Early in the morning on August 8 residents living in Maui, an island of Hawaii, awoke to smoke coming from a wildfire that would ultimately devastate the island.
The wildfires overtook parts of Maui, including Lahaina. Lahaina is located on the western side of the island Maui with a population of 13,103. As of Aug. 28, the fire in Lahaina has blazed over 2,000 acres of land, and there is still no exact number for the death toll. More than 106 people have been confirmed dead by officials in Lahaina.
Although the situation in Hawaii seems miles away, the problem hits much closer to home.
“We need to step back and see that the reality of climate change is here and not a myth that people can choose to ignore. Denying it will only cause more costly damage to property, and result in the unnecessary loss of more lives,” Maggie Haas, a humanities teacher at West Chicago Community High School, said.
The fires have been a long-time coming because Hawaii’s annual rainfall has increasingly dropped since the 1990s. With global warming and a downward trend in precipitation in the state, Hawaii – once an island with a great extent of vegetation – is now a state experiencing wildfires that are typical in desert, dry areas of the globe.
“Since global warming is increasing so much, we are starting to see fires happen in random places like Hawaii where it is not expected,” senior and WeGo Global member Janelle Perez.
Lahaina, once a peaceful beach town on the island of Maui, now has over 1,900 structures that appear visibly damaged or destroyed by wildfires. The damages caused by these blazes will take years to repair. Rebuilding this historic town will come with many economic challenges, too.
Maui was just beginning to recover from the lack of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the wildfires are predicted to will take most of that income away as locals look into rebuilding their home.
“We need to start electing people who actually believe this is a problem and don’t push this issue to the curb,” Perez said.
