Wednesday night I attended a meeting to discuss the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability draft plan. There was an article about the meeting on the front page of yesterday’s Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald.

Senator Russell Kokubun is chairman of the 24-member task force. He gave an overview of the plan and I like his approach, which was inclusion and collaboration—an approach from the bottom up, rather than the typical “top down, force-it-through” approach one often sees from ineffective leaders. This is a good sign.

Next, Jane Testa, director of the Hawai‘i County Research and Development department, spoke. She, too, was very patient, respectful and thorough as she explained parts of the plan. Assistant Planning Director Brad Kurokawa followed and he was also positive but deferential and patient. It was evident to me that they are all very invested in this plan. This is a good start.

The objective of this meeting was to expand, contract and give relative weight to particular sustainability issues that are of concern to the community members. They split the audience into five groups, each with a facilitator. We were to make comments and lend color to the sections of the plan.

I came to the meeting with an agenda. I want to see Peak Oil given high priority, and its effects monitored continuously and adapted to as necessary.

It’s important to realize that population, oil and food are related. In the earliest days, one hundred percent of the energy needed to grow food was provided by the sun, and the human population was in balance with how difficult it was to catch and eat mastodons and saber tooth tigers.

Then 150 years ago, we discovered oil and it was cheap—$3 for a 55-gallon drum. Using energy obtained from oil produced inexpensive food. And the world population soared—it was easy to go hunting in the supermarkets.

But with Peak Oil, where oil will start to become expensive and scarce, it will be more difficult to produce food. And then what?

Back to the sustainability meeting. We need to be able to monitor Peak Oil and to take decisive action. We really don’t have time to play around and the last thing we need is flowery prose.

I was pleased to see that there will be a sustainability council. This group of people is a quasi-government group with powers given to them by the legislature. They will be on the job all the time on a specific task. Not like the legislature, which has a year-to-year memory. They will have to report at least annually, if not more frequently, to the public. This group will be the vehicle to monitor and react to Peak Oil for the State of Hawai‘i. I like this!

The part I like most is that one of the five goals is related to Kanaka Maoli cultural and island values. The Hawaiian culture already accomplished what we are now trying to do—they survived, and thrived, without oil. Okay, they did have kukui nut oil. No sense reinventing the wheel.

But with our ability now to harness alternative energy, we should be able to accomplish what the Hawaiians did hundreds of years ago.

Not, “no can.” Can!