Paper bags will be even worse

While seniors and others who ride the bus or walk will be hardest hit by the ban on plastic bags on Oahu, the increased use of paper bags will contribute to one of America’s worst environment enemies, the paper industry.

Paper production is among the most resource-intensive and highly polluting of all manufacturing industries. It is among the largest users of water and energy, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. It is fourth highest in emissions of toxic chemicals to water, and third in air pollution.

Although the environmental destruction is far away from Oahu, managing plastic bag litter through education and strong laws would be far better than contributing to the destruction of America’s environment.

Roger D. Van Cleve
Waikiki

Development deprives aquifer

I would like to echo Dina Brown’s comments regarding what Ho‘opili’s residents, as well as the rest of us, will eat when our prime agricultural lands are developed ("What will folks at Ho‘opili eat?" Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 12).

I also remind all politicians, developers and the public that water is a critical commodity.

Where will the water for thousands of homes, businesses, schools and a hospital come from?As the ground is paved over, water, if it rains, cannot percolate into the aquifer.

Remember when our politicians talked about sustainability? More of their baloney.

Mandy Bowers
Manoa

Pesticide article was astroturfing

Astroturfing is a propaganda technique that sways public opinion by making something appear to have grassroots support when it doesn’t.

It uses words like "quack," "pseudo," and "conspiracy" to make the public disregard a report as bogus.

Timothy Hurley’s story, "Pesticides report draws flak from seed industry" (Star-Advertiser, May 8), focuses not on the report but on the flak.

His second sentence screams "astroturfing." Even before he names the authors of the report, he calls them "the same outfit that … takes aim at Hawaii’s seed crop industry," as if Hawaii Center for Food Safety was a military squad or gun-toting cowboys.

Then Hurley quotes a biotech lobbyist who accuses HCFS of "emotional subterfuge" and "using fear and pseudoscience" to raise money.

If any group has a financial motive for "perpetuating misinformation" about the safety of pesticides sprayed on genetically engineered field test sites, it is the chemical companies that develop genetically engineered seeds, not HCFS.

Wynnie Hee
Mililani

Mauna Kea has plenty of room

I am a local businessman and a second-generation supporter of telescopes on Mauna Kea.

My father worked on getting the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope head- quarters to locate in Waimea. I worked with many others getting Keck to locate here.

I am also a paraglider pilot who would love to launch off the north side of the summit, say near Subaru or Keck. However, while I probably would make it over the Thirty Meter Telescope telescope after its completion, I would probably not clear the table land of relatively flat land beyond it. I don’t think most people know the building starts in a low area on the table land. They are focusing on its height.

I dare say that if not for the improved access road, no one would know it was there. And it certainly is not close to Lake Waiau or the adze quarry, which were hard enough to get to in the old days.

Neil Morriss
Kamuela

Vino’s Furuya a local treasure

The biggest Hawaii restaurant news of the year, if not the decade, was not of any opening, but of the closing of Vino Italian Tapas & Wine Bar in Hono-lulu as of May 21 ("Restaurant Row to lose tenants Vino and Hiroshi," Star-Advertiser, May 4).

Vino became a legend due to the talent and vision of Chuck Furuya. Gentle and unassuming, it is hard to grasp the extent to which Furuya also is globally acclaimed as an indisputable wine authority. Chuck is an entrepreneur wise enough to know that his restaurant is a home and his guests are a family.

Chuck is all about integrity — not only of his product, but also of himself. Driven by one of our industry’s few true natural geniuses, Chuck’s goal all along was not to provide us with meals, but with memories. Now we all await and hope for a Vino renaissance, somewhere, anywhere, in town.

Peter Shaindlin
Chief operating officer, Halekulani Corp.