Makena 670

I am a native Hawaiian born and raised in Makawao and I am against the development of Makena 670. Currently Iao aquifer is being drained of 18 millions of gallons of water each day. The Iao aquifers water level is at 12’ and this aquifer has 24’ water level capacity. Once at full capacity this aquifer is now half empty. We are using the aquifer water supply two times faster than it is naturally being replenished. It can take years for ground water to peculate into underground aquifer. Maui is becoming the brown island. Namely; Kihei has turned into a dustbowl with frequent dust storms. Between the greedy water company, hotets and worthless sugar cane our resources cannot keep up. With continued increases in water usage and less rainfall over the years our aquifers have suffered. Also irresponsible placing of septic and pollutions from fertilizers and pesticides have effected the under ground water supply. Not to long ago our Kula and Makawao water was contaminated with ekolai. This is from septic leaks finding their way into the aquifer. Also until today there hasn’t been any solid information acquired on how much water Maui aquifers contain. Presently we only have inaccurate highball estimates of the water supply. With this in mind the development of Makena or any further development on Maui would be irresponsible. We can no longer allow irresponsible usage of our resources. If we allow continued increases in resource consumption, we will eventually run out of resources. Maybe we wont suffer much from this in our lifetimes, but think of how much our children and their children will suffer having to deal with drought and famine.

References
-Lecture by Lucienne de Naie
-Geology 101 lecture by Mr. Foley
-Wailea 670 public testimony by Corey Leong

Invasive

An invasive species is an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm to Human health. An introduced species, plant or animal that out competes native species for space and resources. The first definition caught me off guard since I have never thought of it that way. The second definition is the one I am more familiar with. With this in mind I’ve always thought Humans are the most successful invasive species ever. We colonize new areas pushing out native species and we have spread throughout the world. We destroy natural ecosystems wherever we spread our cancerous roots and have devastated Earths Geo systems.
After the most recent ice age Humans were almost wiped. The drop in world temperature caused drought and food supplies to diminish; in turn Humans suffered famine and drought. At about 10,000 BC Human population was in the range of 1,000- 2,000 and now our population is at about 6.75 billion. In just around 12,000 years this is a huge population growth. At the peak of population growth the human population was growing at a rate of 2.2% a year. Currently human population growth is at 1.2% a year. The human population is now so emence our actions are having a huge impact on the world, natural habitats and geo systems. Because of the pollution we produce the earth is changing at an alarming rate. The polar ice caps that took thousands of years to make will be completely gone within the next hundred years.
Many scientists believe that human population has grown beyond Earths limit to support life. This is true and at this point humans are using earths natural resources two times as fast as these resources are being naturally replenished. We have destroyed natural habitats and have been decimating earths natural resources for thousands of years but this will end. Human life is dependant on certain global conditions and without the right conditions human life can easily be snuffed out. Humans are one of the most effective invasive species to roam the earth but human life will not last but the earth and simple organisms will.

References
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
-http://math.berkeley.edu/~galen/popclk.html
-Geology 101 lecture by Mike Folley