Massive growth has overburdened public services, while polluting and damaging the environment. The commercialization and overwhelming of native Hawaiian cultural practices and identity is a disgrace. Our problems will get worst in the future. Developers and State planners are busily promoting and preparing for nearly doubling the number of tourists flooding the Islands, to 11,500,000, by the year 2005. If we are to genuinely solve these problems we must adopt a new form of tourism, and fundamentally change Hawaii's economic philosophy.
Environmental balance is one of the first principles of sustainability.
Genuine eco-tourism must protect each island's unique land and ocean ecologies, not destroy them. All facilities must conserve water and energy, and promote the recycling of waste and the use of renewable energy sources. To minimize its impact on the natural and human ecology, genuine eco-tourism must be decentralized and small . Facilities must fit into, but not dominate, the area's environment. In accord with the principles of economic democracy , Islanders must participate more in the direction and ownership of eco-tourist enterprises.