Archive for January, 2008
Environmentally Ranking Hawaii’s Islands
The Hawaiian islands, like islands all over the world, are very popular tourist destinations because there are unique features to islands that exist nowhere else. Unfortunately, this heavy influx of tourists also means that islands are also at risk for higher degrees of environmental damage than other places on earth might be.
Recently, National Geographic Traveler magazine and the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations came out with a list of islands around the world, ranked in terms of their environmental health. A group of more than 500 experts got together and compared notes, rating 111 islands and archipelagos around the world. The best possible score was 100, but it shouldn’t be surprising that no island scored higher than 87. First, let’s look at what the scores mean:
Guide to the Scores:
0-25: Catastrophic: all criteria very negative, outlook grim.
26-49: In serious trouble.
50-65: In moderate trouble: all criteria medium-negative or a mix of negatives and positives.
66-85: Minor difficulties.
86-95: Authentic, unspoiled, and likely to remain so.
96-100: Enhanced.
Now, let’s see where Hawaii’s islands ended up.
Date: January 8th, 2008 |
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Stealing Lava Rock Brings Bad Luck - Or Does It?
Can a superstition keep people from stealing? Apparently, it can. Legend has it that taking a piece of lava rock from the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park - no matter how small the piece is - will bring the thief bad luck, courtesy of the Goddess Pele. So what happens to those who inadvertently bring home a bit of rock or sand in their hiking boots after a trek through the park? Well, if they start experiencing bad luck, they can send the rock back to Hawaii.
There are those who dispute whether this is actually a Hawaiian legend or whether it’s just a creative technique to keep people from taking lava rocks from the park (which is illegal), and the “legend” itself has even been attributed to a particular park historian. But the truth is that it really doesn’t matter whether the legend has any basis in fact - people have been sending lava rocks and sand back to the National Park for years in an attempt to make the cause of their perceived bad luck go away.
Date: January 3rd, 2008 |
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