Wayne’s Sierra Club World

by Wayne Tanaka | Reading time: 4 minutes

At One Health Pacific’s Earth Day launch of its Sustainability Pledge, Interim School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Dean and renowned climate science expert Dr. Chip Fletcher outlined the four interrelated dimensions of the planetary emergency that our present generations now face: the climate crisis, the ongoing collapse in global biodiversity, this new era of pandemics and novel diseases, and the unprecedented magnitude of global socioeconomic inequities.

Yet as bleak a picture as Dr. Fletcher paints, even he does not see this planetary emergency as insurmountable. As he described, the fate of our generation, and those that come after ours, may very well rest in our collective ability to remember the wisdom and values Western institutions have too long forgotten and that could still save us from the climate chaos we are experiencing today.

As Chapter Executive Committee member Katie Kamelamela highlighted in a recent Sierra Club presentation to the staff at nonprofit healthcare provider AlohaCare, Native Hawaiians lived with the understanding of people and ʻāina – all living things – as genealogically linked, as family.  And with this understanding came the recognition and the practice of reciprocity, of the kuleana or responsibility of family members to love and care for one another, of aloha ʻāina.

This understanding of reciprocity, of kuleana, of aloha ʻāina is still with us today, and may very well be the key to unlocking true security for our islands, and our planet, in a time of existential uncertainty.

As the Sierra Club director I am always so proud and so hopeful to see how our members, supporters, and friends have been doing the work needed to realize this understanding, to ensure that we do not squander our advantage, and our window of opportunity, to lead our present generations out of this planetary emergency.

Just in this past month, it was a great privilege to partner with the Aloha Tree Alliance, the Kokonut Coalition, and dozens of volunteers to hand-carry (!) hundreds of gallons of water up the Kuliʻouʻou ridge, to support the re-establishment of native plants and trees essential to watershed integrity and regional climate resilience (to join this effort, check out the upcoming community workdays here).

It was also an honor to partner with Parley Hawai‘i and the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi to kick off World Oceans Month with a community workday at Wāwāmalu, uprooting invasive koa haole and other plants and erecting semi-passive barriers to deter trampling and to give native species the opportunity to flourish in this very special place (special shout out to Oʻahu Group and Chapter Executive Committee members Randy Ching, Nathan Yuen, and Reese Liggett, for leading the day’s activities!).

As Anna writes, the Oʻahu Water Protectors have also not let up in their outstanding work to protect our islandʻs water and ancestral source of life - which remains under daily threat – in a moment in time when we may be needing clean, abundant water more than ever before.  Our Maui members and volunteers have also continued to support efforts to stop the commodification and waste of millions of gallons of water per day by stream diverters in both East and West Maui, in direct contravention of Native Hawaiian practices and reverence for water as a public trust resource.

Our most recent commitment to work with Kanu Hawaiʻi in launching the Pledge to Our Keiki Partnership will also serve to raise the broader consciousness of visitors and residents alike in our obligation to be proper stewards of the ʻāina not just for ourselves, but for our future generations, as was understood in these islands since time immemorial.

And last but certainly not least, I am so very grateful for the 14 brave youth – including children of Sierra Club staff and members - who have decided to stand up for their generation, and the generations after them, by taking part in a precedent-setting Earthjustice lawsuit to stop the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation from ignoring and actively exacerbating the destabilization of our climate (check out Youth v. Gov, now streaming online, for a background on what these keiki are helping to achieve).

As I have learned over these past several months, no matter who you are, you have the ability to join in the fight of our generation, to save our islands, and save our planet. From advocating to and engaging with elected officials and candidates to restore Native Hawaiian governance and wisdom in laws and policies, to joining or supporting the efforts of organizations like the Sierra Club and those described above, to learning more about what needs to be done to weather the climate crisis (more on this next issue!) and why justice is such a critical piece of the climate solution puzzle, we all can, and must, be a part of this work.

And as so many who do this work can attest, through friendships, wisdom, and even the physical and mental rejuvenation of a workday in the forest or at the beach -- when you take care of the ʻāina, the ʻāina does indeed take care of you.