UPDATE 2-27-24: This course has been moved to Zoom ONLY. THe zoom link will be sent to students between 4 - 6 pm on 2-27-24.
The disaster that was Lahaina resulted from a perfect storm of cascading natural events followed by a perfect storm of human failures. A series of natural phenomenon—a hurricane well south of Hawaii, strong winds generated by corresponding high pressure north of Hawaii, unusually dry conditions (likely caused by climate change), and unfavorable topography—combined to produce, in what is normally a wet, tropical paradise, one of the fastest moving wildfires ever recorded anywhere. In addition, virtually every aspect of the human response turned out to be inadequate, inoperative, non-functional or simply bungled. Clearly, Hawaii did not learn the lessons that it should have learned from California over the years. The question now is whether and what can California learn from Hawaii.
The disaster that was Lahaina resulted from a perfect storm of cascading natural events followed by a perfect storm of human failures. A series of natural phenomenon—a hurricane well south of Hawaii, strong winds generated by corresponding high pressure north of Hawaii, unusually dry conditions (likely caused by climate change), and unfavorable topography—combined to produce, in what is normally a wet, tropical paradise, one of the fastest moving wildfires ever recorded anywhere. In addition, virtually every aspect of the human response turned out to be inadequate, inoperative, non-functional or simply bungled. Clearly, Hawaii did not learn the lessons that it should have learned from California over the years. The question now is whether and what can California learn from Hawaii.