 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Good afternoon. This is Ray Tsuchiyama on a slightly cool Thursday afternoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. This show is entitled Hawaii from afar. And we have guests representing the millennial population in the world. And they're from a college in Washington state. And it's a place that's just before the Canadian border about 80 miles north of Seattle. And I'm advising this group from Western Washington University under the leadership of Professor Patrick Buckley of the Huxley College, which is an environmental studies center for Western Washington University. And the reason why I'm kind of connected with all this is because I graduated from Western many, many years ago. And it's an honor to be advising this group who have come to Hawaii to kind of study it and kind of think about issues, policies, history, culture. And so I'm going to introduce one by one. And to my left, go ahead, your name and your major and your year. Aloha. My name is Kuxington. I'm a junior in Western Washington University and my major is sociology. Great. And then the second, go ahead, in the middle. Aidan Neveller. I'm a graduate student at Western Washington with a focus on energy and I'm studying environmental studies. Terrific. And the third? My name is Alephine Noreen and I am a freshman at Western Washington University and my major will be when I declare it environmental science. That's great. I have three students out of a group of about 809 students and they have spent a very hectic week studying all facets of Hawaii under the rubric of what we would call sustainability under the categories of economics, environment and culture. But why Hawaii? Have you ever been to Hawaii and why did you join the study group, Kershan? Yeah, so I've never been to Hawaii before, so this is my first time. So sustainability, I feel like it's a very big word or concept that we always mention or say it, but actually for me it's pretty vague and I don't actually know what are some of the practical ways to function in this society, I guess. So yeah, and Hawaii as I know is one of the isolated place and it highly requires sustainability. So that's why I'm here. I want to learn how it can function in sustainability. Yeah. Great. And why did you choose to come to Hawaii and have you been here before? As a kid, yeah. I've been to Hawaii once or twice through my parents' trips and as I mentioned before, my passion is in energy. And so one of the great things Hawaii illustrates is how to work with different constraints in terms of energy. High demand for electricity, not connected to other regional areas, Hawaii is a great example of how to rework your grid to work in a modern world. Perfect. Alaphia, why Hawaii? I've been to Hawaii a few times with my parents. We've been on Maui. And other than that, I guess the trip was really almost personal for me because I grew up on a small island just off the coast of Washington, San Juan Island. And so coming to Hawaii was like just a little bit of a step further away and they need sustainability practices a little bit more and so it's kind of a personal thing for me. All islands are the same with similar problems. So you've been to many, many meetings and places ranging from the Hawaiian mission, the 19th century houses near downtown, to a visit to the office Hawaiian affairs, to the state energy office, to uprigger hotels. So you've been a range of places. There must have been one that must have been very memorable and gave you some insights. Alaphia, which one was the most fascinating and give you a ha moment? Personally for me it was when we went out to the fish pond, the traditional fish pond out on the North Shore. Just getting to see the culture and the history that goes into that, as well as it's a current sort of a sustainability thing and it was really neat to see people getting their hands in the land and working with it. When you say hands on the land, what did you do? We actually, the nine of us picked up shovels and buckets and we helped shovel sand out of one of their streams that they have. So there was a connection to what you've been also studying about Hawaiian history and culture and did it give you any hints about the future? Yeah, a bit. It was really nice to have a little bit of guidance on where they want to go with the future and they were talking about the invasive fish species and wanting to eradicate those while still keeping some of the fish that they like and having sustainable practices for that. So it's a bridge from the past to the present to the future? Absolutely. Aiden, give me a visit that you had an aha moment and kind of linked it to your own studies about energy. Right. The visit I have to say that most sticks in my mind was not directly linked to energy actually, it was linked to culture and I was moving to the mausoleum for King Kamehameha and just walking around that picturesque area you look and you kind of think back to yourself the effect one life you know uniting the islands and just seeing the great respect and the great care that has been put into place remembering it and that was one of the impactful moments. We came off that earlier this afternoon and it was a good day to look through it. In your life though have you studied history or have an interest in history? Yeah, I mean of course we all go through history classes in high school, middle school, elementary but from time to time you read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and other famous history novels and again I'm referencing the more mechanical energy history there but yeah. So it gave you a I guess a living experience that you could sense. Kirching, how about yourself? What visit that you personally felt most memorable in Hawaii? So I'm a big cultural person so I really loved the visit at the Hawaiian affair office. Yeah so the speaker basically talked about what's the cultural like or spiritual practices like in Hawaii like cultural and yeah and I just love how he introduced the aloha spirit which just carries like it's just really welcoming and yeah they do all kinds of like spiritual practices with different gods and I think that's really good because yeah like once you have the gods and you just have the respect for them and you have the respect for the nature and yeah I think that's just something that's really unique in Hawaii. Now when you came to Western how many years have you spent living in the U.S. now United States? Um this is my fourth year. Okay so four years you've been exposed to American culture people history all kinds of things so and then you came to Hawaii right and Hawaii is part is the 50th state we are part of the U.S. Right. Are there things that you saw that made you become startled and think oh although you're here it reminds you of somewhere else or it's it's not so American anything? Actually yeah actually I think the streets and the way the building are laid out is really similar to China and I'm from China by the way so yeah because I think because it's such a small island so people need to be like together like so yeah that way it's people live closer together and it's more than streets and people and cars and buses more congested. Yeah exactly yeah exactly. I never thought of that but you're correct that you know on this island there's 950,000 people but you're correct. So Alifair back to you so is there anything that you can take back as you're going forward to your studies from your experience in Hawaii that you said uh-huh I could apply this in my studies in somewhere is there anything? Um definitely probably like Sherry was saying with just sort of the general practice of the aloha spirit and being more friendly and more open with people and uh and I guess just really taking care of your family and and caring for for the land and for the people. I really thought that that made a lot of impact on me as a person and and it really makes sense so. Now you live you said you grew up on on in the San Juan Islands which I'm familiar with and and the beautiful islands out there very cold though. Yes and and you're going to school in in northwest and of course you're exposed to many cultures in in uh Washington state. Is there anything that you see back in Seattle Bellingham sign wise that you said oh this could be a benefit to the people in Hawaii anything? Um personally I am a fan of the Bellingham transportation system the bus system. Yeah um I wish they'd run more on time but that's that's their own problem. I think that that some of the transportation aspects could be used in Honolulu um just a little bit more of a of a bus system that might be more sustainable but then again I mean it varies from city to city what you can do so I'm not entirely sure that there's anything that I would bring back from from the islands or from Bellingham. To each other yeah oh okay but you but you said you would bring back your experiences dealing with Ohio with family and culture and history back to back to where you grew up or in back in Bellingham. Absolutely yeah that's that's really meaningful to me that's really personal. So Aiden how about yourself you study about energy you saw you met people involved in energy we're trying to deal with energy in a state that imports oil for electricity and has very high prices and that we need air conditioning and you know CDs and iPhones to power any takeaways that you could bring from the US or bringing things from Hawaii back to to the mainland. Right well I mean my thoughts on the constraints of an island I mean it's so hard to get energy to ship in the oil or to produce it here that people have to change their behavior and change strategies when we're dealing for example there's a high price of electricity in Hawaii and so one of the next is that's costing people more but it's helping people install solar arrays in their house because it's a better justification for them to change their strategy up when the cost of electricity is high you know it makes people seriously consider other alternatives and so that's it's a way people have been dealing with constraints and it's it's interesting to see just how people are solving these problems in the island. Is there anything that you so specific that you could say this is something you could benefit Hawaii at all anything? From Washington a lot of what we do is we talk to the people first so what the solar campaigns we have in Bellingham is the first thing they do is they stop by the local church or they call the mayor or they find local leaders in the community and that is such an applicable thing to the islands here because it's all about the people and so if you're going to make any sort of change in society you can't just do it with economics you can't just do it with policy you can't just do it with people alone it's kind of a mix of all three and so seeing you know ways that you could reach out talk to people first start a conversation make sure it's slow, deliberate and appropriate for all measures is one of the things that works both in Washington and in Hawaii. So you see people are the same they have to change their behavior but in order to do that you have to work with them you know that's that's the bottom line it's not just engineering or technology. Christian if you're going to package what you experienced in this week and you went back to China and to talk to your family and friends what would they feel would be the most interesting or unusual if they heard your stories to them? I think I've seen many institutions or companies that's working well like their business but they're working in such an environmental or cultural friendly way I think that's something I don't see that often in China because like we are still a developing country like we're really pressing on to like increasing the economy so yeah I just wish that there would be more business would be business like like in Hawaii. We'll go back to that point after we take this break and we'll be back to develop this story more about experiences of three students from afar in Hawaii. Welcome to Sister Power I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough where we motivate educate and power and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. and we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Aloha I'm Keeley Akina and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together. In Hawaii Together we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together working together for a better economy government and society so I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network join us for Hawaii Together. I'm Keeley Akina Aloha. Welcome back to this very insightful show with three young people on their experiences during a very hectic meeting filled visit to Hawaii as a collection of islands in the middle of the Pacific and they're here from the great Northwest and the mainland and applying what they kind of been studying to the issues and about Hawaii in the environment culture and economics and we were just talking to Kershing about what she would bring back or talk about more with her family and friends back in China and you have a very interesting point in that from the last you know so many decades starting with Dung Sha Bing I mean economy first and everything else second and you're correct that many people are waking up to issues about environmental pollution to how to plan for the future in specific planning about China is now when you look at your own life are you going back to China or staying in the US or going someplace what would you ideally want to do for my future so after I graduate Western Washington University I'm going to law school probably studying international laws and I think I will be working with refugees in Middle East that's my current goal probably in like immigration status and like to help them with that kind of yeah like policy what have you ever traveled to the Middle East I'm not yet and but I will be next next year oh that's that's terrific uh alifair so looking forward from your trip to Hawaii is there what do you hope to do in the in the future I know that you're studying environmental studies what what do you see yourself doing after college that this experience may be of benefit or you know what role do you think that you can play in society yeah so I am hoping to go on to study global climate change and working with that I'm looking to do it in sort of a marine biology aspect actually environmental science is sort of a pathway to that for me but currently I've been working for the University of Washington and their Friday Harbor labs doing ocean acidification research and so I'm looking to continue that and working with other companies that are doing sustainability factors and whatnot in order to help the oceans pollution issue and and ultimately get a global climate change well I think that's a great huge project as you know but of course what's happening in Hawaii you've probably seen the news reports on erosion recently and rising seas also with with fisheries under attack in our surrounding waters so the ocean is is very much a very sensitive area for for Hawaii but you have a very good point about you know researching about the oceans I think in the end though it's not only about the science but understanding what to do in policy you know what you're going to do to mitigate what's happening in oceans have you thought of that if you have the scientific answers or research how do you influence people to change their ways or government policies in the future that's a hard one because unless people are given a real incentive to change they won't change is very hard to to instigate and so I personally have thought about going into environmental policy and and looking at that route but I don't think that's for me I don't think I don't think I could hold it together enough to do it without getting too argumentative um but yeah so I'm just looking to get at the science of it and and hopefully find somebody that I can ally with in the environmental policies world but personally I will never go that route so you are focused on the science of global climate change great so Aiden how about yourself what do you see yourself I know you're in graduate school what do you see an outcome of your graduate studies where where are you leading into with with what you're doing right well with my studies I'm focusing on demand side management for electric grid so thanks smart meeting think energy efficiency so I have a policy background and that's kind of where I'm hoping to lean for I've worked for the city of Bellingham in the past and I'm hoping to do something where I can work as part of the city or another institution and just sort of figure out new ways to lower energy bills make things run a little bit cleaner a little bit greener anything you do to improve the system and we spoke to one of the residents here who had a control system and one of the things that he talked about was instead of going to every resident individually he went to the landlords the property owners and got whole batches at once and that is super applicable system because that changed me not only offers you know benefits to the landlords who reduce their costs but it helps a lot more people at the same time by improving their lives with market and that's something I kind of want to think about because one of the problems we have there is helping residents lower their energy bills especially when it's cold out right now so so Gershwin you're you're going to working with refugees and law and so forth but you must have been fascinated by our ethnic diversity in Hawaii which is quite unusual than the rest of the United States we have everybody and everybody's a minority in a sense but we all have to live with each other in many ways and so one of my questions is do you see Hawaii as a great experiment or a great model how people can live together in a positive happy way or you see are there any other ways so that the society could be made better through better governance or better leadership I think unfortunately I probably wouldn't like I am not able to answer that question because I for me personally I don't think I have investigated too much studying in Hawaii communities so I haven't really like looked into that and yeah so I actually don't know but yeah good answer but Hawaii is quite unusual because as you as you know we are island and we have to live with each other the 1.2 million people and we are crammed on this island and then we have to deal with each other and really develop a better better society and and we don't have any resources to do that and everything that we do has a resource have to be imported from the outside so going back to Alifair you have a goal stretching out anything about Hawaii that was very unfamiliar to you that that you saw and says wow this is very unusual although you come from an island background and you see some you know analogous things about people living on island have to deal with a small space surrounded by water but there was something unusual as well I had never seen this kind of thing before anything touch you in that way probably just the hugeness of it all the the mass population in Onowahu in Honolulu that is something that I'm unfamiliar with on an island at back home we are a population of probably 7,000 and so it's very small very rural and and that's not something I saw staying in the city obviously and so that was really interesting to see the impacts of the masterism that's here as well as just how many people live here and and go about their daily lives that was kind of unfamiliar to me that's interesting because there's an old adage hell is other people but we have to live with each other and kind of deal with each other we have to hide our thoughts a lot that emotions Eden so energy energy seems to be your kind of mind all the time so so you know it was anything in Hawaii that you saw as very precarious wow you're living in a place that it will be impacted by an event you know you know I would never say this but Puerto Rico's experience that many people in Hawaii are looking at that from afar I said wow that could be us yeah and that's the scary thought you miss one shipment of oil suddenly your peaker plants in the island have a little bit trouble and there's some uncertainty but I mean we looked at examples in the island of the quiet I think where they had solar arrays and battery pack installations and they showed just how one would balance the other and how together you know in unison with some controls they could solve a lot of the island's energy need kind of balance the system on their own without the need of those worlds so that was an inspirational thing just to hear about and yeah I think it's precarious paperwork every single place you are there's different challenges I mean we're worried about months at Mount St. Helens in Washington state there could be a tsunami anywhere out until the cascadio yes great earthquake in the future I was always this right of course you had a very interesting point two questions ago about about environmental kind of studies or concerns issues that perhaps Hawaii could play a role in China that it could if so what would that be and I'll just give you some examples like for example could there be an area in China in for business or government for to teach about tourism that's number one people are traveling all over China all people going outside within China they're traveling for the first time and going all kinds of places number one number two maybe Hawaii could be a role model or could teach or could be a bridge or talk to people about you know energy about about environment and so forth any any thoughts to that are there things from Hawaii that could be programs started in China in some way um I think Hawaii could definitely be a model for Chinese business um Hawaii could definitely teach Chinese companies to like um to teach them how to be environmental friendly I think that's really important um the other way is I think Hawaii is leading like many ways in renewable energy techniques and I think Chinese government can definitely work with one of the company like the solar city I think they could definitely cooperate together and just learn from solar cities technology yeah well that's wonderful to hear because uh so many times we think ourselves just of ourselves it was not much to to kind of export out but but this 30 minute session I think we'll give people in Hawaii great great insights to how people from the outside from afar look at Hawaii and see a positive in what we do and how we go about the business and for the future our state and I want to thank all all three of you for your time on the show and this is think tech Hawaii looking at Hawaii from afar from a young viewpoint that's very exciting and provocative and gives the guides to us for our future thank you very much