Practical Steps Towards a More Circular Economy
by Marti Townsend, Hawaiʻi Chapter Director
It is safe to say that the world has been flipped upside down by COVID-19. Our ways of life are completely different, cracks have been revealed (and then deepened) in our support systems and the income gap widened. There is no longer "business as usual," nor should we accept such.
In Hawaiʻi, there are currently 200,000 full-time and part-time workers without a job. We are looking a 30% unemployment rate that is expected to endure through the end of the calendar year (at least). Most of these workers are low-wage earners and gig-workers, in other words, people least able to weather this kind of financial devastation.
No two ways about it:
This is a historic moment. We are in the middle of a hard re-boot of the world’s economy. The question we need to ask ourselves is “now what”? What can we do to make the most of this historic moment?
The worst possible outcome would be we emerge from this painful re-boot of our economy and it operates in largely the same ways as it did before the pandemic, with tourism and military as the largest sectors of our economy, extensive housing insecurity, widespread food insecurity and insufficient adaptations to protect us against the climate crisis.
Thankfully we have already demonstrated in Hawaiʻi that we are already set up to make the most of this transition. One of the best aspects of our island culture that has already come shining through this pandemic is our “culture of care” for others and our commitment to put community before individuality. Because of this deep-rooted cultural belief, Hawaiʻi has so far fared better than many places in the United States at flattening the curve. This is a good sign for the transition of our economy because this culture of care also means we are well-suited to embracing new ideas for ensuring prosperity is shared by all.
It does mean we will have to change to adapt. Adaptation is nothing new to humans, we have done it successfully for centuries, especially in Hawaiʻi. Now we must do it again, collectively and quickly to meet the challenge of rising seas.
We will have to learn new skills.
We will have restructure government and its policies.
We will have to change our tax structure.
But just imagine what we could do with all of that change!
Imagine if we directed funds away from Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority and towards protecting forests, encouraging local food production, and converting all buildings to solar energy.
Imagine if the state started investing in new industries that focused on solving our climate crisis, the way it used to invest in tourism and the military. We could have local high-end plastic recycling projects that close the loop on a wasteful economy and high-tech carbon capture systems that pull carbon from the air to make new carbon-based products like jet fuel and carbon fiber.
Imagine if we taxed tourism not based on outside market forces, but on the true value of tourism to our community. High taxes on tourism could be used to manage visitor numbers, maintain resources affected by tourism and correct for perverse market tendencies. If we had this right now, we could impose an extremely high tax on incoming visitors as a way to discourage unnecessary travel and cover the costs of COVID-19 testing, sanitation and quarantine enforcement.
Imagine part of the tax on tourism could be used for maintaining our forests. These funds could jumpstart a New Deal style Conservation Corps in Hawaiʻi with jobs that are quite literally shovel-ready. This means we could plant native trees to restore our forests, employ our local hard working residents, and protect our freshwater drinking source for decades to come.
Imagine now that we doubled that green fee and paid half of the revenue directly to residents. We could all earn dividends on the increasing value of our well-managed natural and cultural resources. The idea is each resident, commensurate with the duration of their time in Hawaiʻi, is paid a portion of the profits earned from tourists. What better way to help make each of us take a trustee approach to protecting our natural resources. And think, this could even be the beginning of a universal basic income!
What about investing? How much will it cost Hawaiʻi to recover from a major hurricane? The U.S. government has committed $42 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from the 2017 Hurricane Maria, but the governor estimates full recovery will cost $140 billion. A recent study spearheaded by the state’s Office of Coastal and Conservation Lands found that at 3 feet of sea level rise, Hawaiʻi will lose $19 billion in damage to private property. So choosing to not act is not an option.
Imagine if instead of just waiting for the next big hurricane to hit, Hawaiʻi invested half of that anticipated expense in projects that actually improve our ability to weather a strong hurricane. Think: extensive retrofits to emergency shelters to bring them up to category 5 strength. Think: massive coral reef restoration efforts to buffet storm surges.
Imagine if instead of making individual property owners bare the burden of sea level rise alone, Hawaiʻi undertook a massive land swap program — exchanging state lands in the interior of each island for the privately owned properties along the shoreline. Provided we work closely with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to ensure native land claims and traditional and customary practices are honored, a land swap like this would create greater beach access for the public and safer locations for homes and businesses while protecting the financial standing of local residents. Additional new assets would include wetland habitat for native species and better stormwater management, increased local food production from healthy nearshore waters, and reclaimed natural shoreline habitats, like the honu we now see nesting on Bellows beach.
Imagine if we treated energy production as the public trust resource that it is. Access to energy could be treated the same as access to drinking water: ensuring a cheap, clean, essential resource is provided to every household.
As inspiring as all of this sounds, we can only make these kinds of big moves when we have a government that is actually dedicated to the public good—a thing that is said so often, and done so little. But what it means is every single government worker from the person at the very top to the newest processing clerk sees themselves as a warrior for the people and the planet. Not as a bureaucrat pushing paper, not as an umpire calling plays to keep a level playing field, but as an advocate and defender of all the things that we all share.
I imagine, that together, we can achieve these dreams and I hope you will join in the collective effort to ensure all of us thrive in the Hawaiian Islands.
Marti Townsend has been the Hawaiʻi Chapter Director since 2015. Serving many other outstanding orgs before the Sierra Club, she is rooted in her passion to build a movement to tackle the climate crisis and environmental racism. Marti is a graduate of University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law, Boston University and Moanalua High School.