March 14, 2007

The following article originally appeared in The Molokai Dispatch in Kaunakakai, Hawaii.

Every now and again, one ought to just step back and marvel at the bravado with which big business presents its ideas.

Take the Molokai Properties Limited (MPL) press release following the most recent Environmental Impact Statement as a textbook example of top-notch spin-doctoring:
“It is likely that sediment discharge from runoff to the ocean will be significantly less with the La‘au Point project compared with existing conditions.” This conclusion is based on several measures planned for La‘au Point that will protect near-shore waters from increased degradation of water quality, such as drainage control systems, regulation of the use of fertilizers and pesticides, re-vegetation as a means of permanent erosion control measures throughout the developed areas, and fencing to keep deer and other animals from disturbing the soil.”

In other words, the construction of two hundred luxury home lots with houses, servers quarters, roads, gardens, septic systems, etc, will be, at best, no less effective at limiting erosion than a fence or small retaining wall would be.

One of the chief concerns for environmentalists over the proposed La‘au development is over what will become of the Monk Seal population, which regularly comes to feed and spawn on the shores at La‘au Point.

What MPL is implying, in their press release, is that not only will a millionaires’ subdivision seamlessly fit into the Monk Seal’s feeding and breeding habits, it will actually improve both. MPL seems to envision a zoological utopia where man and seal live together in gentle harmony – man helping the seals’ food supply and the seals in turn, fertilizing their lawns.

You don’t have to be a marine biologist to know that  anyone who tries to tell you that a permanent human encroachment on the breeding ground of an endangered species is helpful to that species might as well be selling mangoes on Molokai- because nobody’s buying.

Adam Bencze