• Home for conservation manager welcomed • GMO foods are safe • “AIDS” should not be used casually Home for conservation manager welcomed I was very pleased to have received notice from his lawyers that Mr. Charles M. Somers wants
• Home for conservation manager welcomed • GMO foods are safe • “AIDS” should not be used casually
Home for conservation manager welcomed
I was very pleased to have received notice from his lawyers that Mr. Charles M. Somers wants to build a nice home for a conservation manager of his environmentally important property.
A home with 1,425 square feet of living area, a substantial deck of 713 square feet, and a two car garage of 500 square feet, is obviously meant to attract a person well trained in the field of conservation, not just a caretaker for Mr. Somer’s palatial home.
The manager will also not need to keep any equipment required to do his job in the garage, as Mr. Somers is planning a conservation management building with 2,592 square feet of work area, a loft space of 800 square feet, and a deck of 240 square feet.
This provides ample space for his equipment, as well as all the equipment a caretaker may need to maintain Mr. Somers’s grounds.
On Feb. 8, 2012, The Garden Island reported that citizens had notified the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust that somebody was systematically killing and cutting down trees on the sand dune at Kahili Beach. This protected property sits directly across the river from Mr. Somers’s new home. Why anyone would do this remains a mystery.
That dune and its vegetation are so important to the ecology of the area that it was acquired by the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust thanks to a generous donation from Louise and Monte Zweben.
The view from the lanai of the conservation manager’s house will provide the community with another set of eyes to monitor the situation. I am sure that an active conservation manager will notify the proper authorities if he notices any suspicious activity that results in the degradation of the ecosystem.
As Mr. Somers is hiring a well-trained conservation manager, I am hopeful that is his reason for eliminating public access to the beautiful waterfall on his property is due to a desire to preserve the pristine environment leading up to and including the falls.
A conservation manager will be able to work closely with any further movie productions to minimize any damage caused to the flora and fauna in the course of their extensive set building.
I look forward to welcoming the conservation manager to the community.
He will be an asset to the community and hopefully an active member of the environmental organizations in the area, as well as working closely with the Kaua‘i Neighborhood Association.
Jonathan McRoberts, Kilauea
GMO foods are safe
Yesterday, I saw a huge sign in Kapa‘a berating GMO (genetically modified organisms). I wonder if those who are so against it really know anything about it?
GMO seeds have given farmers crops that are more drought resistant, use less fertilizer, have pest resistance, all while greatly increasing yield.
Eighty-one research projects in the European Union involving 400 scientific teams have concluded that GMOs are no more hazardous than any other form of plant breeding.
Fifty follow-up studies showed the same. What more proof do we need? The American Medical Association states that GMOs pose no new or different risks than any other crop and no scientific reason to believe they would be more risky.
It’s safe!
Seventy percent of the processed foods already contain GMO genes. The cornflakes and Special K you’re having this morning have it, for heaven’s sake!
Without the great increase in quantity and quality of foods GMO provides, how are we to feed the 7 billion people now on the planet? Let’s have a concern for them.
Why not pick some issues that are really important — rampant government debt, runaway spending, uncontrolled immigration, man-caused climate change, you name it.
Instead of berating GMO, the smart idea would be to buy Monsanto stock and sit on it long term.
Dawn Smith, Princeville
“AIDS” should not be used casually
Malama Pono very much appreciates the efforts of The Garden Island newspaper and Mr. Terry Lilley to alert the community to the damage being done to Kaua‘i’s coral reefs (as published in the March 25 edition). We are nonplussed by the use of the word “AIDS” to describe what is occurring to the coral.
The use of “AIDS” is definitely an attention grabber, but we do not see it as accurate and certainly not now when Mr. Lilley clearly states, “we don’t know at this point in time what’s causing it.”
We need to be very careful and deliberate as we speak about AIDS.
Let’s be clear, AIDS is the final stage of the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Without highly skilled pharmacological intervention the disease is almost always terminal due to the destruction of the infected person’s immune system. Malama Pono has brought the transmission of HIV/AIDS to the lowest level in the state of Hawai‘i.
Yes, we ‘ve worked very hard to bring about the enormous progress in treatment of the disease and yes, we’re able to extend the lifetimes of people living with AIDS, and yes, the great concern for the danger of this disease is lessening in our community as some people think of it as manageable.
Complacency can easily lead to a false sense of security thereby opening the door to new infections.
By no means do we own the word, and we don’t expect that people will think they can get AIDS by stepping on coral or eating coral reef fish, but in the context of the enormous misunderstanding and misconceptions about the disease that have plagued this epidemic for decades, it is important to us that the name is properly applied.
May Mr. Lilley find the support needed to discern the cause of the coral disease.
We wish him success because we value the health of our environment as well as the health of our citizens.
D.Q. Jackson, RN, Executive Director, Malama Pono Health Services , Lihu‘e
