forests and trees, and to reduce carbon emissions, are essential to preserving life on our planet.
If you want to help people in Maui, the American Red Cross of Hawaii, Maui Strong Fund and/or Maui Food Bank are good local charities. On a global basis, please consider giving to the Coalition For Rainforest Nations, an impactful charity working to reduce climate change.
There have been news reports that the banyan tree in Lahaina, though badly burned, may survive. Nourishing that biosphere back to vitality is the kind of action that can ignite hope. It is a symbolic place to start rebuilding Lahaina — the whole world must follow suit.
(4) comments
The difference in the leftist media democrat propaganda machine response to Katrina and their response to the Hawaiian fire.....is very telling.........what fire?
Water equity. That's your democrat party folks.
Firefighters without water......ONLY IN AMERICA!
Ha ha.....the leftist woke bureaucrat in charge of
The water refused the requests to fill up the tanks and reservoirs for the fire department because he was concerned with racial water equity and getting water to the pacific islander owned farms. Racial justice gone awry. White folks had their water turned off and couldn't save their own homes. Only in America.
China is engaged in extensive efforts to limit its
Carbon footprint? By building 6 times more coal fired power plants than the rest of the world combined? You're not very bright, are you?
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