Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which I highlight a frontline community that’s bearing the brunt of climate change. Today I’m focusing on Maui and the town of Lahaina. The current death toll is 96, but officials believe that number will increase as the search continues for the estimated 1,000 missing persons.

Maui Fire Relief + Off-Grid Shelter Setup donations here
Maui Community Power Recover Fund donations here

The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 8, 2023. // Matthew Thayer/ | The Maui News | AP

Wildfires are not a natural force in Hawaii’s islands and used to be a rare occurrence. “Hawaii’s ecosystem is not adapted to fire. It is destroyed by fire,” says Elizabeth Pickett, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization. “So we don’t have good fire and bad  fire. We have bad fire, period.” That quote comes from the WIRED article “The Scary Science of Maui’s Wildfires” that also includes background on the invasive grass species introduced by European settlers, grasses that have spread across the island and are intensely fire-prone.

Emily Atkin wrote in her HEATED newsletter (“Lahaina used to be a wetland: Nature didn’t turn the historic Hawaiian community into a tinderbox. People did.”) how the fire that decimated Lahaina wasn’t entirely due to climate change. Colonialism played a huge role in what happened there, specifically European colonizers who illegally diverted the water for their sugar crops, turning a former wetlands into a tinderbox susceptible to the deadly combination of fire and high winds.

Maui Fire Relief + Off-Grid Shelter Setup donations here
Maui Community Power Recover Fund donations here

There’s huge concern that disaster capitalists will use this tragedy to further enrich themselves while driving Indigenous people from their lands. Realtors and investors are already calling families that have lost their homes to the fire, offering to buy the land. Oprah Winfrey owns 2,000 acres on Maui where she lives part-time, and there are calls for her to donate that acreage back to the Indigenous community. The Landback Movement to get Indigenous lands back in Indigenous hands is gaining exposure and momentum in the wake of the fire.

The people of Maui are going to need much more than thoughts and prayers as they rebuild their communities. Thank you in advance for helping out as you can. I send wishes for a good and safe week, wherever you are! Solidarity! ✊🏽

P.S. — here’s a bit of GOOD NEWS: “Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision”