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NYC’s Trash Trouble Michaela Harris Hello, I’m Michaela Harris and in my blog, I will address New York City’s  “Trashtastrophe.” Ever since the Dutch settled on our soil in 1614, garbage has been accumulating over the vast landscape that I…

  My time here at the Hawaii Outdoor Institute has inspired me to me to look further into how I can best help the environment around me. Seeing first hand the damage done to Hawaii’s native ecosystems by cattle, sugarcane…

My name is Sasha Coke, and within my time at Hawai’i Outdoors Institute, I have sincerely come to appreciate the environment and the importance of both preserving and conserving it. With the Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, we went to South Point…

Hey, I’m Gabriella. I’m passionate about the environment, sex-trafficking, animal rights and cheese.   After an eye-opening three weeks with the Hawaii Outdoors Institute team and new friends to forever cherish, I have an even deeper knowledge about the environment,…

For thousands of years, humans have been dependent on plants for food, medicine and materials to sustain our population. From the ancient Hawaiians and their Taro cultivation, to the Mayans and their dependence on corn, civilizations learned to work with…

By Gilbert NakayamaWhen visiting the Oregon coast during the Fourth of July years ago, I recall my astoundment when faced with the sheer amount of litter strewn across the coastal cite for the firework show I was viewing. This area,…

I’m sure you hear this word a lot nowadays, “sustainability”. But how many of us truly know what sustainability means or realize it’s importance in today’s day and age? When I personally think of sustainability, I think of malama aina. Which literally translates to, “to care for the land.” But the meaning goes way deeper than the literal translation. It is to protect everything that makes up our world: land, oceans, living beings, our cultures, and our communities so it can give back all we need to sustain life for ourselves and our future generations. It is about giving back to the land that has given so much to us. However in our modern world, that’s about convenience and consumerism, I’d say we have really missed the mark. Sea levels are rising, fossil fuel reserves are dwindling, and it seems our chance to make a difference may be vanishing completing. Therefore, we must malama aina. We must malama honua. We must find a way to live sustainably. But the next question is how?

Well, we can go back to the future! By observing how the ancient Hawaii’s lived we can learn all we need to know about how to
create a sustainable future. Unfortunately many have the misconception that the ancient Hawaii’s were a primitive population, when in fact the Hawaii’s were wise beyond their years and way ahead of the game. As stated by Lanakila of the Hawaiian Cultural Center in Honokaa, “The Hawaiians would never take too much. They would always give back to the aina way more than than they ever took from it.” So if the ancient Hawaiians can do it, surely we can as well!

As a local resident of the Big Island, Hawaii I want to do all I can to help Hawaii become a completely sustainable state. After all, it all of our kuleana or responsibility. Turns out there already is a statewide commitment to sustainability in Hawaii called the Aloha Plus Challenge. Adopted in 2014, the Aloha Plus Challenge, outlines six ambitious goals to be achieved by 2030 in clean energy transformation, local food production, natural resource management, solid waste reduction, smart sustainable communities, and green workforce and and education. Currently Hawaii is on it’s way to reaching these goals, but they still have a long way to go. If this is my kuleana, then I decided I want to start my own initiative to reach these goals. And what better way to do that than through education and awareness?

The Chesapeake has been faced with many problems having to do with pollution such as sewage, waste from food, and fishing materials. Some so small it is not visible to the eye but still is able to hurt our environment…