In most recent years, it has been quite astounding to witness such a collective shift of consciousness and awareness
towards human effect on the natural environment. In 2007, it seemed as though the whole world had been swept over with
this newly coined term of “going green” to imply that people were now taking the initiative to be more environmentally
conscious and responsible for their energy usage and lifestyles. Although this has been a definitive step forward in the right
direction, there is obviously a much larger need for action and attention on these issues from a societal/communal
perspective, and that we should be allocating a lot more financial resources to the development of sustainable/renewable
types of technology. There is no doubt that as our societies continue the trend of consumption at their current rate, our global
situation will continue to grow ever dire.
For the state of Hawaii, our solution for both economical as well as ecological stability seems to be staring us in the face.
With our geographical location, we are a perfectly suited host for green technology development and implementation, and
should be at the forefront of this movement, setting the bar for the rest of the country. Being completely isolated on an
independent energy grid should be all the more reason why we need to severe our dependence on imported oil. Not only is
our dependence on oil growing and negatively affecting our environment, it negatively affects our economy as well by
sapping the infrastructure of money and jobs. By locally developing technology to utilize renewable energy sources, we
would not only ensure the protection the environment, but we would also be able to stimulate our local economy by retaining
money locally, and creating meaningful technology jobs.
It is refreshing to see that, although however slowly, renewable technology development within Hawaii is starting to
come into focus. Associations within the University of Hawaii such as HNEI (Hawaii Natural Environment Institute) are
working with energy companies to develop metering devices to equip consumers with feedback tools so that the consumer
will be able make more conscious and responsible consumption choices. Things such as these metering devices could
revolutionize the way we view and think about energy consumption in our households, and possibly spur a much greater
awareness than itself.
As the way our American culture goes, however, capitalization on consumerism by large corporations is what primarily
drives or should I say puts a cap on our progress towards what we are actually capable of achieving as a country. This is not
a completely isolated pessimistic view because in line with some current events, there seem to be a lot of people who feel
polarized on the idea of large corporations holding the balance of the nations economy. Ultimately, there needs to be a
corporate mind shift to focus on what is absolutely necessary, and what we should really be contributing our efforts and
energy towards.
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