Wayne’s Sierra Club World: Navy Marking Time While Contamination and Climate Crises March On
By Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 4.5 minutes
Kaʻula Island. Photo: George Balaz.
In late September, Kauaʻi community leaders and residents across the islands sounded the alarm about a quietly announced Navy proposal to, among other things, increase its weapons training and testing on Kaʻula, an islet off the coasts of Niʻihau and Kauaʻi.
BOMBEX exercises – where “inert” bombs of up to 500 lbs are dropped by aircraft onto the culturally significant seabird sanctuary – would increase from a maximum of once a month to nearly three times that frequency; GUNEX exercises – where aircraft fire machine guns and “inert” rockets onto the island – would nearly double, from a maximum of 14 actions a year to 21.
The fact that any such weapons testing – reminiscent of the gratuitous practice bombing that cracked the water table of Kahoʻolawe, and called “archaic” by commentators – was still being conducted in our islands shocked many. The proposal to increase these activities outraged even more.
In response, Kauaʻi-based organizations Kamāwaelualani and the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action partnered with Earthjustice, Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi, and the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi to host a community panel and discussion on the Navy’s proposal, the myriad impacts it threatens to Kaʻula’s ecological and cultural landscape, and the need to comment on the draft environmental assessment by the September 30 deadline. A recording of the discussion, a summary of concerns raised, and the formal comments provided by Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, and other community organizations can be seen here.
Notably, over 3,000 comments were also submitted by community members through various outreach efforts by these organizations, in less than one week’s time.
This massive public outcry should give the Navy pause, but we will not likely know their next moves until early 2025. Meanwhile, the fact that such a proposal has surfaced at all begs the question of whether and how the Navy actually realizes its supposed commitments to being “good tenants” of our islands, and to defending our security from the greatest threats we have ever faced.
Unexploded ordnance, formerly used defense sites such as oily waste pits, PFAS “forever chemicals” from military firefighting foam, and aquifers contaminated by military bases and facilities can be found across the islands, and across the Pacific. While these all threaten the health and well-being of communities and the ‘āina they call home, remediation efforts by the Navy and Department of Defense – if they take place at all – will take generations, at the current level of investment. However, rather than focusing on these clear and present threats to ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and beyond, the Navy is now proposing to engage in even greater levels of destructive activity that are all but a throwback to much less enlightened – and technologically limited – times.
Testing on Kaʻula. Photo: George Balaz.
Perhaps of even greater concern, however, are the opportunity costs of the Navy’s, and Department of Defense’s, ongoing reluctance to truly confront the greatest threat the United States and all of humanity has ever faced: the destabilization of our climate.
Study after study have illustrated the existential scale of this imminent and unfolding threat: models predict the displacement of an estimated 1.2 billion people by 2050, life-threatening heat waves impacting three-fourths of humanity annually, chronic agricultural failures and mass starvation on an unprecedented scale, and the extinction of a quarter of the Earth’s macroscopic species. We have already seen ample warning signs of this impending doomsday fate: unprecedented and increasingly frequent climate-driven disasters, the chronic inundation of coastal cities, outbreaks of new and formerly eradicated diseases, and increased regional conflicts tied to climate migration, to name a few.
The Navy and Department of Defense has vast resources to truly declare war on this unfolding and humanity-ending crisis. Yet their climate plans fall far short of tackling the threat head on, focusing on “hardening” bases from climate impacts and converting vehicles to non-fossil fuel alternatives.
Yet they can, and must, do so much more. A Department of Defense truly and credibly committed to defending us from certain devastation would pivot its priorities toward the development and widespread sharing of decarbonization technology, supportive infrastructure, and other strategies with other militaries and civilian populations; establish concrete benchmarks for the reduction of carbon-intensive training and other activities to the bare minimum, and engage with other militaries, of allies and adversaries alike, to do the same; remediate and restore lands and waters to indigenous stewardship; and continually track new developments and the full range of actions needed to take on the climate crisis. These are among the bare minimum critically needed strategies for a survivable – much less hopeful - future.
Unfortunately, proposals like those for Kaʻula - arising in the midst of our continuously unfolding and largely unrecognized contamination and climate crises - only indicate that the Department of Defense’s willful blindness, hypocritical and non-credible “commitments,” and fixation on misplaced priorities are unlikely to be addressed on its own accord.
Once again, it will fall on us - residents of our islands, and communities across the Pacific and throughout the world - to protect ourselves, and our future generations, from the threats our “defenders” continue to ignore.
Just a few of the things we can - and must - do to help confront the greatest challenge any generation of humanity has ever faced:
Educate yourself – then educate others. Resources like Chip Fletcher et. al.’s “Earth at Risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future” provides a comprehensive breakdown of the science regarding the climate crisis’ impacts, and critically needed policy pivots that can use what little time we have left, to create a survivable, resilient, and hopeful future for the generations to come. Information clearinghouses like Inside Climate News also provide the latest updates on climate science, and the policy discussions and other actions regarding our climate crisis. Be sure to think about and share how increasing disasters like floods, fires, droughts, heat waves, and hurricanes can impact all aspects of our lives - from our food and water security, to our insurance rates and housing supply, to the loss of culture and ways of life, to the health and well-being of our most vulnerable populations.
Engage with government officials and policymakers to ensure that climate adaptation and mitigation remains a top consideration in their priorities and decisions - including with respect to investments in community-based stewardship and the application of indigenous science and self-determination, and the existential dead-end of tired Western economic assumptions that rely on neverending resource exploitation and a “throwaway culture” of consumption.
Support and spread the word on efforts like those of the Navahine youth plaintiffs and the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, who are working to systemically reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels for our transportation system; the petition for our right to a survivable future spearheaded by local youth and guided by retired supreme court justice Michael Wilson; and initiatives like this locally produced video to keep the climate conversation going and top of mind.
Recognize that while there are many things we can do individually and systemically to save our dying planet, we have unique opportunities here in Hawaiʻi to call on the Department of Defense to truly live up to its name, including by monitoring its public engagement mechanisms and asserting our collective call that it responds to our climate crisis head-on, rather than pursuing outdated “security” strategies that only exacerbate the otherwise inevitable end of society as we know it. Useful sites to monitor include the NEPA documentation pages for the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.
In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our emails and action alerts at sierraclubhawaii.org/subscribe for more opportunities to take action in the war against the climate crisis, and consider investing in our work to defend our islands and our planet at sierraclubhawaii.org/donate.
Mahalo nui,
Wayne