Focus Green

Helen Anne Schonwalter
February 14, 2008, The Maui Weekly

Conversations on climate change.

Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s McCoy Studio Theater, Mauians of all ages, political persuasions and interests will be given an opportunity to hear a diverse group of speakers on topics ranging from electric sports cars to energy efficiency in urban areas. In its second year, this Focus Green five-part lecture series even offers a comedic scientist, Bill Nye the Science Guy, for the young and young at heart.

“Conversations on Climate Change,” sponsored by Dowling Company, will be held on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. from Feb. 26 to March 25.

Appropriately for 2008, the International Year of the Reef, the opening talk features Dr. Sylvia Earle, world-renowned oceanographer and National Geographic explorer-in-residence. A pioneering aquanaut and marine explorer

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Lake Mead Could Be Within a Few Years of Going Dry, Study Finds

FELICITY BARRINGER
February 13, 2008, The New York Times

Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows climate scientists’ moderate forecasts, resulting in a reduction in average river flows.

Demand for Colorado River water already slightly exceeds the average annual supply when high levels of evaporation are taken into account, the researchers, Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce, point ...

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Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat

ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
February 8, 2008, The New York Times

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.

These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at...

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Cultural panel wants time for Laau EIS

CHRIS HAMILTON
2/8/2008 5:48:41 PM, The Maui News

WAILUKU — The Maui County Cultural Resources Commission Thursday joined a growing chorus asking Molokai Properties Ltd. for more time to review the company’s voluminous draft environmental impact statement on its proposed Laau Point rural residential project.

The deadline for comment on the draft is Feb. 22. But since the 1,600-page document was released last month, the Molokai Planning Commission, Council Member Danny Mateo of Molokai and a number of Molokai residents have all asked for an extension.

“I just got this a couple days ago,” said Cultural Resources Commissioner Erik Frederickson. “This is huge. . . . I can’t in good conscience say, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the developer’s word for it. This is great.’ ”


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