Environment in the Hawaii Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Environment in the Hawaii Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

The Hawaiian Archipe lago—located in the central Pacific-comprises eight larger and inhabited islands in the southernmost part, and other minor unpopulated islands, reefs and atolls, extended to the northwest along 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). The inhabited islands are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lana’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui, and the island of Hawaii. The northwestern islands are Kure Atoll, Midway Atoll, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island, Laysan Island, Maro Reef, Gardner Pinnacles, French Frigate Shoals, Necker Island (Mokumanamana), and Nihoa. The islands belong to the Hawaiian Ridge, a volcanic chain of seamounts, residuals of old volcanoes, or active volcanoes with a northwest-southeast direction. It was formed in the last 30 million years from an active hot spot approximately located in the island of Hawaii, which is the youngest of the chain, as the result of the movement of the Pacific Plate.

Polynesian settlement occurred at least by 600 c.E. after long-distance voyaging across the Pacific, although first discovery might have happened three to four centuries before. Those explorers carried with them domesticated plants-at least 29 species-and animals to secure food for the journey. Once in Hawaii, their cultivation provided a source for carbohydrates that was not available in the is-

lands. This was succeeded by the relatively late European discovery and settlement, compared to the other Pacific islands, in 1778. In his third voyage of Pacific exploration, the English Captain James Cook found the islands, which were named the Sandwich Islands. This last discovery initiated a rapid process of colonization because of their strategic position in the Pacific Ocean.

Population at the time of European contact, although still a matter of debate, was 300,000 native Hawaiians. A census completed by missionaries in 1831-32 gave an account of 130,000 and in 1876 a Hawaiian government census reported 54,000. This sharp decline of the native population was due to the period of wars and famine during King Kamehameha’s mandate, the various diseases fatal to the local population introduced by the European navigators, and the migration of natives to work as sailors.

During the plantation era, a large labor force was needed and immigration was organized by the estates to supplement the diminished local force. Labor immigrants arrived from 1850 to 1950; the waves were first Chinese, then Portuguese, Japanese, Portuguese for a second time, and finally Filipino, which led to the present high ethnic diversity. About 180,000 Japanese and 168,000 Filipino departed to the islands. Thus, population begun to grow from 1876 onwards, as mortality rates dropped and birth rates increased. By 1940, the population exceeded 400,000 and rapidly doubled with the arrival of military and defense workers during World War II.

After the war population dropped with the departure of military and employees but increased again with the expansion of tourism by the mid-1950s. As of the 2000 Census, population was 1,211,537, mostly concentrated in O’ahu (73.3 percent), with population densities of 1,441 persons per square mile (547 per square kilometer); while the biggest island, Hawaii, only had 12.2 percent of the population, with a density of 36.8 persons per square mile (14.2 per square kilometer).

Resource Exploitation

Hawaii underwent various historical economic cycles based on different resources. Early phases based on sandalwood, whales, sugarcane, and pineapple were followed by services, military, and tourism. During the first quarter of the 19th century, the principal commodity traded was sandalwood, harvested in great quantities and traded to China, which almost depleted the forests, until cutting restrictions were issued. The Forest Reserve system was created in 1903 to protect watersheds from deforestation and subsequent erosion; trees were planted including both native hardwood koa and short rotation nonnative tree species such as pine and eucalyptus. The abandonment of sugarcane plantations was an opportunity to gain new lands for forestry. Today forests cover 1.7 million acres (690,000 hectares), or 41 percent of the state’s area.

The whaling industry in the North Pacific became a foremost activity for half a century until the 1870s. It turned into an opportunity for trade and facilitated port infrastructure development, which had already begun with sandalwood commerce. These two economies were not sustainable, but extractive and resource depleting. Eventually, whale stocks began to shrink. Changes in technology and petroleum use led to the decline of the industry.

The sugarcane industry started after this eclipse as the influence of American traders and landowners grew. This influence increased especially after the short-lived Republic of Hawaii, which succeeded the Kingdom of Hawaii, was annexed as a territory by the United States in 1898. This episode took place when Queen Lili’uokalani was overthrown in 1893 by those American traders and landowners willing to join the United States.

Cultivated area increased and the sugar industry expanded; production kept steady until the 1970s. At the outset of the 20th century, pineapple and other tropical fruit cultivation began, benefiting from a sustained year-round production which, although it declined in the 1970s, still has a local and mainland market. The number of related jobs in the 1990s fell to half of the jobs in the 1970s. Plantations shaped a relatively homogeneous landscape based on agriculture that turned into a highly diversified agriculture: Vegetables for the local market, fruits, flowers, and sugarcane for export.

Hawaii’s central Pacific location provided an additional resource for at least half a century. The islands had a strategic military significance as a base for operations in three major wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Interest rose with the Spanish-American war at the end of the 19th century, when the United States began to look to the Pacific as an area of territorial expansion. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard was established in 1908. Military expenditures of $3.2 billion represent 9 percent of the Gross State Product and the second biggest resource after tourism. The military employs 8 percent of the state population, while installations occupy 5 percent of the land, mostly on Hawaii and O’ahu islands.

Mass tourism took off with the introduction of rapid air transportation in the 1960s. Although a principal domestic destination, it has followed a process of internationalization bringing visitors from Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As many as 7.4 million visitors a year spend $11.5 billion. Tourism makes up 23 percent of the state’s employment, leaving the state highly dependent on the industry. Another problem results from the high numbers of visitors (hotel occupancy rates of 81.2 percent at times) and the resulting rapidly growing demand for new infrastructure.

Environmental Protection

The islands’ tropical location, the exposure to the dominant northeast trade winds carrying moisture, and the high elevation of some islands result in an extraordinary diversity of environmental conditions and the emergence of a number of ecosystems. Windward slopes face the northeast trades and receive rainfall that decreases with altitude, whereas leeward sides are drier with less cloud cover. This orographic effect-particularly observable in the islands of Hawaii, O’ahu and Maui-produces rapid changes in short distances, such as the Ka’u desert next to the rain forest. The western slopes of the islands pose climatic conditions-milder temperatures and many sunny days-that favor the development of tourism.

There are about 15,000 native plant and animal species, which, added to the approximately 6,000 species intentionally or accidentally introduced by human colonization of the islands over the past 1,500 years, makes for a total of between 20,000 and 22,000 species, half of them insects. As species arrived to the islands from other areas, entire families and order of fauna and flora are missing, principally those without dispersal mechanisms, like mammals and amphibians. The long period of isolation and the slow environmental changes led species to acquire slow growth and low birth rates, or become flightless. Thus, rapid changes produced by the combined effect of habitat change and the introduction of predators makes many native species vulnerable to human impact.

One thousand species have become extinct-half of the avifauna-most of them plants and invertebrates. The main threats to native plants are both indirect factors such as alien weeds or introduced mammal predators and direct factors such as wildfires, species collecting, and urban development. Agriculture and livestock breeding brought the most changes. Wetlands were drained, pasture land displaced original species, and forest and shrubland ecosystems were cleared for cattle grazing and plantation agriculture. Coastal areas, valleys, and low altitudes are occupied by agriculture and residential areas, both leading to a loss of the lowland mesic and dry ecosystems.

A total of one million acres (404,685 hectares) of federal and state-managed areas represent 25 percent of the state extension to protect fragile ecosystems and rare and endangered species. In 1916, the U.S. Congress established the Hawaii National Park, which was then split into the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii island and the Haleakala National Park on Maui in 1961. The Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge-administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-comprises the northwestern Hawaiian islands, atolls, and reefs (with the exception of Midway and Kure Atolls) to protect seabirds and marine life. It was designated in 1909 to protect the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and the Hawaiian population of threatened green sea turtles.

Hawaii’s 1961 State Land Use Law was the first enacted and implemented statewide land use zoning and planning system, establishing the State Land Use Commission, responsible for the classification of lands into the four districts: Urban, conservation, rural, and agricultural. The counties determine the zoning ordinances, and development or subdivision plans for urban use, the state determines the use of conservation lands, and both share the administration of rural and agricultural lands. Ceded Lands, with an extension of 1.8 million acres (727,000 hectares), 43.8 percent of the territory, are the focus of an intensive and prolonged debate on their ownership and land use. After the Ceded Lands Act of 1963, these crown lands, which were transferred to the United States in 1898, are partly administered by the Federal and the State governments, but there has not been a final resolution to this prolonged conflict.

Bibliography:

Ibrahim Aoude, ed., Political Economy of Hawaii (University of Hawai’i Press, 1994);
David Callies, Preserving Paradise (University of Hawai’i Press, 1994);
Sonia P. Juvik and James Juvik, Atlas of Hawai‘i (University of Hawai’i Press, 1998);
Ralph Kuykendall, The Hawaiian Kingdom (University of Hawai’i Press, 1969);
Gordon Macdonald, Agatin T. Abbot, and Frank L. Peterson, Volcanoes in the Sea. The Geology of Hawaii (University of Hawai’i Press, 1983);
Charles P. Stone and Michael Scott, eds., Hawaii’s Terrestrial Ecosystems: Preservation and Management (University of Hawai’i Press, 1985);
Ronald T. Takaki, Pau hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920 (University of Hawai’i Press, 1983);
Alan Ziegler, Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution (University of Hawai’i Press, 2002).