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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0372.116 2024-2026From: rterry Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 2:26 PM To: Council Testimony, Kierkiewicz, Ashley cC-3 Cc: Kimball, Heather cCi —metro Subject: Testimony on Communication 326 for August 20 and 25 hearings — �- co C� .s r— Communication 326 on review of the Draft General Plan 2045 by the Policy Committee on Plaaning�and Use & Economic Development at August 20 and 2t hearings. — r co Dear Chair Kierkiewicz and Council Members: As a scientist, planner and a leader in a trails -oriented non-profit, I have tried to keep up throughout the development of the County of Hawaii General Plan 2045 by reviewing drafts, attending meetings, asking questions and making suggestions. As I have testified before, I believe the Hawaii County Planning Department has done a good job in summarizing the major issues facing our County and in developing objectives, policies and actions to address them. I think most citizens who have paid attention to the GP 2045 would agree— despite what you hear from some testifiers. At this time, I'd like to address two topics: climate change mitigation and adaptation and the move to streamline the GP 2045. Thanks goodness I was fortunate enough to attend UH Hilo and experience quality, hands-on learning! 1 entered the front lines of meteorological research as a 20-year old student at UH Hilo, setting up automated weather stations in remote locations, trackingweather balloons, camping on the summit of Mauna Kea making corroborative temperature and humidity measurements at midnightwhile U-2 jets collected data from their sensors above. In my undergraduate and PhD studies I was privileged to work under true giants in the climatology field such as Dr. Calvin Ramage of UH Manoa, Dr. Bob Mueller of Louisiana State, Dr. Katie Hirschboeck of the University of Arizona, and Dr. James Juvik of UH Hilo. I know the extreme care they took in getting precise measurements. I helped them check and recheck their data countless times. I witnessed their rigor in making the theories fit the data, not the other way around. Science is a method, not some sort of final answer, and in its best practice, we are all checking each other's work. The scientific method demands that if you develop a hypothesis, you can'tjust argue for its being a reasonable explanation, you must prove repeatedly that it is not wrong. If it is, you adjust the hypothesis and sometimes, you throw it out. Very few fields have seen as much validating rigor as climate change science. It is now the consensus of at least 98 percent of scientists who research and publish on meteorology, climate, oceanography, and atmospheric physics that human -induced climate change is real. It is not a figment of the imagination, or voodoo science, or a hoax perpetrated by dastardly academics under the thumb of the U.N. and George Soros. Please do not be swayed by non-scientists who get their conspiracy theories from the dark corners of the Internet. Please do feel free to reach out to scientists at the University of Hawai'i, who can answer your 1 `.omm. + S• ��f. Jote questions and walk you through the complexities of climate change study, including not only the clear conclusions but also the instructive mis-steps, dead -ends, and failed hypotheses, as well the still unsettled frontiers of research. If you reach out, you will see that the preponderance of evidence shows that 1) humans have greatly increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a rate far faster Than any natural process could do; 2) air and sea temperatures around the world are definitely increasing at an incredibly fast rate; and 3) that sea level is beginning to rise at an alarming, non -natural rate. We need to reverse this if we want to retain livable countries and unflooded coastal cities and also save trillions of dollars. This is not just Venice and Rajasthan and Greenland. It is definitely HawaN too. Our shoreline policies and regulations must account for sea level rise possibly taking out our harbors, our beaches, and our wastewater infrastructure. We need to ensure we do not stress the life-giving coral reefs any more than necessary as they face the peril of warmer, more acidic waters. We need to prepare for more hurricanes and stream floods, but at the same time more severe droughts and more fire danger. The General Plan has a big part to play in this as it guides our most impactful decisions. I hear that the GP 2045 is in for some big edits. I understand and support the idea of streamlining. Let's have a tight, meaningful document. But at the same time, many of objectives, policies and actions currently in the plan emerged from a long winnowing of ideas carefully gathered from the community. Please remember that as you propose edits. An action that may not leap out to you as important may be a critical step that has been carefully thought out over the last five years. For example, the non-profit I referenced, Hilo Bayfront Traits, Inc., advocates for multi -use paths and pedestrian and bicycle safety. This is important for transportation, health, social equity and the visitor industry. We participated in many meetings and hearings —we offered lots of post -it notes on the Konveio platform! In our view, there is not a lot of slop or redundancy in the GP 2045 related to trails and pedestrian/bicycle issues. There is not much to cut. In fact, you could add a lot more. Please bear this in mind and approach edits with a scalpel, not a cane -knife. RON TERRY, PH.D., PRINCIPAL Geometrician Associates t,F,I • :► Integrating Geographic Science and Planning (808) 969-7090 10 Hine Street Hilo HI 96720