Hawai'i is Dying

The islands of Hawai'i, globally marketed as a tropical paradise, mask a history of systemic theft and cultural erasure. The devastating fires that consumed the historic capital of Lāhainā in 2023 were not a freak accident, but the predictable consequence of a century and a half of resource exploitation. The crisis begins with the 1848 Great Mahele, which transformed communal lands - once managed under the sustainable ahupua'a system - into private property that could be sold to outsiders. This foundational act paved the way for American missionary families and their descendants to become the "Big Five" sugar barons, who illegally overthrew the sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.

The plantation economy demanded enormous quantities of water, destroying the ancient, lush wetlands and kalo (taro) patches that once fed the population. Massive irrigation canals redirected billions of liters of water daily, drying out the leeward sides of the islands and replacing resilient indigenous ecosystems with monoculture sugar fields.

When the sugar industry declined, these fields were abandoned and quickly became overgrown with highly flammable, invasive grasses. This volatile environment, combined with historically diverted streams that once acted as natural firebreaks, created a tinder box that inevitably ignited when power lines fell on Maui.

Today, the plantation has simply been replaced by tourism. While the industry provides a quarter of the economy, it mainly offers low-wage service jobs - line cooks, maids, and drivers - while simultaneously driving up the cost of living by 86% above the U.S. average.

The median home price in parts of Hawai'i now exceeds $1 million, with many sold to non-residents, including wealthy global billionaires. This economic pressure creates a strange process of "ethnic cleansing by real estate," forcing the Kanaka Maoli, the native people of the land, to leave their ancestral home.

The struggle to survive in one's own homeland is compounded by the military presence and its environmental impact, such as the jet fuel contamination of O'ahu's aquifer. Despite the continuous effort to dismantle their society - from banning the Hawaiian language to seizing land for resorts - the spirit of the Kanaka Maoli endures.

Their fight to restore the water, revitalize the language, and care for the land ('āina) is a necessary act of remembrance and resistance against forces that continue to profit from the island's slow destruction.