In 2007 the Arctic ice cap melted to half what it was just four years ago. Nature Geoscience reported last month that sea levels may rise 5 feet or more this century. And scientists used this year's 50th anniversary of the famous Mauna Loa carbon dioxide observations to sound the alarm about the dangerous warming trend already under way. We now know that climate change will literally change the landscape of our Islands — and it may be happening sooner than we think.

Nature is telling us something, and the top story of 2007 is that we started to listen. 2007 will be remembered as the year Hawai'i confronted climate change. This tipping point was marked by Hawai'i's bold new policy to cap its greenhouse gas emissions and catalyzed by the rocketing price of petroleum. The result? We're about to discover the energy equivalent of what Google did for the Web.

Now wait, we've heard all of this before. Since the 1970s, we've talked about the need to wean ourselves from the dinosaur juice and increase our self-sufficiency. We even have a host of good state policy to show for it — from solar tax credits to green building standards. But today we're no better off than we were decades ago, and our energy bills and carbon emissions grow apace. On average, every Hawai'i residents adds more than 4 pounds of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere every hour —just to get around and to keep the game on and the beer cold and otherwise fuel our lives.

A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

But this year the ground shifted. Hawai'i became the second state in the nation with an enforceable limit on its greenhouse gas emissions. This binding emissions cap requires that we reduce climate changing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 — roughly a 20 percent decrease from our current emissions and on track to achieve an 80 percent drop in emissions by 2050. While this new law sets the destination, the roadmap to get there is developing independently, and the primary drivers are economic. This is the good news because it is just too expensive to keep doing what we're doing.

The price of crude jumped 75 percent since the start of 2007, no thanks to diminishing supplies, increasing demand, and other pressures. Unfortunately, we've put almost all of our eggs in the fossil fuel basket, relying on these imports for some 94 percent of our electricity needs. This may have made sense at one point in time, with relatively cheap oil and relatively frozen ice caps. But today we know better. We import nearly 50 million barrels of oil every year. At $100 per barrel, that's $5 billion annually that we burn to power our lives. We convert all of that cash into carbon emissions.

Think about it: If cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent means shaving 20 percent of our petroleum imports, we essentially will be infusing our state economy with $1 billion annually. Cutting our carbon means keeping our energy money in Hawai'i to pay for good, green-collar jobs in the growing clean energy field.

OUR PLAN OF ACTION

So how will we start to close the spigot? First we eliminate the waste and get the easy efficiency gains: compact fluorescents, solar water heaters (which some 80 percent of Hawai'i homes lack), smarter transportation options. Then we add more wind, solar photovoltaic and wave energy to our existing power grid. Then we reconfigure our entire electricity and transportation systems to work together, using localized, indigenous energy sources, such as plug-in electric vehicles powered by photovoltaic. It's tough to predict what is around the corner. Sure, barriers remain with renewable power, such as storing energy and reducing its initial cost, but those are mere growing pains in its development. The wealth creation potential in clean energy solutions is dramatically accelerating innovation.

Already, business is responding. Earlier this month, Shell Oil invested in a new facility on the Big Island to support UH researchers growing and testing algae as a potential biofuel. Homegrown Hoku Scientific has landed photovoltaic polysilicon contracts for its new plant that total some $1.5 billion. In August, the Kailua solar company Island Energy Solutions was purchased by mainland SunEdison, a leading solar power investor. Wal-Mart announced plans this year to tile the rooftops of its local stores with photovoltaic modules. New wind projects on Maui and the Big Island are being developed. Political talk is one thing, but private investors pouring money into clean energy in Hawai'i portends real change.

Change is difficult, particularly on islands. But whether we like it or not, a sea change is coming. With our new policy and new motivations, 2007 will be remembered as the year Hawai'i started to turn the tide on climate change.

Jeff Mikulina is director of the Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.

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