We are struggling for meaning and purpose in a society that often reduces the Earth and its human and non-human communities to markets, commodities, and objects to be bought and sold, managed and controlled. The core Green values of ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, social justice, and nonviolence, and the many planks in this platform, are based on a different philosophy: we acknowledge and celebrate our connectedness to the Earth, to each other, and to all of life. Green spirituality is reflected in many Hawaiian values, such as malama 'aina (caring for the land), lokahi (unity, harmony) and laulima (working together).

Greens seek to restore balance through recognizing that our planet and all of life are unique aspects of an integrated whole, and also through affirming the significant inherent values and contribution of each part of that whole. We declare on behalf of humankind that every generation has responsibilities towards future generations not to misuse resources that are the common heritage of all.

Instead of exploiting fellow humans and the Earth, Greens embrace an attitude of love, compassion, and humility. It involves flexible and reciprocal processes that can bring us back to our center, back into balance with ourselves, and our community and nature, or being pono (moral, proper, righteous) .

Hawai’i’s economy of mass-market tourism will not be sustainable in the long run. The over-expansion of mass tourism has degraded Hawai'i's unique natural and cultural environment, inflated the cost of living, driven up housing prices, and generated mainly low paying service jobs. Continued promotion of mass tourism and luxury shopping malls will mostly further enrich multinational corporations and well-connected local allies, not Hawai'i's average citizens.

We call for a new definition of wealth that includes clean air and water, biodiversity, health, education, and peace as measures of economic well-being. Instead of destructive growth, Greens favor sustainable development, which means that economic activities satisfy everyone's basic needs and provide a high quality of life for people today, without destroying the environment, the heritage of the Islands' past, or compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Instead of tourist-driven growth, Greens envision a locally owned, truly diversified, and more self-reliant economy. We can reduce our need for imported products and outside capital by nourishing locally owned enterprises that produce the goods and services we normally consume. Hawai'i could grow and process its own food, instead of importing at least 80% of it. Islanders could use energy more efficiently and use locally available renewable energy sources rather than pay for expensive imported fossil fuels. We could grow our own timber products for various uses. Supporting local manufacturers, artisans, and services would keep money in our local economy. Reducing imports would mean lessening our dependence on the income derived from mass tourism to supply our basic needs.

We must encourage local entrepreneurs. Existing business can be strengthened via business assistance programs, community revitalization efforts, more exporting of local products, and employee ownership. New locally owned enterprises can be encouraged through programs that help new businesses start and survive the first critical year. We need to attract outside businesses that protect and enhance Hawai’i’s unique human, cultural, and environmental resources.

Greens call for:

• A statewide moratorium on building non bio-diversified golf courses, marinas, resorts, and other projects, unless sustainability is the foremost consideration

• Promotion of locally owned small-scale eco-tourism, sensitive to Hawai'i's people, culture and environment

• Limits on multinational and foreign investment

• Capital gains taxes that penalize short-term speculation in land and housing

• Reducing the extraordinary powers of private corporations by amending the laws and U.S. Constitution

• Tax credits and incentives to develop forward-looking local business (i.e., organic agriculture, alternative energy, biotechnology) that encourage the sustainable use of local materials, talent, products, and services

• An economic strategy rooted in community-centered planning, based on sustainable use of local resources

• Cooperative enterprises which employees both own and manage

In sum, we favor an economy that benefits the whole community. We envision a business environment that rewards the local entrepreneur, the small business, and the responsible locally owned company. Many well-proven ways exist to increase the value of local products, and to develop and support the community's human capital – the talent, experience, and knowledge of our own residents.

Greens would like to see true democracy in Hawai'i. Today, decisions are made by the few, and usually benefit the rich and powerful. We advocate direct democracy, where all citizens can discuss and decide on neighborhood issues such as land use, parks, schools and community services. We advocate:

• Strict conflict of interest laws which forbid legislators from voting on matters affecting their large campaign contributors or business associates

• Decentralize many State functions to the County level, while insuring Constitutional rights are protected and adequate funding is provided

• Creation of Neighborhood and Community Boards, or expansion of their role, to make policy, such as where to build a park, local zoning codes and development plans, school programs, etc.

• Increased electronic access to government, such as the present legislative ACCESS program available in libraries and homes

• Air more hearings on public television

• Enforcement and extension of "sunshine" laws that open government meetings and information to all

• Rights for referendum and initiative

• Proportional representation for national, state, and county elections

• Instant runoff voting for single winner races

A form of semi-bribery, politely called contributions, now corrupts most campaigns for higher office. Too many officeholders sell themselves to PACs (political action committees) and corporate contributors, in order to pay for expensive TV campaigns pandering to the worst instincts of an increasingly cynical and non-voting public. Greens would:

• Support public funding of campaigns for legitimate candidates

• Prohibit PAC and corporate campaign contributions

• Limit paid TV and newspaper political advertising

• Encourage more forums to publicize candidates' stands on issues

• Require the distribution of voter information booklets before each election containing candidates' background and position on major issues, and information on initiatives, charter reforms, etc.

• Permit write-in voting

• Support public education that prepares people for the responsibilities of governing themselves, and encourages independent thinking.

The human race can live in harmony with the earth, and not continue destroying it for short-term profits. We can protect our natural resource heritage for future generations and have a healthy economy. This requires that we adopt "true-cost" pricing in energy and 'resource management, because market price s fail to accurately reflect the impact on our environment of destructive and inefficient industrial practices.

D1. Energy

Hawai'i imports 90% of its energy, in the form of fossil fuels. To reduce Hawaii's dependence on coal and oil, we would:

• Reduce Hawaii's current energy consumption by 50%, by use of proven , reason ably priced efficiency measures

• Substitute renewable energy sources such as solar, hydroelectric, biomass, wind, OTEC, and hydrogen for fossil fuels used to generate electricity and for transportation

• Support County governments in enacting the Hawaii Residential Model Energy Code

• Encourage the State to allocate significantly more Research & Development resources for innovative, small-scale, diverse and dispersible technologies, rather than large scale, centralized, capital-intensive projects

• Support legislation mandating solar water heating, where feasible, in all .new construction

• Promote competition for operation and/or ownership of all or parts of the electric grid by community non-profits or for-profit enterprises

Support legislation to phase out existing geothermal programs immediately. The current projects have proven to harm humans and the environment, and government has proven itself unwilling to enforce rules and regulations. In addition, they have been insensitive to traditional ' Hawaiian cultural values

• Phase out the O'ahu H-POWER plant as recycling grows

• Support a nuclear-free Pacific

D2. Atmosphere

Greens would protect air quality, and reduce C02 emissions and slow global warming by:

• Reducing auto traffic and thus motor vehicle exhaust contaminates (see D9)

• Phasing out our oil, coal and garbage burning power plants

• Reducing industrial emissions

• Supporting efforts to save or restore forests, such as debt-for-nature swaps, tax incentives, and replanting projects

• Increasing efforts to protect the ozone layer

D3. Water

Hawai'i must live within its water budget, using only water that can be spared without destroying streams or depleting aquifers. Greens would:

• Increase efficiency of agricultural water use, through techniques such as drip irrigation

• Redesign residential and county water codes and systems to separate gray water (bathwater, dishwater, etc.) from sewage. Graywater could then be used for irrigation with minimal treatment

• Increase use of surface water (rainwater runoff) and decrease reliance on well water

• Restrict drawdown on freshwater aquifers (over pumping causes irreversible damage)

• Protect water supplies from pollution by fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, farm animal waste runoff and other non-point source pollution

• Eliminate the use of herbicides on our parks, roadsides, and school grounds

• Promote integrated pest management and composting

• Vigorously promote residential and commercial water conservation

• Advocate democratic, locally based control over water supplies and waste management practices that affect surface and sub-surface waters

• Encourage xeriscaping (plants using little or no water) in dry areas

D4. Oceans and Fisheries

We are appalled by the waste of life and ocean resources caused by driftnet and long line fishing in Hawaiian waters and elsewhere. We would:

• Impose economic sanctions upon countries that allow drift-netting

• Strongly enforce the international ban on drift netting

We would also:

• Impose economic sanctions upon countries that defy the International Whaling Commission ban on whaling

• Ban imports of tuna caught by methods that kill dolphins

• Oppose sea strip-mining and refining of minerals in Hawaiian waters

• Enforce and expand anti-pollution laws to include strict limitations on the introduction of harmful noise into the marine environment

• Set and enforce rules prohibiting discharge of untreated sewage into streams or coastal waters, and require secondary treatment of sewage where appropriate

• Fund programs to protect wetlands threatened by development

• Encourage fish pond development where applicable

• Prohibit long-line fishing in Isle waters by out-of-state boats

• Limit fishing in depleted areas until local fisheries recover; establish and enforce sustainable yields

• Severely restrict commercial reef fish collecting to allow this resource to recover

D5. Wilderness

Hawai'i is home to more endangered species than any other place in the United States. We must protect our unique flora and fauna; we must preserve our remaining wilderness as places of solace, refuge from modern life, and spiritual regeneration. We would:

• Increase Hawai'i's Department of Land and Natural Resources funds, and strengthen the department's programs that protect and preserve the Islands' oceans and land

Enforce equal access laws for Hawai'i's citizens who are increasingly being shut out from the Islands' ocean and forests by private owners

• Work closely with private groups which buy and preserve native habitats since adequate space is needed for our flora and fauna

D6. Land Use

We view with concern the present concentration of land ownership in Hawai'i; today most land is owned by the government or the large estates, with only a small portion divided among individual landowners. Land must be used for the long-term well-being of Hawai'i's residents and Hawai'i's environment. Planning boards dominated by development interests do not best serve the 'aina and the people. Greens therefore:

• Call for elected land-use boards , with minimum qualifications for board members, open meetings, and public scrutiny of planning decisions to ensure proactive public participation

• Will work for the right of initiative to rescind inappropriate decisions

We support comprehensive anticipatory land use planning that would:

• Limit development of historically or ecologically significant areas

• Preserve our coastline and scenic wonders for public enjoyment

• Establish greenbelts as buffers to urban development

D7. Food and Farming

Hawai'i now imports at least 80% of its food. Greens call for sustainable agriculture and food self-reliance. We would:

• Encourage intelligent farming practices to conserve topsoil

• Discourage the use of non-organic pesticides, chemical fertilizers , and genetically altered seeds

• Support alternative sustainable crop production

• Support small-scale, family owned diversified farming

• End tax policies, crop subsidies and State lease regulations that favor big plantations and factory farms , at the expense of smaller growers

• Set up land trusts to shelter productive farmland from development pressures

• Encourage aquaculture, thus reducing overfishing of Island waters, as well as reducing reliance on imported fish

Animal husbandry must also be reformed. Meat animals are now confined in feedlots and fed on grain. It takes several pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat -which is a waste of food. Moreover, feedlot waste pollutes water supplies. We support:

• Small-scale homestead livestock raising, or ranching, on marginal land not suitable for other crops

• Small feedlots dispersed on all islands, as grass-fed, organic animal feeding methods are preferable to large industrialized feedlots

We believe that these goals will be best achieved by consumer education. For health, environmental, and social justice reasons, we urge consumers to avoid feedlot meat and eat lower on the food chain.

D8. Manufacturing

Greens would encourage manufacturers to produce goods that are durable, repairable, reusable, recyclable, and energy efficient, with a goal of zero emissions in their manufacture. We would also:

• Discourage over-consumption; encourage consumers to share, repair and live better with less

• Enact and enforce laws controlling industrial pollution by assessing its "true cost"

• Assess "true cost" fees to products in relation to the environmental cost caused by their production, use, and disposal

D9. Transportation

Private cars pollute the air, clog cities and waste energy reserves. We would:

• Reduce auto traffic with energy efficient, non-polluting mass transit closely linked with park-and-ride stations, buses, jitneys, and other alternatives to cars

• Promote the use of bicycles, by creating bike paths, providing free bicycle carriage on mass transit, and providing bicycle storage lockers

• Encourage energy efficiency in cars by raising gas taxes gradually but significantly

• Set and enforce strict emission standards

• Encourage manufacturers to produce cars that run on renewable energy

D10. Cities and Housing

Greens envision an alternative to the suburb: the cluster project. A cluster would consist of townhouses or row houses, surrounded by green space. It would be built on a mass transit line, so those residents could manage without cars. Each cluster could have its own meeting area, convenience store, and day-care. They would foster a sense of community, use land efficiently, and reduce the environmental costs of commuting. We need to begin redesigning cities and communities around mass transit hubs and a mix of reasonably priced housing, work, and shopping areas. New housing could be built to these specifications; old housing could be retrofitted. We would promote this transformation of Hawai'i's community by:

• Funding model sustainable cities projects

• Providing low-cost loans for retrofitting existing housing stocks

• Rewriting housing and tax codes to encourage mixed land uses

• Integrating commercial and residential areas to reduce commuting

• Opening the land planning process to community input (see Section D6)

• Redesigning the planning and inspection process to eliminate unnecessary delays

• Changing tax and building codes to promote energy and water efficiency in old buildings as well as all new construction

Greens believe that we must house all of Hawai'i's citizens, including the poor. Hawai'i urgently needs adequate, reasonably-priced housing for lower and middle-income residents. Current government housing policies are ineffective. The State forces developers to build a few "affordable" houses for the lucky and the politically connected: this random bonanza for a few families does little to ease the overall housing crisis. Greens would:

• Help nonprofit groups build reasonably priced rentals and form rental housing trusts the $100 million level

• Promote cluster housing where supported by local communities

• Fund a state-guaranteed loan program for inexpensive, self-help housing

D11. Waste Management

We can prevent waste by buying less and using less (source reduction), reusing, and refurbishing. What waste we do produce must be recycled to the greatest extent possible. Greens would:

• Encourage local industries to use locally collected recyclables as raw materials; this would reduce transportation costs and make recycling more cost effective

• Encourage use of products made from recycled materials

• Provide curb-side pickup of recyclable materials

• Bale and store sorted materials in balefills for easy recovery with future recycling technologies

• Charge fees for unsorted wastes

• Impose fines for illegal dumping

• Set up facilities to compost yard and kitchen waste

• Phase out the O'ahu garbage to energy plant as recycling grows

D12. Population

None of the previous proposals will save the environment if the human population continues to grow at the current rate. Greens support worldwide zero population growth. We would promote contraception research, distribution, and education at home and overseas.

Though we have experienced a temporary diminishing of the population in Hawai'i during the 1990s, it has not been the norm. Hawaii's population has grown quickly-2.4% annually during the period 1970-1986. This was three times as fast as the overall U.S. population growth. Only a small part of this was due to natural increase (the surplus of births over deaths). Most population growth here is due to migration from foreign countries, and from the Mainland. This migration was spurred by the growth of the tourist industry, which traditionally creates more low-paying menial jobs than local residents can fill.

Population growth must cease. We need carrying capacity studies for all counties to determine development limits. (See Section B)

Hawai‘i's history since Captain Cook is marked by the assault on the Islands' indigenous culture and people by missionaries, soldiers, traders, and businessmen. In 1893, U.S. troops aided American businessmen in forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of Queen Lili'uokalani, The national landbase and sovereignty of nā kanaka maoli were taken. Since illegal annexation in 1898, the Federal and State governments have cheated and neglected the native Hawaiian people. In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, the "Apology Bill." (U.S. Public Law 103-150). This admission of crime states in part "the native Hawaiians have never lost their inherent sovereignty nor their national home base." The Green Party demands justice for nā kanaka maoli. We support the following:

• Protecting sacred and culturally significant sites.

• Efforts to nurture native Hawaiian culture.

• Nā kanaka maoli leadership and guardianship in protecting gathering rights and lobbying the Legislature to safeguard these rights without interference.

• Return of, or adequate compensation for, Ceded Lands.

• Immediate distribution of Hawaiian Homelands and Federal and State funds for needed infrastructure.

• A prohibition on future sale or diminishment of the Ceded Land Trust.

• A call for open dialogue among all residents of Hawai‘i on the sovereignty option of full independence.

Hawaiian sovereignty in a form fair to both native Hawaiians and other citizens of Hawai‘i.

Greens stand for equal opportunity for all, regardless of class race, creed, culture, gender, sexual orientation, or physical and mental challenges. We call for community programs that would allow all people to live in decency and dignity. We support:

• A state funded health insurance system, modeled on the Canadian medical system, which would guarantee adequate health care for all Hawai'i residents

• Integrating alternative health care and preventative medicine, including traditional Hawaiian healing (La 'au Lapa'au and Lomi Lomi into a comprehensive health care system

• Expanded job training and apprenticeship programs

• Guaranteed loan and scholarship programs that would allow any qualified student a college education

Greens strive to nurture home and family life. We would help working parents by promoting expanded daycare and after-school program, and state-assisted parental leave policies. We would seek to limit the damages of divorce by:

• Revising divorce laws to protect women and children

• Insuring prompt payment of court-ordered child support and alimony

We would nurture the extended family by supporting a comprehensive system of support for the elderly that would ' provide affordable or shared housing, contact with youth and animals, and home health services in all neighborhoods, thus allowing the elderly to remain near friends and relatives.

Domination and competition are the organizing principles of society: top-down hierarchical structures determine the management of corporations, schools, prisons, hospitals, universities, churches, and of course, government. Dominance sets a pattern for unequal power relationships between men and women, people of different colors, rich and poor. humans and nature.

We must replace dominance and control (the patriarchal system) with partnership and cooperation. Present stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are not an adequate characterization of what it is to be human. We must respect feelings as well as rationality in our approach to life, consider means as well as goals, and appreciate the contemplative part of life as much as the active. We strive for a society based on trust, not fear; nurturing, not controlling others; open communications, not manipulation; empathy with others, not violence against others; respect for nature, not conquest of nature.

Because women are not, and have not been, involved as equal partners in the leadership levels of decision-making, we commit ourselves to achieving gender balance in private and public leadership positions.

We need to strengthen, increase the funding of, and expand the capacity of the Hawai'i Civil Rights Commission, which presently struggles under a huge backlog of gender and race discrimination cases.

We support programs such as parental leave, childcare and elder care both inside and outside the home (see Section F). We will work vigorously to protect women and children from violence within the family. We are pro-choice (see Section I1).

A Renewed Community Life

Over-development, over-commercialization, the influx of outside values, and the building of sprawling suburbs and dense high-rises have significantly eroded the Aloha spirit in today's Hawai'i. True communities are places where people know each other, treat each other as friends, and share values and traditions. Communities give meaning and richness to life. The community's history, landmarks and landscapes afford a sense of belonging and identity. Greens favor social policies that reinvigorate community life.

Neighborhood and community have traditionally been a basic unit of politics, a natural forum for discussion, decisions, and actions. Greens strongly believe that ordinary citizens should make decisions directly affecting their communities (see Section C).

Schools should be co-managed by parents, teachers, and students (see Section J). We believe that:

• The community is the best provider of social services. Creating, strengthening, and transforming community based associations and mutual-aid groups is the best way to care for our fellow humans. (see Section F)

• Small businesses anti cooperatives form the vibrant basis of the community's economic activities.

Neighborhoods and towns need to be redesigned to encourage neighborliness and community (see Section D10). Cities and towns need not be car centered and congested. Properly planned, they can include many places for strolling, shopping, sidewalk cafes, public gatherings, and festivities.

This sense of green community extends to the environment. Just as the individual is incomplete without a healthy community, so is the human race dependent on its supporting ecosystem.

Greens will work for peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence: peace is trust and tolerance, based on respect for diversity and rights of self-determination. Also, there can be no peace without justice. We renounce violence as a tactic of social change, and will work through persuasion, not intimidation. Nations and individuals need to settle conflicts without violence, recognizing that it often creates more problems than it solves. We support:

• Drastic reductions in the U.S. military budget

• An end to testing, production. and storage of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons globally

• A ban on sales of weapons by U.S. military contractors to foreign countries

• An end to military foreign aid to repressive regimes

• Diplomatic and economic sanctions against regimes guilty of human rights abuses

• Increased support of UN peacekeeping and conflict resolution programs, such as creating a Center for Peace in the Pacific using indigenous teachers

• Teaching of conflict resolution in schools

• Neighborhood mediation centers

• Funding for shelters for victims fleeing domestic violence

• Prevention and counseling programs addressing problems of family violence

I1. Abortion

Abortion is a troubling issue to some Greens. They argue that an ethic of nonviolence must include fetuses and ban all abortion. The majority of us support a woman's right to choose whether or not she carries a pregnancy to term. We feel that a greater harm is committed when the state interferes in what should be a private matter.

We believe that a woman should be free to make choices about childbearing. This freedom must include birth control education" easy access to contraceptives, legalized abortion, reformed adoption practices, and community support for families, such as affordable health care and housing, paid parental leave, and available day care.

I2. Animal Rights

Some Greens argue that we must not kill, harm, or exploit animals in any way. Others would allow limited hunting and trapping, animal experimentation (if absolutely necessary), and animal husbandry if humane and environmentally sound.

It has been impossible to reach consensus on this issue. We urge Green candidates and voters to follow the dictates of their conscience in these matters.

A Green education in Hawai'i would teach:

• Respect for life in all its variety and interconnectedness

• Concern for the environment

• Democracy

• Nonviolence and cooperation

• Respect for individual life and dignity

• Hawaiian culture and language

• Tolerance and appreciation for all cultures

A Green education would be student-centered. Students would be allowed to move through the curriculum at their own pace. They would not be pressured to perform for grades or taught to excessively compete with other students. Schools would foster self-respect, not destroy it.

A Green education would help students think for themselves; they would not be taught docility or submission. They would learn cooperation and responsibility by sharing in the work and the government of the school, in minor ways at first, to a greater extent as they grew. Greens will work for a public school system that meets all these standards. Our agenda for the public schools is:

• Schools to be well equipped, well maintained, clean and safe

• No toleration of harassment

• Teach conflict resolution at all grade levels

• Open enrollment for all schools within each school

Schools to be managed by a partnership of teachers, parents, and students

For those parents who seek a philosophical alternative to the public school system, we support home schooling and alternative schools.

Drug Abuse Reform 

We must devise programs to control addictive behavior, the major cause of crimes committed against both persons and property. 

Greens do not condone drug abuse of any kind, whether illegal drugs or legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. We do believe that treating illegal drug users as ordinary criminals, wastes police time and taxpayers' money and encourages organized crime. 

The war on drugs has expanded to such excess that this war is now destroying our communities. We believe that we should emphasize drug education and treatment programs for abusers of legal and illegal drugs, rather than punishing them. 

Legalization of Cannabis

Greens have long been in favor of legalizing cannabis. We urge the Legislature to: 

• Legalize possession, sale, and cultivation of cannabis.

• Strike from the record prior felony convictions for cannabis possession, sale, or cultivation.

• Grant amnesty and release from confinement those who have been incarcerated for the use, sale, or cultivation of cannabis.

Police Reform

Instead of a military approach to law enforcement with punishment as its goal, we must nurture rehabilitation wherever possible. Peace officers must be trained in conflict resolution.

• Counties must initiate alternative programs such as L.E.A.D. in Portland, Oregon to handle calls to the police for help with those having a mental health crisis.

• Demilitarize police including their weaponry and vehicles.

• We support the efforts of Black Lives Matter to stop the violence against minority communities.

Although these islands are thousands of miles from the nearest continent, Hawai'i is very much part of a global society. Just look at our faces! Hawai'i Greens are dedicated to being responsible global citizens.

We will protect the global environment. We stand for reducing pollution, protecting the oceans and wilderness, and improving air quality. We support programs that reduce global population growth. We have a deep sense of our responsibilities to future generations.

We also recognize our responsibilities to the Third World and the plight of poor people everywhere. We support their efforts to develop modem but ecologically sensible agriculture, and decentralized, community-based production and marketing organizations, such as cooperatives. We oppose all regimes that violate human rights. We condemn summary executions and death squads, political imprisonment, genocide, terrorism, and a host of other abuses identified by Amnesty International. We call for a State Office of International Human Rights to work with local, national and international organizations to abolish these violations of the United Nations Charter.