No conflict
No conflict
In Arthur Warren’s letter of Dec. 19 (Your Views, Tribune-Herald), he accuses me of conflict of interest if I testify about our county GMO law. Mr. Warren says “however circuitous it may be,” in reference to the perceived conflict, but he neither begins nor completes the circuit.
I cannot see how defending the county GMO bill in court, or supporting the law itself, is a conflict. It will not benefit me as a businessperson if GMOs are regulated, as claimed. It will benefit all farmers and food producers on our island, but has no effect on a retailer such as myself.
I realize that those defending the chemical companies are grasping at straws these days, but I don’t even see the straw here.
State Sen. Russell Ruderman
Keaau
‘Give it a try’
Millions of dollars have been invested in the Pahoa shopping center. It has provided many jobs, started many independent businesses and has brought in millions of dollars in revenue. It is the heart of the Pahoa town.
So, how can we save this gem from being destroyed by the lava? My suggestion is to build a huge berm by bringing in truck loads of cinder, and have the bulldozers build it as high as the buildings and divert the lava toward the ocean between the shopping center and the police station.
Whenever the lava starts going toward a building, put in another huge cinder berm to prevent it from being destroyed. Cinder is cheap and readily available.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been spent on alternative routes, so why not spend less than what has already been spent to divert the lava? Will it work? Well, now’s the time to experiment with this idea.
Like I said, cinder is cheap if not free. I say let’s give it a shot instead of waiting and doing nothing. For all we know, this eruption might last another 30 years and by then all of Pahoa, Hawaiian Beaches, Ainaloa and Hawaiian Paradise Park might be destroyed, all because we didn’t give it a try.
Darrel Baring
Keaau
Use the military
I read “Jack” Lockwood’s article about lava diversion (Tribune-Herald, Dec. 21).
He raised some good points.
Why aren’t our government officials exploring this? If I lived in Puna, I’d be very upset that more isn’t being done.
We have the greatest military on Earth. I bet they could figure out a safe and effective way to alter the path of the flow.
A. Yamamoto
Hilo