From Honolulu Civil Beat
Excerpt:
Climate change is a major priority of my campaign. House District 22 is a coastal district and will be the first hit from sea level rise. For Hawaii to prepare, we must start looking into land reclamation to protect against sea level rise and erosion. This is a short-term solution. We need a long-term shoreline retreat strategy, ASAP.
In order to have any chance of preserving our beaches, we must fully ban seawalls. We need to look at the hard data to most accurately predict where our shorelines will be with sea level rise and coastal erosion in the next 100 years and ban new development in what will be the affected areas. We also need to think about that impact to the thousands of people who will, unfortunately, lose their properties to the ocean, and how we can help ease their transition inland.
Climate change affects keiki the most. Ultimately, it is our keiki that will endure the harmful effects of climate change. Hawaii can lead the way and be a model for the rest of the world to follow. We can invest heavily in green technology, get ourselves off fossil fuels, and start heavily investing in environmentally conscious education in our schools.
Adrian Tam is a former board member of Young Progressives Demanding Action (2019-2020).