A Green Hawaii: Sourcebook for Development Alternatives

By Ira Rohter

A Green Hawai'i -- Sourcebook for Development Alternatives offers a wealth of practical, well-thought-out proposals for new direcions in tourism, housing, agriculture, economic development, and for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1878751131
• ISBN13: 9781878751133
• Release Date: August 1992
• Publisher: Na Kane O Ka Malo Press
• Length: 451 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

important sustainable vision for Hawaii

Ira Rohter has looked at Hawaii's economy with new eyes, and has seen that tourism is not as good as once thought. His vision of a kinder, more local, less-homogenized village-based tourist AND RESIDENCE experience has a wonderfully believable and welcoming quality to it. Why not?

This book may be one of the most important books ever publis

A Green Hawaii: Sourcebook for Development Alternatives By Ken Boche Ka'u Landing. Feb., 1993 This book may be one of the most important books ever published in the State of Hawaii. I say this as one who appreciates good books, who values the ways in which books can help preserve Hawaii's unique cultural and biological heritage, and who sees books as, among other things, essential tools for communication. It is in this last use of books that A Green Hawaii stands out as unique. Very few books present a vision of Hawaii's future. About the only "books" that address the future are the "planning" documents published either by our governmental "planning" bodies or by "planning" firms hired by those bodies or by some real estate developer. All those documents are based on some very questionable assumptions, and most of them are written to plan for unsustainable "growth" and progress . A Green Hawaii critically questions those assumptions, shows how those assumptions do not work in the best interests of our citizens, and presents a vision of our future that is economically sustainable, socially equitable, politically democratic and environmentally sound. This book includes over 60 pages of footnotes, so that readers who want more information about the ideas presented can pursue it with little difficulty. The ideas are presented as an historical review of the previous half century as it might be written in the year 2010. In this way, not only is the sustainable vision of the future presented, but so is the path we might follow if we want to arrive there in the next 20 years. It effectively tells us how to get from here to there. Where there is very little mention of permaculture or its design methodology, it is as if our whole society has been transformed into a thriving, positive culture based on permaculture principles. We see in Hawaii's future an economy based on renewable energy and on diversified enterprises which are locally-owned and which serve local needs first. Just as a permaculture farm will integrate the production of many products, a green Hawaii will integrate work with leisure; social with political; rural with urban; aquaculture, agriculture and forestry with processing and marketing tourism with education about and appreciation of our unique heritage. Agriculture will be building soil, not eroding and poisoning it forestry will plant forests for the future, not clear-cut them; the fishing and aquaculture industries will increase their stocks, not deplete them; education will tap people's creativity, not stifle it; transportation will work for the people, not against them. In permaculture terms, we will invest in our procreative assets, those that increase in value, and in our generative assets, our essential tools. And we will stop investing in enterprises which decrease our