Community can help secure future amid climate change

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is about gratitude and the community we share. This was the 15th consecutive year that my son and I have gone to the KEY Project and placed roughly 500 turkeys in a giant imu the night before Thanksgiving. We returned early in the morning to pull the turkeys out and give them back to their families for the day’s festivities.

The recipe of sweat, aromatic steam, many hands and caring hearts feeds the community in myriad ways year after year.

“The insurance against climate change is community,” said Paul Reppun, one of the founders of the KEY Project and a taro farmer.

“Climate change is upon us right here,” added Reppun, explaining that there has never been four months of rain at this time of year. Many people compare this rain to the 40 days of rain we had some years back, but that was in February when it is supposed to rain. Reppun is concerned that the incessant rain we have had will hurt the taro crop, not because of the moisture, but because of the unseasonably low amount of sun.

When the taro is healthy, it is able to feed more people on a given amount of land than virtually any crop. Rice also yields a great deal of food per acre, better than other grains such as wheat. Rice is credited with enabling the rapid population growth of ancient China, but taro can yield far more. In the old days the Hawaiians cultivated taro in a manner that could provide food throughout the year.

The lack of sun has affected more than the taro crop.

Josh Powell, a close friend and principal of Honolulu-based solar company RevoluSun, corroborated this as we drove up to the imu.

“People will may also be wondering why their electricity production is below projections during this period of time,” he said. “This type of weather is not accounted for in the projections.”

The mission of KEY Project is to nurture and promote community to support the cultural, environmental, social and economic well-being of the Kualoa-Heeia area by providing a vital grass-roots civic resource that brings together its diverse, multicultural population. The annual community imu is one of KEY’s keystone events, now in its 30th year. The proceeds from the tickets go to supporting educational opportunities among affiliated youth.

The KEY Project’s efforts to cultivate community are felt far beyond the Kualoa-Heeia area. Carl Ackerman, an esteemed instructor at Punahou School, routinely brings his Advanced Placement European History classes to the annual imu so that his students gain a palpable experience of how sustainable communities have come together throughout history. They learn how history has shown that health and wealth are based on far more than medication, hospitals and economic resources.

It is the foundation of a genuine sense of community that we will all need to rely on as the effects of climate change are felt. There are high hopes on the United Nations Climate Change Conference that begins Monday in Paris. In recent months China has signaled a sea change in its commitment to curbing its carbon footprint. A meaningful commitment from India would add tremendously to the collective resolve already made among many other nations.

In the meantime, food security, shelter and the wealth of health is best ensured by the strong roots of a community that is nurtured over the years. Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude and an opportunity to build our bond.

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Ira “Kawika” Zunin, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is a practicing physician. He is medical director of Manakai o Malama Integrative Healthcare Group and Rehabilitation Center and CEO of Global Advisory Services Inc. Please submit your questions to info@manakaiomalama.com.