‘Have some pride’
If you haven’t noticed, the Hilo International Airport main U.S. post office property is hidden in a lush jungle of tall weeds and maile pilau vines. From the looks of it, the landscaping has not been touched in over a year. What happened?
The perimeter fence’s security is compromised, with entangled vines and overgrown weeds which limits visibility to potential threats and obstructing one’s view.
First impression is a lasting impression. Especially for visitors and residents arriving into Hilo who drive past the post office daily and can’t believe that’s the grounds of a federal building.
It’s unsafe for customers and employees, and attracts vagrants, rodents, insects, etc. I’d be embarrassed to work at an establishment, let alone a federal property, where the grounds look as pathetic as the Hilo airport post office.
I’m sure there’s competent landscapers in Hilo who can care for the people’s property and won’t add much to the USPS’ $9.7 billion operational debt!
Have some pride. Leadership, or lack of it, starts from the top post master!
Keoki Alika
Honomu
Carbon pricing
Amanda Starbuck’s “Say no to carbon pricing” (Tribune-Herald, May 25) is a positive opinion on the problem of carbon pricing schemes using credits sold to polluters who actually don’t reduce their own carbon emissions, which is similar to the failed pollution cap and trade programs.
Large polluters create a moral hazard by buying up carbon credits and continue to pollute with abandon. To tackle climate change, carbon emissions must be stopped from getting into the atmosphere in the first place, but carbon credits will not offset the amount of pollution they are proposed to, because it just counts carbon emissions and moves it around the markets, accumulating more CO² in the atmosphere. It’s a guilt-free pass to keep polluting.
Although the Biden administration does have climate crisis projects on the move, some officials, like old school Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, want to enact carbon credits to protect business/corporate profits while avoiding protecting humanity and Earth’s environment.
This approach adds confusion to the more effective Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act recently introduced in Congress, which is a carbon-fee and dividend plan to charge a fee to fossil fuel producers on the tonnage of CO² emitted from their products, and use the collected fee to pay a dividend to all citizens to help them through the conversion from fossil fuels to alternative clean energy.
The EICDA is also an excellent way to support and boost the effectiveness of all government and private enterprise climate crisis mitigation programs and resolutions, while putting fossil fuel producers in a position of having to conduct research on less polluting fuels and/or investing in clean energy technology in order to save their businesses.
Merle Hayward
Hilo
