John -
In Maui, the death toll from the wildfires continues to climb. It is already the deadliest wildfire in the US in 100 years, and there are still over 800 people missing. The stories coming from the ground are unbearable.
Meanwhile, real estate interests are already wondering how they can profit, and our news feeds are full of confusing and misleading colonialist narratives that only add to the damage facing the people of Maui. Much of the media coverage has described the severely affected area of Lahaina — a rich and tight-knit community that was once the royal capital of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi — as simply a tourist destination.
So we want to take a minute to look at what's really happening and what we can learn about how to decolonize the response to future climate disasters.
First, we already know that climate change created the conditions that make wildfires more likely and more extreme, through droughts, rising temperatures, and more intense storm conditions like high winds.
On top of that, internal documents show that Hawaiian Electric Co, an investor-owned utility, was aware that preemptive power shut-offs in high wind areas — a tactic that’s been used in California — could have helped prevent wildfire spread, but they never adopted them. Now, Hawaii Electric is trying to get out of culpability by filing for bankruptcy.1 This is yet another example of why we need utilities that are more accountable to the public.
And now, as many people are erasing the reality facing Maui residents by focusing on mourning their own vacations, still others have — even more egregiously — continued to take those vacations, despite clear calls from the local community not to come. “Leave,” Lahaina resident Alika Peneku told CNN.2 “Give us the chance to heal. If any one of those tourists’ homes burned down, they wouldn’t want anybody outside their home doing fun excursions. They would want time to mourn. They would want time to rebuild.”
This is the climate crisis at its clearest and most vicious: tied to capitalism, colonialism, and extraction.
That’s why the climate movement needs to stand with the people of Maui right now as they grieve, rebuild, and resist relentless colonialism.
We can help by correcting colonialist narratives and calling out efforts that prioritize tourism or profit over the needs and wishes of frontline and Indigenous communities.
And we can donate to the Hawai’i People’s Fund, which is providing aid quickly in support of the community organizers and organizations who are already engaged in this work.
In solidarity,
Team 350
1 - Utility Drive
2 - CNN
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PO Box 843004, Boston, MA 02284-3004
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