School of Social and Political Science

Description

Family, Private Property, and the Aloha State: Sea Level Rise, Beach Loss, and Family Legacies in Hawaiʻi

Rapid warming of the atmosphere and oceans as a result of two centuries of carbon emissions has increased the rate of sea level rise and its threat to natural environments and human populations on low-lying coasts around the world. As the only state in the U.S. that is an archipelago of islands, Hawaiʻi is especially vulnerable to sea level rise. Over the past twenty years Hawaiʻi has lost 25% of its beaches, and these continue to erode and are at risk of being permanently lost if hard structures such as seawalls impede their landward migration. Hawaiʻi state law currently prohibits the erection of new seawalls, but private property owners have continued to reinforce and expand them both illegally and legally by taking advantage of loopholes in the state’s laws and policies.

This lecture approaches the conflict in Hawaiʻi over seawalls and other hard armoring of the seashore from the anthropology of kinship. It traces how family legacies of property ownership and seashore usage shape the ways in which people in Hawaiʻi respond to seashore management policies. It explores the seashore in the era of global warming as a productive site for studying both the physical and the conceptual boundaries between private property, public property, and the commons.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception - please register on the Eventbrite link below if you plan to attend to assist with catering planning.

This event is hosted by the School of History, Classics & Archaeology. Find out more here.