In this age of not being able to deny global warming any more, shouldn't we stop adding all that carbon dioxide to the atmosphere? Breathing in secondhand smoke from cigarettes or cane burning is dangerous. It is a fact that both contain benzo(alpha)pyrene, a proved carcinogen.
We should not have to breathe in the secondhand smoke of a company that has not updated its harvesting methods in more than 140 years. The black ash that floats around after the burn is full of this carcinogen and it gets into the soil and ocean.
Here is a plan:
* Deny the open burn permit to Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
* Allow burning only in the mill, where the heat is used to make electricity and the smoke is cleaned. (This is being done currently, but only with a small portion of it.)
* Harvest only by the cut-and-mulch method as is being done in places like Brazil.
* Raise the price of sugar as needed to eliminate government subsidies and reduce the consumption of this unhealthy food.
* Use part of the 37,000 acres to grow our own food and forest products.
Hey, Maui, let's start cleaning up our act. Do not give HC&S any more open burn permits. This will start the change over to better ways of using the wonderful irrigation system and sunlight to grow this place into an example of how the world should see Maui.
Tom James
Makawao
