for most people, hawaii’s idyllic beaches and underwater kingdom have always represented a natural paradise. while my home state’s jersey shore holds a special spot in my heart, in reality, it pales in comparison to hawaii’s tropical offerings.

however, most do not realize the reliance of hawaii’s economy on preserving this beautiful landscape for the fulfillment of vacation goers.

tourism accounts for more than a quarter of hawaii’s entire economy. without the 8 million tourists hawaii receives each year, the state would lose $14 billion, revenue which helps pay for many of the services maintaining this paradise.

however, hawaii is threatened by a climate recession that might replace its well-known beauty with a much uglier image. as an island, sea level rise and intense volatile storms could severely weaken hawaii’s economy.

about half of hawaii’s bridges are “structurally deficient” and 77 of hawaii’s dams are “highly hazardous.” these climate conditions can uproot this faulty infrastructure and cause significant deaths and property damage. 

as for jobs, all of the 6,000 workers in the hotel industry would be jobless from projected beach erosion by the end of century.

and there is no easy fix. it could cost around $6 billion to protect hawaiian beaches about 10 percent of hawaii’s total gdp.

these are just some of the huge economic problems hawaii faces from climate change.

as for my home state, new jersey faces similar climate threats to its coastline but may not suffer as adverse consequences due to its bustling industries and nexus as a transportation corridor.

it is more difficult for hawaii to protect its coastline. policy makers might have to finance expensive adaptations that could drive the cost of visiting hawaii too high for vacation goers. tourists may also be less willing to visit a vulnerable, environmentally unstable region.  as less people visit, less money is invested – a cycle that may very well end up slowing a resilient response.

but this does not have to be so. as part of the united states, hawaii has the resources to defend itself against climate change. hawaii is the most oil-dependent state, getting 90 percent of its energy from imported oil. but hawaii has made strides to rid its oil dependence. it recently imposed a $1 surcharge on oil barrels and enacted an energy bill mandating 25 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.

however, it needs help. to save this beautiful, ecologically diverse landscape we need cleaner energy investments on a global scale. otherwise a tropical paradise today, may be an island wasteland tomorrow. learn more about your future hawaii vacation.

not too long ago, i didn’t know much about oysters. sure, i knew some make pearls and some taste good as appetizers, but since then, i’ve learned the oyster is much more than an expensive food at the seafood counter. they are one of the most important species in the chesapeake bay. 

oysters are a life source for the chesapeake bay. as oysters repopulate, they build reefs that provide food and shelter to small fish and crabs. and just as trees help clean the air, oysters help filter the bay, which paves the way for more aquatic life. by doing so, oysters act as a sustainable resource for one of the most valuable commercial fisheries. without oysters, the bay would a polluted, morbid swampland.

in the 1600s, oysters were so plentiful that their reefs racked above the water surface and posed navigational hazards for ships. the millions of oysters kept the bay clean and clear up to depths of 20 feet or more.

but history has not been kind to the oyster. oyster populations have plummeted to 1 percent of their historic pre-colonial levels.

what endangered this once abundant species? a bad case of the humans.

it started with overharvesting in the mid-1800s and advanced to habitat destruction this past century. this was seen in “dead zones,” or cubic miles of oxygen-depleted water, which have risen due to pollution from tributaries upstream. agricultural runoff has been the largest source of this pollution.

similar to a cancerous tumor, dead zones signal a much larger problem for the bay.

high levels of fertilizers, pesticides and animal waste from nearby farms stimulate algae blooms in the water. algae suck the oxygen from the water, hindering the development of oyster larvae in affected waters. as oysters die, so do the fish. as the fish die, so do their predators. eventually, the entire ecosystem is put at risk. over the last three decades, the oyster decline has cost chesapeake businesses more than $4 billion and cut more than 5,500 oystermen jobs. 

in 2010, the issue became a national priority when president obama stepped in with an executive order aimed at limiting pollutants from impaired waterways, which reduced agricultural chemicals by 25 percent from 2009 levels. not everyone was pleased. interest groups opposing bay cleanup efforts spent more than $18 million lobbying during the 2011-12 election cycle and even blocked a bill that same year on pollution control within the bay.

this is bad news for our little oyster friends.

the longer government stalls pollution limitations, the more damage this will have on the oyster’s longevity. even moderately low levels of oxygenated waters increase their susceptibility to deadly diseases such as dermo. at what point will the entire chesapeake bay become a victim?

now, when i visit the grocery store and look at the oyster through the seafood glass counter, i see a small, clam-like species with a remarkable ability to transform the environment. i also see a species that can take away as much as it provides. then i look at all of the bay’s fish at the counter and ask myself, which ones will be served without the oyster? 

_{top photo courtesy of 663highland.}

as i grew older, i continued to visit beaches on the jersey shore with my school friends, including seaside heights, also known for its family boardwalk. when hurricane sandy struck the jersey shore in the fall of my sophomore year of college, i was shocked that a storm of that magnitude could strike so close to home.  it was a huge reality check, turning on the television and seeing the aftermath aerial images of seaside height’s jet star roller coaster sucked into the ocean waters. for me, hurricane sandy changed the meaning of the beach from a relaxing vacation setting to an area of vulnerability, similar to what the movie, jaws, did for swimmers on the beach.

when all of the rebuilding efforts were finally completed, sandy had left a deadly record and emotional hardships on all those living in or near the area.  one-hundred-and-fifty people lost their lives. about 650,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and it was the most expensive storm since hurricane katrina. it also was the first time i became seriously worried about the impacts of global climate change.

although single hurricanes are not directly caused by climate change, global warming can enhance the intensity of hurricanes through sea level rise and warmer temperatures. over the past century, sea levels have risen over a foot on the jersey shore, largely due to human induced climate change. additionally, the intensity, frequency, and duration of hurricanes have all increased since the early 1980s. these factors placed 40,000 more people in new jersey in sandy’s destructive path.

this is frightening not just for people living near the jersey shore but also for the sustainability of the shore itself. as much as i would like to chalk this up to a tragic anomaly, i am too concerned about the vitality of a place that holds some of my most cherished childhood memories to not be affected. sandy is a hard smack to our american consciousness, signaling to us that more must be done to protect these vulnerable beach areas.

most states have implemented adaptation measures, but this will not save us from the worst effects of global warming. by 2100, sandy-level flooding could occur once a year across the jersey shore. time is running out. we cannot just sit on the sidelines hoping for our team to win. we need to be actively engaged on curbing global co2 emissions. this will move us toward a virtuous goal of leaving the world in a healthier condition from where we left it, not one that threatens the people and places we most treasure. climate science has afforded us a great opportunity to preserve these areas and the meaning, such areas like the jersey shore, have had for many others and myself. let’s keep this possible for future generations.

eric osman is a senior at the george washington university majoring in journalism and mass communication with a minor in economics.

they bite and sting me, mooch off my meals, and intrude upon my personal space. kind of like my roommate.

some of them are creepy, crawly and often found in dirty, smelly places. every time i see a bug, i am disgusted and annoyed.

eating them seems taboo too, but many cultures think the opposite.

in thailand, for example, locals find bugs tasty and nutritious. street carts give buyers a wide range of choices, similar to walking into a candy store. some of the crowd favorites include grasshoppers (which taste like crispy chicken), water bugs (more like licorice), and silk worms (with a familiar nutty taste). though i may be skeptical, 2 billion people eat 1,900 bug types as part of their regular diet. i can’t see myself hating all of them.

still despite the variety, bugs have not yet captured american hearts and stomachs. can this change?

one person who hopes so is andrew zimmer, host of bizarre foods. while i may not take up zimmer’s recommendation of dung beetles, the most bizarre thing about the show is the normalcy of insect based meals in certain parts of the world. in fact, he says most cultures find some aspects of western diets bizarre.

“why do we let milk rot and dry into squares and call it cheese?” zimmer asks. “many aspects of our dining and eating life leave the rest of the world shaking their heads.”

“i stand by the position that anyone who tried half the stuff we see on our travels would become a convert to many foods that only appear strange but taste delicious.”

but i’m not like zimmer. i tend to stick to eating what i’m used to…unless there is some other value to having a wider culinary palette.

did someone say, ‘it can help save the planet!?’ you had my curiosity, now you got my attention. and it’s true. let me walk you through.

over the next few decades, we’ll need to produce enough protein for billions more mouths while also limiting our impact on the earth’s climate. insects could be our savior. a single kilogram of feed yields 12 times more cricket protein than beef protein. 

insects could also reduce emissions. livestock accounts for about 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than planes, trains, and automobiles combined. on the other hand, insects could reduce these emissions by 60 percent. insects also don’t need as much land and water so they would be cheaper and more plentiful.

of course, while saving the planet is nice and all, i would like to eat a healthy alternative as well. and insects deliver once again. not only do most non-americans find them delicious, but they are also high in protein, less fattening, and high in vitamins and minerals. can i still avoid them after all this?

maybe one day, i’ll see a bug and be fascinated rather than disgusted. maybe one day, i’ll see a bug and be appreciative of its role in our ecosystem rather than a disease spreading pest. maybe one day.

for now i can keep my irrational hatred toward bugs, but still enjoy them as a sustainable substitute for beef.

eric osman is a senior majoring in journalism at the george washington university.

those who drink contaminated water are more susceptible to waterborne diseases that put hundreds of thousands of people in hospitals each year. more than half of waterborne disease outbreaks have followed extreme rainfalls. think about that the next time you drink a glass of tap water. sustainable development can help contain stormwater runoff.

gw’s square 80 plaza has done just that. the site has several features, including biofiltration planters, which help capture 100 percent of trespassing stormwater. unfortunately, not enough places like square 80 exist. d.c. stormwater runoff levels have risen 34 percent over the last 30 years. disturbing, huh? how can we expect to drink from safer water when we continue to feed our watersheds with deadly toxins? let’s push harder to reverse this trend.

eric osman is a senior at the george washington university majoring in journalism and mass communication with a minor in economics.

but it does take one to help understand why we should adjust the ways we stay warm this winter.

since 1970, global surface temperatures have risen at a trend of 0.28°f per decade. scientific models illustrate that the 2000s were hotter than the 1990s, which were hotter than the 1980s, and so on.

some days happen to be colder than others, which make it hard to feel slow changes in climate. but looking at temperature data from recent decades shows that new record highs occur about twice as often as new record lows. this all largely caused by human greenhouse gas emissions over time.  

that’s where you come in.

household space heating makes up more than 40 percent of all energy consumption and heating costs are projected to climb higher than usual this winter in response to forecasted, low-digit temperatures. 

while heating is a high priority, there are steps you can take to stay warm, limit greenhouse gas emissions and save a buck or two on energy bills.

one option could be to invest in a programmable central thermostat. according to a recent survey, only 37 percent of households use a programmable thermostat to heat their homes. these systems can save an average person about 20 percent of costs on their original heating bill.

if your household is already one of the 48 percent that contains a non-programmable central thermostat, you can still minimize heating costs by setting the thermostat to a maximum of 70°f when occupied and 61°f when unoccupied.

and, of course, you can always wear a sweater.

heat responsibly!