by Lurline Wailana McGregorIn 2018, Hurricane Walaka circumvented the Hawaiian Islands before circling back to pass directly over Kānemilohaʻi, also known as the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll 550 miles northwest of Honolulu. It washed away East Island, an 11-acre ...

by Keri KodamaIn July 2019, an 8000-acre brush fire, fueled by an abundance of dry vegetation and an oppressive heat wave, consumed Central Maui. The blaze began as a roadside fire and spread rapidly with help from the wind. Within ...

by Amanda MillinNearly three decades ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that “the gravest effects of climate change may be those on human migration.” Estimates differ widely, but most experts agree that upwards of 25 million people ...

by Lonny LippsettA fever is rising in the ocean. Our rampant burning of fossil fuels has produced a heat-trapping blanket of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere that has warmed the Earth. But the situation would be much worse without ...

by Josh McDanielAugust 31, 2019, tied the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded at the Honolulu airport. On the same day, volunteers and city workers placed sensors on their vehicles and drove through O‘ahu neighborhoods throughout the day. Staff ...

by Cindy Knapman and Kanesa SeraphinMatthew Gonser, former extension faculty with the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, was recently appointed as the chief resilience officer and executive director of the City and County of Honolulu Office of Climate ...

by Natasha VizcarraHawai‘i Senator Glenn Wakai was in a Zoom meeting in late January when he noted a kink in the islands’ renewable energy plans. The state’s only coal-fired power station was shutting down in September 2022. However, solar power ...

Click on the cover image to view the full issue. Climate Resilience Adapting to our warming world Climate change does not recognize borders or politics, fairness, or justice. Its impacts amplify and reverberate through our communities and shared ecosystems, affecting ...

by Lonny LippsettWhen COVID-19 shut off the lights in schools throughout Hawai‘i, it starkly illuminated long-ignored cracks and constraints in its educational system. The crisis-mode quick fix—using modern technology to create virtual online schooling—spotlighted age-old problems and exposed new ones ...

by Sara LaJeunesseIn 2019, Hawai‘i was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the top state in the nation for health care. Yet, it’s no secret that problems with access to care, affordability of care, and disparities in care ...

by Lurline Wailana McGregorThe COVID-19 pandemic didn’t close down Honolulu harbor or wreak havoc on the environment, but it was a somber reminder of how our lifestyles and economy are dependent on the outside world for everything, from food supply ...

by Jake BuehlerQuiet. For the first time in generations, the schools of ulua, pāpio, and ‘o‘io glinting across the outer edge of Hanauma Bay’s crater experienced relative silence. The perpetual din of thousands of thunderous splashes and shrill voices reverberating ...

by Josh McDanielNot all disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic have been negative. Honolulu often sits at the top of the rankings for the worst traffic in the country, ahead of cities notorious for roadway congestion such as Los Angeles, San ...

by Amanda MillinFor Celeste Connors, living with aloha extended far beyond the shores of Hawaiʻi. The former American diplomat worked overseas for 20 years and served as the White House director for Climate Change and Environment. But she is from ...

by Shannon WianeckiDuring the last week of March 2020, the fallow sugarcane fields next to the Kahului Airport on Maui began to fill with cars. Hundreds, then thousands of nearly new Camaros, Jeep Wranglers, and SUVs appeared, parked bumper to ...

Click on the cover image to view the full issue. How Will COVID-19 Shape Our Future This issue discusses some of the impacts of COVID-19 in Hawai'i and explores what they might mean for our future. All of us at ...

Rising sea levels along Hawai‘i’s shorelines call for state and local governments to take action by means of a wide range of coastal land use policy tools designed to help Hawai‘i successfully adapt to climate change. Hawai‘i is expected to ...

by Rachel LentzOften, coping with natural hazard preparation involves being aware of key information pertinent to that event. But sometimes that information may be hard to find or understand. Here are four resources that should prove useful to your own ...

by Mara Johnson-GrohSince the day it was born out of the Pacific, 65 million years ago, Hawaiʻi has been sculpted by storms, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis. In the 21st century Hawai‘i is facing an increasing frequency of ...

by Josh McDanielThe science of tsunamis has expanded in leaps in recent decades. From advances in detection and alert systems to coastal inundation modeling and mapping, we now know more about the seismic forces that trigger tsunamis and can forecast ...

by Natasha VizcarraDays before Hurricane Iniki slammed into the island of Kauaʻi in 1992, condominium and apartment managers went door-to-door to make sure their residents were preparing for the storm. Hours before the storm struck, motorists honked their horns in ...

by Sara LaJeunesseOn April 30, 2018, the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone of the Kīlauea volcano collapsed, triggering an eruption that would last for four months. Over that time, as lava drained for miles underground, long fissures ripped through the Earth’s surface, ...

by Jake BuehlerThe afternoon before the flooding, you would have been hard-pressed to find any reason to suspect it was coming. It was an idyllic, mid-April day in Hanalei, Kauaʻi, after all: 79 degrees, a mix of sun and clouds, ...

by Lurline Wailana McGregorOn June first every year, the Central Pacific hurricane season officially begins. In anticipation of the heightened threat that it brings to the Hawaiian Islands, government preparedness offices take the opportunity to remind all residents to have ...

Click on the cover image to view the full issue. Community is Resilience Lucky we live Hawai‘i… as the local saying goes! In Hawai‘i, we’re blessed with an incredible environment with steep lush mountains and deep valleys sloping down to ...

by Miwa TamanahaLimu is food, first and foremost, for fish, forming part of the foundation of a complex trophic web that spans from plankton to people. Limu is also food for people, probably most commonly brought to mind as an ...

by Lurline Wailana McGregor“When I was growing up, if you went to a lūʻau, you would know who prepared the food and what area it came from by just knowing the taste of the limu and the kinds of limu ...

by Paula MoehlenkampWhile the diversity and beauty of plants on land are easily seen by us, we may often overlook their aquatic counterparts hidden beneath the sea. Algae, photosynthetic plants ranging from microscopic phytoplankton to larger seaweeds, live in fresh ...

by Dr. Celia Smith, Bill Thomas, Kawika Winter, and Mazie K. Hirono, U.S. SenatorI first met Dr. Isabella Abbott as she emerged from nearly 30 years at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, as its first woman, and first minority, ...

by Josh McDanielUncle Wally Ito is passionate about limu, or seaweed. He says limu has always been an integral part of Hawaiian culture, with uses in food, medicine, and religious ceremonies. In a traditional Hawaiian diet, limu was the third ...