Environment of Hawaii - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

concerns affecting Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

today are related to pressures from increasing human and animal population in the limited separation space of the islands.

Flora and fauna

A number of plant species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

are now extinct due to grazing livestock, and aggressive non-indigenous species taking over the land.
Almost 40% of the endangered species in the United States are Hawaiian species, while nearly 75% of all U.S. extinctions have occurred in Hawaii.

The native flora was once 89% endemic species, but the flora of Hawaii now includes more than 1044 introduced plant species; more than 100 of these are likely to be invasive in natural areas. Species such as the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), and christmasberry

Brazilian pepper

Schinus terebinthifolius is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to subtropical and tropical South America...

(Schinus terebinthifolius) have spread across wide areas, competing with native species and altering the natural ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

. Recent invaders like miconia

Miconia

Miconia is a genus of flowering plants in the glory bush family, Melastomataceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species are mostly shrubs and small to medium-sized trees up to 15 m tall...

or velvet tree (Miconia calvescens) and Himalayan raspberry (Rubus ellipticus) are now permanently established over large areas. These species are predicted to decrease watershed

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

function.

Prior to the arrival of non-natives, some bird species were made extinct, or pushed to near extinction from the collection of feathers by Native Hawaiians. With the arrival of James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

in 1778, a new set of environmental threats emerged. Alien species such as cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, and rats affected a number of indigenous species. Hawaii is known as the "extinction capital of the world" with the extinction of nearly half (140) of its historically recorded native bird species. Some of the alien species that are currently affecting Hawaii include cane toad

Cane Toad

The Cane Toad , also known as the Giant Neotropical Toad or Marine Toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad which is native to Central and South America, but has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean...

s, mongoose

Mongoose

Mongoose are a family of 33 living species of small carnivorans from southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. Four additional species from Madagascar in the subfamily Galidiinae, which were previously classified in this family, are also referred to as "mongooses" or "mongoose-like"...

, coquí

Coquí

The Common Coquí or Coquí is a frog native to Puerto Rico belonging to the Eleutherodactylus genus of the Leptodactylidae family. The species is named for the loud sound the males make at night. This sound serves two purposes...

frogs, gall wasp

Gall wasp

Gall wasps , also called Gallflies, are a family of the order Hymenoptera and are classified with the Apocrita suborder of wasps in the superfamily Cynipoidea...

s, Mediterranean, Oriental, and melon flies

Melon fly

The melon fly , is a fruit fly of the family Tephritidae. It is a serious agricultural pest, particularly in Hawaii.-Adult fly:The adult melon fly is 6 to 8 mm in length...

that damage crops, ants that destroy native insects, and bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

that infect waters.

Air quality

Compared with the mainland United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Hawaii's rating on the air quality index

Air Quality Index

Air quality is defined as a measure of the condition of air relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species or to any human need or purpose. Air quality indices are numbers used by government agencies to characterize the quality of the air at a given location...

is ranked among the best. Approximately 47% of all emissions are caused by burning fossil fuel

Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...

for electricity production. Ground transport is the second biggest contributor with 22%, while air transport contributes 19%.

Water quality

The groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

and drinking water quality is considered good, but the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands are affected by effluents generated and released from the islands themselves. Floating plastic garbage is a problem, and refuse from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N...

is affecting beaches in Hawaii, such as Kamilo Beach

Kamilo Beach

Kamilo Beach , is a beach located on the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii...

Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative

On January 28, 2008, the State of Hawaii and the US Department of Energy signed a memorandum of understanding and announced the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which has a goal to use renewable resources such as wind, sun, ocean, geothermal, and bioenergy to supply 70 percent or more of Hawaii's energy needs by 2030 and to reduce the state's dependence on imported oil.

The Initiative's efforts will focus on working with public and private partners on several clean energy projects throughout the state including: designing cost-effective approaches for 100 percent use of renewable energy on smaller islands, designing systems to improve stability of electrical grids operating with variable generating sources, such as wind power plants on the Island of Hawaii and Maui, and expanding Hawaii's capability to use locally grown crops as byproducts for producing fuel and electricity.

Public/Private Partners

United States Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

- EERE
Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
Hawaiian Electric Company
Phoenix Motorcars
Phoenix Motorcars
Phoenix MC, Inc. is a privately held Delaware corporation headquartered in Ontario, California, that does business as Phoenix Motorcars. The Company develops full-size, freeway speed electric vehicles...
Better Place

Legislation

Hawaii

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

Linda Lingle

Linda Lingle was the sixth Governor of Hawaii. Lingle holds a number of distinctions: first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since the departure of William F...

has approved a number of energy-related bills to address climate change and promote local renewable energy production. The governor's energy bill-signing streak started in late April 2008 with the approval of House Bill 2502, which allows solar energy facilities to be located on less-productive agricultural lands, followed in late May by the approval of HB 3179, which makes it easier for biofuel

Biofuel

Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...

producers to lease state lands. In the same time frame, the governor approved SB 2034, SB 3190, and HB 2168, which authorize special purpose revenue bonds to help finance a 2.7-megawatt wave energy facility off the coast of Maui, a solar energy facility on Oahu, and hydrogen generation and conversion facilities at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, located on the island of Hawaii.

Senate Bill 644, approved on June 26, 2008 prohibits the issuing of building permits for new homes without solar water heaters as of 2010. The bill excludes homes located in areas with poor solar energy resources, homes using other renewable energy sources, and homes employing on-demand gas-fired water heaters. The bill also eliminates solar thermal energy tax credits for those homes.

On June 6, 2008 the governor approved SB 988, which allows the Hawaii Public Utility Commission to establish a rebate for solar photovoltaic electric systems, and HB 2550, which encourages net metering for residential and small commercial customers.

On July 1, 2008 the governor approved the final three energy bills, including HB 2863, which provides streamlined permitting for new renewable energy facilities of at least 200 megawatts in capacity. HB 2505 creates a full-time renewable energy facilitator to help the state expedite those permits, while a third bill, HB 2261, will provide loans of up to $1.5 million and up to 85% of the cost of renewable energy projects at farms and aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...

facilities.

Coal phase out

Hawaii has banned new coal plants beyond the only operating coal-fired power plant in the state, AES Hawaii Power Plant

AES Hawaii Power Plant

AES Hawaii Power Plant is a medium-size coal-fired electrical power station located in the south-west corner of a Hawaiian island of Oahu. Owned and operated by AES Hawaii, the plant is the only coal-fired power plant in the state of Hawaii...

Algal fuel

Two companies and two Hawaiian electric utilities are teaming up to develop a commercial-scale microalgae facility on Maui for the production of biodiesel and other products.

HR BioPetroleum, Inc. and Alexander & Baldwin

Alexander & Baldwin

Following World War II, the company entered a new business: land development and real estate. The company formed a new subsidiary, the Kahului Development Co., to develop housing in the Kahului area. In the following years, the company became more involved in the development of its land and the...

, Inc. announced in mid-July that they have signed a memorandum of understanding with Hawaiian Electric Company and Maui Electric Company to pursue the development of the algae farm, with HR BioPetroleum managing the overall project and Alexander & Baldwin providing land next to a Maui Electric power plant. The two utilities—both subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.. is the largest supplier of electricity in the state of Hawaii, suppling power to 95% of Hawaii's population through its electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company, Inc. and Maui Electric Company, Limited. In addition, HEI...

, Inc.—will help engineer piping to carry emissions from the neighboring power plant to the algae facility. The project is contingent upon a number of factors, including positive results from HR BioPetroleum's pilot-scale and demonstration-scale algae facilities.

If the project goes forward, the facility should begin operating in 2011. During operation, the algae will grow in the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere of the power plant emissions, converting some of those emissions into algae. The oil will then be extracted from the algae, combined with local vegetable oils, and converted into biodiesel fuel. Microalgae have significant potential as an energy crop, with the levels of oil production per acre potentially far exceeding the levels found in vegetable oil crops. HR BioPetroleum is currently working with Royal Dutch Shell plc on a pilot facility to grow algae on land leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, which is located on the west shore of the island of Hawaii. See the HR BioPetroleum press release and Web page on its joint venture with Shell.

List of Superfund sites in Hawaii

This is a list of Superfund sites in Hawaii designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law. The CERCLA federal law of 1980 authorized the United States Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

(EPA) to create a list of polluted

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

locations requiring a long-term response to clean-up hazardous material contaminations. These locations are known as Superfund

Superfund

Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...

sites, and are placed on the National Priorities List

National Priorities List

The National Priorities List is the list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protection Agency regulations outline a formal process for assessing hazardous waste sites and placing them on...

(NPL). The NPL guides the EPA in "determining which sites warrant further investigation" for environmental remediation. As of May 1, 2010, there were three Superfund sites on the National Priorities List in Hawaii

Hawaii

. One further site has been cleaned up and removed from the NPL; no sites are currently proposed for addition. All sites are on the island of Oahu

Oahu

Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

CERCLIS ID	Name	County	Reason	Proposed	Listed	Constructioncompleted	Deleted
HID980637631	Del Monte Corp. (Oahu Plantation)	Honolulu Honolulu County, Hawaii The City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...	Soil and shallow groundwater at the site have been contaminated with the fumigants EDB 1,2-Dibromoethane 1,2-Dibromoethane, also known as ethylene dibromide , is the chemical compound with the formula BrCH2CH2Br. Although trace amounts occur naturally in the ocean, where it is formed probably by algae and kelp, it is mainly a synthetic... , DBCP DBCP 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane, better known as DBCP, is the active ingredient in the nematicide Nemagon, also known as Fumazone. It is a soil fumigant formerly used in American agriculture. In mammals it causes male sterility at high levels of exposure... , and DCP 1,3-Dichloropropene 1,3-Dichloropropene, also known as Telone or simply 1,3-D, is a colorless liquid with a sweet smell. It exists as a mixture of the geometric isomers cis-1,3-dichloropropene and trans-1,3-dichloropropene. It dissolves in water and evaporates easily. It is used mainly in farming as a pesticide,... , the solvents TCP Trichlorophenol A trichlorophenol is any organochloride of phenol that contains three covalently bonded chlorine atoms. Trichlorophenols are produced by electrophilic halogenation of phenol with chlorine. Different isomers of trichlorophenol exist according to which ring positions on the phenol contain chlorine... and benzene Benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6.... and the pesticide lindane Lindane Lindane, also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane, , gammaxene, Gammallin and erroneously known as benzene hexachloride , is an organochlorine chemical variant of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide and as a pharmaceutical treatment for lice and... .	05/10/1993	12/16/1994
HI0170090054	Naval Computer & Telecommunications Area	Honolulu Honolulu County, Hawaii The City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...	Soil contamination in different areas by PCBs, volatile organics, semi-volatile organics and metals.	01/18/1994	05/31/1994
HI4170090076	Pearl Harbor Naval Complex	Honolulu Honolulu County, Hawaii The City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...	Soil, groundwater and sediment are contaminated with metals, organic compounds and petroleum hydrocarbons.	07/29/1991	10/14/1992
HI7210090026	Schofield Barracks (U.S. Army)	Honolulu Honolulu County, Hawaii The City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...	Groundwater contains trichloroethylene Trichloroethylene The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.The IUPAC name is... .	07/14/1989	08/30/1990	09/23/1998	08/10/2000

External links

Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR): invasive species information for Hawaii and the Pacific
EPA list of Superfund sites in the United States
EPA list of Superfund sites in Hawaii

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Flora and fauna

Air quality

Water quality

Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative

Public/Private Partners

Legislation

Coal phase out

Algal fuel

List of Superfund sites in Hawaii

See also

External links