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Times are changing, ideas are changing and the climate is changing, but decision-makers are not.

This was evident when 30 House lawmakers penned a letter to President Barack Obama asking him not to expand Papahanaumokuakea because it would affect the fishing and seafood industry. The clear lack of care from our lawmakers for natural capital is an immeasurable problem with implications reaching far into future generations.

If we stay on course we are poised to repeat the failures of past decades where the older, and self-proclaimed wiser, decision-makers push the growth-mania narrative down our millennial throats.Ìý

The fight for Papahanaumokuakea recently was resurrected by longtime expansion opponents such as the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council by groveling at the feet of President Donald Trump and the GOP.

This shines a spotlight on an extremely serious issue we have not only in Hawaii, not only in our nation, but also around the world. This issue can be summed up in one question: Should commercial interests and economic growth be more important than natural capital and a sustainable future?

Many of us are tired of rolling our eyes when we hear arguments such as, “It’s going to hurt our fishing industry” or “Jobs are on the line.” We who do our due diligence know these claims are absurdly false because statistics show that our anglers are meeting their catch quota earlier and .

Nevertheless, even if the claims were true (which they are not), why would it be such a terrible thing? Could we not give these amazing boatmen incentives to retrain into jobs that promote good stewardship and preservation of the oceans? They spend most of their time at sea, why not allow them to continue working at sea, but in a capacity that helps instead of harms our future?

This reference is not only aimed at the harmful effects of overfishing but also to the prioritization of commercial interests, which in our current system are considered infinite, over natural capital, which is and always will be finite.

We the millennials and future generations are the ones who are going to take the brunt of the repercussions of the failed policies, all while being told that we are the selfish ones.

Herein lies the dilemma we have with our current structure coupled with a majority of decision-makers. It has long been popular to define success as economic growth and large profits. This thought is largely attributed to why many believe Donald Trump is a largely successful businessperson, which despite his own claims he is .

In our current economic system, you cannot quantify the benefit and utility we as a collective whole receive from ²Ô´Ç³ÙÌýexploiting our irreplaceable resources, which includes everything that is essential to life on this planet. However, you can quantify the amount of zeros that appear at the end of your profit margins.

Do not let the opponents to the expansion of Papahanaumokuakea fool you; they are seeking more zeros, not a sustainable future.

Decision-makers are all tasked to solve problems such as affordable housing, environmental destruction, unemployment and poverty, but they are only given one single fix: grow the economy. How they grow it tends to place people into one of our two political parties, but the outcome is always the same.

In modern history the “how” has been translated into tax breaks for the rich and bailouts for the even richer. This transcends political parties as both sides of the political spectrum have been selling us out. We see this here in our all-“blue” state that allows large multimillion-dollar corporations to buy themselves out of building affordable housing for our population and not pay a dime into our schools or infrastructure. But it’s good for jobs and growth, right?

Thus, we end up where we are today. It is the year 2017 and the richest country in the history of the entire planet has the largest fiscal deficit ever recorded, unbelievably high rates of child poverty, massive amounts of income inequality, and to top it off our planet is facing an environmental climate disaster that could end life as we know it. Unfortunately, we the millennials and future generations are the ones who are going to take the brunt of the repercussions of the failed policies, all while being told that we are the selfish ones.

Although, with more research being published, that these repercussions could be a baby boomer and Generation X problem as well. Their problem is slightly different though. These generations will have to re-evaluate their retirements, investments and vacations planned on the many popular coastlines or islands because of the projected sea level rise.

We are the ones that will be faced with the monumental task of dealing with climate refugees and worse. Our generation is becoming more privy to the fact we have not made this capitalist growth-economy work in any type of sustainable or equitable way. We can only hope the boomers and Gen Xers realize this and offer mentorship on their way out.

The fight for Papahanaumokuakea is essentially a proxy battle between the old “growth economy” approach to our problems versus a sustainable approaches like a . Ecological economics versus neoclassical economics. Holistic versus selfishness.ÌýNew school versus old school.

Moving forward we will be setting a precedent of what should be prioritized as a modern society. Should we prioritize the irreplaceable natural environment that provides us everything we need to live on this planet or should it be commercial interests and increased profits that only satisfy the few?

Times are changing, ideas are changing and the climate is changing. How we deal with this change will be recorded in history eBooks and read in classrooms around the world. Let us all work to get our decision-makers on the right side of history to keep our heads above water, starting with keeping the expansions in place at Papahanaumokuakea and searching for other deserving places to preserve.