Can an island really look like this? Can mine?

A couple of weeks ago, I heard on NPR that the Maldives were looking to buy up land in Sri Lanka as a hedge against sea levels that threaten to rise and cover their islands. This chain of roughly 1,200 islands rise only three feet or so above sea level. Some experts predict that they could be underwater within 100 years.

I have never been to the Maldives and I knew little about that nation. But when I saw the picture above of Malé, one of the islands, I was shocked. At first I thought it was an artist mocking up what overdeveloping an island could look like. It's not. It IS a real photo. If you want to see more details, check out the high resolution version of this picture.

Do parts of my island home, Hawaii, look like this? Almost every published picture shows off the stunning beauty of these islands. Just do a Flickr or Google image search for Hawaii and you'll see what I mean. So I decided to fire up Google Maps and take a satellite view for myself comparing Malé with parts of each of our major islands at the same scale. Here is what I found (click on each image to jump to the map to see what part of the island was shot):










For me, these images are a reminder that my actions will have an impact on the Hawaii I pass down to our future generations. It's all too easy to get caught up with taking more than what is actually needed, a lot more in some cases. The more we take or waste, the more parts of our islands may end up looking a lot like Malé. For example, here in Hawaii we have about five vacant vacation and second homes in Hawaii for every homeless person in the state. Yes that is every homeless person, not every homeless family. Our islands are among the most beautiful in the world but they are not unconditionally resilient from the effects of our actions.

What do you these images make you think about?