Energy Conservation On The Road
Transportation accounts for more than 60% of the energy consumed in Hawai‘i. While air transportation uses the largest portion (nearly 40%), trucks, buses, and cars consume roughly 20%. According to the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, the number of registered vehicles on O‘ahu alone has almost doubled in the past 20 years. So taking steps to use fuel more efficiently on the road is a great way to help shrink Hawaii’s carbon footprint, and stay green.
- Walk or bike when you aren’t in a hurry or have shorter distances to travel.
- Carpool, vanpool, or take the bus whenever you can.
- Keep your car or truck tuned up to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated, which can reduce your emissions by as much as 3%.
- Trade your gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient car, a hybrid, a flexible fuel vehicle, or a clean diesel vehicle (which would allow you to use bio-diesel).
- Buy a motorcycle or moped.
- Driving calmly and sensibly can improve your gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town.
- Shed some weight. Leave your toys out of the car, because an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your mileage by up to 2%.
- Avoid idling. Idling gets zero miles per gallon. The bigger your engine, the more gas you waste when idling.
- Go A/C free. Using air-conditioning dramatically reduces your mileage, especially in stop-and-go city traffic.
Sunscreen Basics
Active ingredients in sunscreens should absorb, reflect, or scatter ultraviolet (UV) radiation. For years, manufacturers created sunscreens that were only effective at screening out UVB radiation (known to cause sunburn and lead to skin cancer). More recently, manufacturers have worked to create sunscreens that will protect your skin from both UVA and UVB radiation (realizing that UVA radiation is also harmful). All sunscreens provide UVB protection, but only some protect against UVA rays.
The ideal sunscreen should:
- Block both UVA and UVB rays
- Have active ingredients that do not break down in the sun
- Contain active and inactive ingredients proven to be safe
When picking a sunscreen look for:
- Zinc oxide or titanium dioxide
- SPF of 30 or higher
- The Skin Cancer Foundation’s Seal of Recommendation
When picking a sunscreen avoid:
- Oxybenzone
- Sunscreens with fragrance
- Sunscreen sprays, powders, and bug repellants
Sunscreen can only provide partial protection against harmful effects of the sun. Limiting sun exposure and wearing protective clothing, including a wide-brimmed hat, are even more important for protecting your skin from cancer and premature aging. Be extra careful about sun exposure during 10 am and 4 pm when the sun’s rays are most intense. Apply sunscreen generously 30 minutes before going outside and reapply it often – at least every 2 hours.
Sunscreen should not be neglected on overcast days, as 70-80 percent of the sun’s rays go through clouds and fog. In addition, UVR levels rise ten to twenty percent for every 1000 feet of altitude, and reflection from sand, water, snow or concrete magnifies their effects by up to 80 percent.
Archipelago
Archipelago: Portraits of Life in the World’s Most Remote Island Sanctuary
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, now known as Papahānaumokuākea, are the most remote on Earth. Extending 1200 miles, these islands and atolls make up the geologically oldest part of the Hawaiian archipelago, and are refuge for vibrant communities of monk seals, sea birds, plants, and invertebrates. Wildlife reigns here, and many of these species are found nowhere else in the world. Susan and David spent two years exploring this tightly restricted expanse of islands and ocean making isolated portraits of sea birds, rare corals, anemones, and other life forms. This masterwork also identifies them by English common name, Hawaiian name, and scientific name, as well as providing biological and environmental information about the organisms, and technical information about the photographs.
This book reveals the richness and value of Papahānaumokuākea through these inspired portraits. If beauty can function as an environmental statement, then Archipelago should go down as one of the most articulate arguments for the protection of endangered species in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Water Cycle
The water cycle (or hydrologic cycle) describes the process by which the various forms of water move about the planet in a fairly constant balance, with no true beginning and no end while changing states from liquid to solid to vapor. The cycle is the process by which the water, in whatever form, goes from place to place, ocean to cloud to rainwater to river and back again through a cycle of rising air currents, precipitation, and runoff.
Evaporation occurs when water transforms from liquid to gas, usually as a result of the sun’s warming rays. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere, along with water from “evapotranspiration,” which is water transpired or “breathed out” from plants and evaporated from the soil.
Condensation occurs as the vapor rises into the atmosphere, creating clouds and fog. The cooler temperatures in the atmosphere cause it to condense into clouds, which float around until the fall from the sky as precipitation.
Precipitation occurs when the vapor that condensed comes back out of the sky as rain, snow, sleet, hail. Most of it comes back to the ground or body of water, but some of it is intercepted by plant foliage and evaporates back to the atmosphere. Some precipitation falls as snow and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, where it can stay, as frozen water, for thousands of years.
Runoff is the process by which water moves across land and includes both surface runoff (traveling over land), and channel runoff (in streams and rivers). In warmer climates, snow melts during the warmer months, and that water flows into streams and rivers, which eventually return it to the ocean, or into the groundwater, which eventually reach underground aquifers. Over time, the water continues flowing, some to reenter the ocean, where the water cycle renews itself.
It’s not a perfectly linear cycle – the same water molecules don’t go through the four cycles at the same speed, or spend the same amount of time in each one. Much more water is “in storage” (frozen in glaciers, sitting in lakes, or underground aquifers) than is actually moving through the cycle, and 95% of the world’s water supply is stored in our planet’s oceans.
Outer Kingdom Of Hawaii
The island chain of Hawaii stretches northwest 1,200 miles into an older world of the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Here wildlife reigns – it is vibrant, sensuous, abundant, and vulnerable. Except for scientific and conservation work, the islands are virtually off-limits to people, but Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager were allowed to go as photographers with a conservation mission: documenting wildlife by focusing on the sheer wonder of a creature’s form. Their ‘portraits’ cover a fraction of the more than 7,000 species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. This archipelago is home to fish, coral, invertebrates, green sea turtles, seabirds, and the Hawaiian monk seal. They photographed many of them against a white background in specially designed labs on location to capture their intricate anatomical detail, then returned them unharmed.
The islands are owned by wildlife (it is clearly their place) even though human intervention is needed to ensure protection. Everyone permitted on the islands bears that responsibility, and it begins with strict quarantines to keep alien seeds and insects from hitching a ride from the outside world or from one island to the next. All soft goods such as clothing and backpacks must be bought new, then frozen for 48 hours. Hard gear must be carefully cleaned and inspected. For two years David and Susan surveyed the vibrant marine and terrestrial environment along the entire length of the chain to reveal their riches and share the treasure.
What was your quirkiest experience in the field?
Susan Middleton: I was on Eastern Island, photographing the sooty tern colony that nests on an old, crumbling military runway. I would quietly stand among hundreds of thousands of these terns until they took off in an incredible cacophonous frenzy. Then I would start running down the runaway with them, shooting. It was exhilarating and made me feel like a bird… until I tripped over a crack. My camera flew out of my hands, and I was airborne before crashing down onto my knees. It was a little surreal, but I immediately got up because I wanted to keep shooting. I couldn’t, though. The mirror in my camera had completely shattered, and my knees were in pretty bad shape. They were covered with blood and I felt like a kid. In the end, it wasn’t that bad. The pictures I took right before I fell really captured the birds’ energy and exemplified the abundance of life in northwestern Hawaii.
David Liittschwager: The morning after a big rain on Sand Island, Susan spotted a flooded depression in the ground. There were a number of nests floating in it with Laysan albatross chicks. A couple of the chicks had already drowned, and the others were just barely keeping their heads above the water. So we managed to rescue three of them. We took the chicks back to our house and towel dried them off. Susan even pulled out her blow dryer. After a couple of hours they were perky again, and we were able to rebuild their nests and return them. But out of the three, one was particularly beautiful. Susan named him Soggy, and we took a portrait of him when he was all spiky and fuzzy.
Enter Hawaii’s Outer Kingdom.
Coral Reef Importance
Coral reefs are among the oldest, most diverse, and valuable ecosystems on Earth. They provide protection and shelter for many different species of fish, protect coasts from strong currents and waves, and are very important in controlling how much carbon dioxide is in the ocean water. Coral polyps turn carbon dioxide in the water into a limestone shell, and without healthy coral the amount of carbon dioxide in the water would rise dramatically and would affect all living things on Earth.
- Although coral reefs cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, they are home to 25% of all marine fish species. Coral reefs support a phenomenal diversity of species and provide irreplaceable sources of food and shelter.
- Corals are an integral part of the reef and are especially vulnerable to human activities and to climate-related threats, such as mass bleaching and disease.
- Corals have shown remarkable resilience through major climate events and sea level changes, giving hope for their continued survival.
- Coral reefs form natural barriers that protect nearby shorelines from the eroding forces of the sea, thereby protecting coastal dwellings, agricultural land and beaches.
- Coral reefs yield compounds that are important in the development of new medicines. They have been used in the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, and other ailments.
- At least 500 million people rely on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, and livelihoods.
- It is estimated that coral reefs provide $375 billion per year around the world in goods and services.
- Coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species. Scientists estimate that there may be another 1 to 8 million undiscovered species of organisms living in and around reefs.
- This biodiversity is considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century. Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.
- Healthy reefs contribute to local economies through tourism. Diving tours, fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef systems provide millions of jobs and contribute billions of dollars all over the world.
- Coral reefs buffer adjacent shorelines from wave action and prevent erosion, property damage and loss of life.
- Reefs also protect the highly productive wetlands along the coast, as well as ports and harbors and the economies they support. Globally, half a billion people are estimated to live within 100 miles of a coral reef and benefit from its production and protection.
