On Politics: Climate-change research is call to action for government officials on all levels

This is a dicey time for Hawaii; we just dodged a scary hurricane season. Be it luck or wind shear, Honolulu was just miles away from a major wipeout.

In case you forgot, in August Hurricane Lane briefly became a Category 5 storm. At 4 p.m. on Aug. 23, the city activated the islandwide outdoor siren warning system and started voluntary evacuations. Oahu was mostly spared while other islands took the brunt of the storm, but there is no doubt Hawaii’s weather is changing.

Hawaii and other Pacific islands are singled out in the federal National Climate Assessment. The best you can say about the special attention is that we are trying to do something about the looming disaster.

Put in terms that even our president could understand, it is all about the water.

“In Hawaii, annual average temperatures over the past century show a statistically significant warming trend. … As temperature continues to rise across the region and cloud cover decreases in some areas, evaporation is expected to increase, causing both reduced water supply and higher water demand.”

The national report said it was good that both the state and the counties have formed task forces to start dealing with global warming, but the obvious missing part is a change in the attitude of the federal government.

The University of Hawaii is becoming an international resource in researching global warming. UH was cited repeatedly in the federal study and Chip Fletcher, associate dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, contributed much of the research.

What is missing is any special oomph from the feds and especially from the president. As recently as last week, Donald Trump was still purposely misunderstanding the concept of global warming. In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump remained a doubter.

“There is movement in the atmosphere. There’s no question. As to whether or not it’s man-made and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it — not nearly like it is,” said Trump.

I asked Fletcher his reaction to the Trump interview.

“Donald Trump ignores inconvenient (complex) facts and embraces convenient (simple) ones that supplement his overall world view. A world view, endorsed by his supporters, that marginalizes women, celebrates white privilege, disparages other points of view, ignores social inequality, and sees humans as having dominion over nature,” Fletcher said.

Trump praised the U.S. environmental record, saying “we have the cleanest air” while Fletcher noted Trump’s continuing hypocrisy.

“Compared to the 1970s when the EPA was created and the Clean Air and Clean Water acts were implemented, there has been a lot accomplished,” Fletcher said in an email interview.

“In fact, the EPA is one of my favorite agencies as it has done a marvelous job over the decades. But for the president to champion their accomplishments on the one hand, and systematically roll-back, streamline, and eliminate EPA programs on the other, is more than ironic, it is hypocrisy, and it is a reversion to the dirty practices of the past.”

Fletcher’s research is noted in the federal report, pointing out how sea level rise in low-lying Waikiki threatens $5 billion of taxable real estate and 30 miles of roads.

With the evidence mounting, the time for defining government action has come.

In simple terms, if you are standing on a train track and a locomotive is roaring toward you, it is not the time to debate the nature of railroads, it is time to get off the tracks.