Tragedy in tropical paradise of Hawaii

One of the Hawaiian islands which form the 50th state of the United States has been charred by wildfires fanned by a cyclonic Pacific storm which destroyed the old capital Lahaina in Maui island. Hundreds of houses in Lahaina have been destroyed and the island with a population of 16,000 has left more than a thousand homeless.

The authorities fear that the death toll might rise as rescue workers are scouring for survivors in the charred ruins. Lahaina has been home to some of the most precious cultural aspects of the Hawaii islands, including the burial place of the old royal family, the first church that was built there. What is still standing after the devastation is the old royal palace.

The phenomenon of wildfires has been a recurrent occurrence across the world, which has been on the rise in recent years. This year witnessed the wildfires in Greece and in western Canada, and it is being inferred that it is due to the global warming caused by climate change. And it seems that the apparently remote and isolated Hawaiian islands are not immune to this global change. The other reason for the fire in Maui is being attributed to the non-native grass that has been grown in the island, which is prone to catch fire, which has made the wildfires so much more damaging.

Lahaina has been the centre of tourist attraction because of its cultural heritage, and it is felt that it would take years and billions of dollars to rebuild the place to make it tourist-friendly again. This would also mean that the local government has to take into view the pressures of climate change while rebuilding the place. This would require an emphasis on the eco-tourism and measures to restrict reckless practices of that go with tourism.

The Lahaina fire is a grim reminder that climate change is a global phenomenon and that it affects the far corners of the world at the same time. It would not be right to think that the far-off places could be a place of refuge from climate disasters hitting the rest of the world. There will be no safe places from the scourge of climate change.

As a matter of fact, island-nations in the Pacific Ocean have become vulnerable to the rise in sea levels as a consequence of the rise in global temperatures and they face the danger of sinking. The fire in Hawaii brings home the fact that it is not just the vast continental land mass of Europe, Asia, Americas and Australia that are facing the onslaught of climate change, but islands also across the world.

Americans, especially the political and business leaders, on the mainland had been ignoring the threat of climate change but they have been shaken out of their complacency because of the extreme weather events in summers and in winters, with snowstorms and summer hurricanes beating down upon many parts of the US more frequently than before. The Hawaiian fire is a reminder that America, including its distant islands, is vulnerable. American policymakers will have to give up their ostrich policy in the face of climate change.

Though there are many countries and different landmasses and oceans that divide them, the global eco-system is one, and negative changes in the climate patterns will affect the whole globe and not just a few countries. Experts have been arguing that the effects of climate change will harm more the people of the poorer countries. But the wildfires that had enveloped Lahaina in Hawaii show that people of the richest country in the world are vulnerable to climate disasters as well.