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Digital impulses of the cyber-synapse explode around us in orchestrated cacophony. Our lives, asunder, are dashed across the touch-screens of technological upheaval amid a climate of crisis. The long-entrenched in dire-design now mobilize en masse, and march along the ramparts of consciousness to overthrow the status quo. Let the eco-revolution begin!

I feel as if I should have ended that intro with a drawn out, “can you dig it?!” (a film quote from The Warriors).

Humankind: Most of us have so much going on in our lives that we literally have no time to stop and smell the ‘ilima (it’s a flower). This is the Information Age, full of technological advancements, innovative gadgetry, and a multitude of welcomed distractions. In essence, for many of us, an appreciation for nature is of peripheral concern, if it’s a concern at all, especially with so many other things to preoccupy our very limited time.

We daily grind. We work those grueling 9-to-5s, or we immerse ourselves with our studies in a fully loaded schedule of courses that seemed reasonable at the start, but torturous in retrospect.

Some of us do both and more. With what little time remains, we throw caution to the trade winds and party like it’s 2015. Then we grind again like some mechanical construct headed for oblivion. Social media has made us all superstars and at the end of our run we’ll go supernova – and we’ll take our entire solar system with us.

Why should we care about others, let alone nature, when we struggle as individuals to claim our piece of the proverbial pie? We grind to get ahead, so that we can stake our claim over the incredibly finite resources here: jobs, housing, and even that wahine/kāne u‘i (hot girl/guy) in your class.

That’s not to say we don’t have some modicum of appreciation for nature. We put up desktop wallpapers of magnificent natural landscapes and share these scenescapes on our social media feeds. We even vacation away from our daily grind to our favorite beaches and hiking trails.

But we’ve become tourists in our own homeland. For most of us, it’s not life; it’s a fantasy – a temporary escape from reality and just enough of it to hold you over the next grind.

But we’ve become tourists in our own homeland. For most of us, it’s not life; it’s a fantasy – a temporary escape from reality and just enough of it to hold you over the next grind.

Even if we wanted to care, even if we wanted our fantasy life to become reality, Hawaii doesn’t provide enough opportunities for us to have our cake (or pie) and eat it. We have limited choices.

A good job in Hawaii means you work in construction, an industry that currently teaches you that the value of nature is in developing over it; or you work in hospitality/tourism, an industry that currently teaches you that the value of nature is in exploiting it. Another good job is working for the state or county, which have been complicit in environmental degradation, often through its support of private actors (and sometimes public agencies). As a result, we’re forced to choose between disconnecting ourselves from nature or fighting hard to embrace it.

Given the choice between the two, we opt for our own immediate survival. Our own lives have more urgency than some theoretical future in climate change.

However, climate change (climate crisis) is real; and our world will never be the same as it was when you started reading this column.

Right now, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) is underway in Paris. . French President Francois Hollande remarked that “never have the stakes been so high because this is about the future of the planet, the future of life.” The full weight and measure of our common future on this planet seems to rest on a binding protocol to be developed by 195 countries that often have the .

Our world, however, is much greater than 40,000 delegates; and it will take a global effort to settle the climate crisis. The Hawaiian Islands may be a small archipelago in a vast ocean, but our actions are amplified beyond us. Our environmental impacts are interconnected with the greater Earth ecosystem. Our efforts here will aid in global efforts.

For that reason, we need to care. We need to embrace nature, for what are we but organisms interacting with our environment (and other organisms) – a part of nature itself. It is our kuleana (responsibility), for the betterment of our own lives and future generations. If only we could see that.

We need to embrace nature … It is our kuleana, for the betterment of our own lives and future generations.

Undoubtedly, it would take a drastic shift in our consciousness to find that balance between our all-empowering technological conquest and capitulation to the paramount force of nature. It would take an eco-revolution. Social change has the power to drive political policy; and drive it we should to a future that includes us as part of nature and not apart from it.

With that said, allow me to add some uplifting BOOM to the doom and gloom. We can have our cake (or pie) and eat it, then go back for seconds.

Green is the color of our money. Green is also the color of environmental conservation. We can “go green” with both and that’s where the eco-revolution should start. “If you want money, get a job” is an age-old adage that most of us are familiar with. “What jobs?” is the classic response, here in Hawaii, and it’s a painfully true one.

We need to enhance our current economic sectors, while also introducing all-new ones. Embracing environmental conservation will get us there through forced innovation and the much needed regulation of responsible profiteering.

If the cost of living in Hawaii is ridiculously high, then we should build economic sectors around making that cost ridiculously low. How much would the average cost of building a house be reduced if we switched from imported wood/steel to locally grown, sustainably sourced building materials like bamboo and hemp (, anyone?). How many more jobs would be created in manufacturing and agriculture?

While we’re on the topic of agriculture, what about that missed opportunity with Hawaii’s medical marijuana dispensary law as a major economic sector? Imagine the many business opportunities (and jobs) surrounding a less-restrictive cannabis law. Dare I say, “?” I do dare. What about eco-tourism, in general?

Across all sectors, if we’re paying , then how much would our electricity bill be reduced if we upgraded the grid and required every new home to come equipped with photovoltaic/micro-wind systems?

While we’re at it, let’s , so we can convert our physical energy to electrical energy and literally power communities, while empowering ourselves.

There are jobs, galore, in renewable energy. How about one creating cities?

This being the Information Age, why have we yet to capitalize on the high-tech (from software design to wearable tech) and STEM sectors? We’re the grand gateway between East and West. It seems only logical to establish ourselves as a hub for international high-tech.

It’s reasonable to believe that a thriving high-tech sector would bolster educational opportunities for the people of Hawaii and create a mechanism for job placement directly into the industry. The great thing about many of the emerging high-tech businesses is that you don’t need to take up a lot of space to start one; and I hear high-tech businesses are trending toward sustainable development (e.g. and ).

We can do all of this and more. With socio-political change, we can introduce and attract new sectors (and improve on existing ones) and then make the transition to a more sustainable future.

We just need to incite an eco-revolution and overthrow the status quo.