Replies Filed for Our Mosquito Case in the State Supreme Court
The Court will now decide if it will accept our case
This week, Hawai‘i Unites’ attorneys filed our replies to the Defendants’ responses to our Application for Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai’i. The Court will decide in the weeks ahead if our case will be accepted.
We’re asking the Supreme Court to review our case, vacate the Intermediate Court of Appeals’ (ICA) order and judgment on appeal, reverse the First Circuit Court’s grant of summary judgment to the State of Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), and remand our case back to the circuit court for further proceedings.
Hawai‘i Unites continues to stand up for the health of the people, wildlife, and ecosystems of these islands. The DLNR’s final environmental assessment (FEA) for the Maui mosquito releases was insufficient, the BLNR approved an incomplete FEA, the ICA and circuit court decisions were flawed, and the inherent risks of this massive multi-agency mosquito release experiment have not been sufficiently studied or addressed.
Our reply to the BLNR and DLNR and our reply to American Bird Conservancy can be read in full on our website:
“No one disputes that saving native birds is important or that suppressing mosquito populations that carry avian malaria is considered a key aspect of that objective. Plaintiffs care deeply about endangered birds as well as the entire web of life, including the people of Maui. However, the subject project is an abbreviated experiment lacking certain guard rails that a full environmental study would provide. Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes lab-infected with Wolbachia bacteria have never been documented as being used for stand-alone field release anywhere in the world, and the East Maui project area is the largest Wolbachia mosquito release of any kind globally to date. Wolbachia IIT is a novel tool for conservation purposes and its degree of efficacy in remote forest landscapes is unknown.”
We will post an update on our case once a decision has been made by the State Supreme Court. Mahalo to everyone for your support and encouragement as we stand strong in challenging these dangerous experiments on the ‘āina. Together, we are united in our love for these islands and our dedication to protecting the environment and stopping the use of sacred lands as biotech mosquito testing grounds.
To support the work that we’re doing and help us raise funds towards our legal fees, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.
Aloha,
Tina Lia
Founder
Hawai‘i Unites
HawaiiUnites.org
Hawai‘i Unites is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of our environment and natural resources. Your tax-deductible donations help us to fulfill our mission of honoring and protecting our sacred connection to the natural world.
Report a Mosquito Bite
The State of Hawai‘i and its multi-agency partnership Birds, Not Mosquitoes have been releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes in East Maui and conducting pilot study releases on Kaua‘i since 2023. As part of our ongoing research and documentation, Hawai‘i Unites has been compiling reports from throughout the islands about unusual mosquito bite reactions. If you’ve been bitten by a mosquito and would like to report the incident, please complete our Mosquito Bite Incident Report.
Hi Tina,
Good luck with the court case. It might be helpful to point out "10 Facts about Mosquitoes, the World’s Deadliest Animal". Here's a link to an article with that title:
https://www.rti.org/insights/mosquito-facts
It turns out the most deadly animal is actually the human with the mosquito coming in a distant second.
When it comes to the top cause of death for humans in the USA, a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine estimated that approximately 251,454 deaths per year result from medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death in the country after heart disease and cancer.
I heard of a new study that found medical errors plus proper medical treatment has risen to the top cause of death in the USA. Unfortunately I can't find that study.
Despite that, the fact that medical errors are the third cause of human death and mosquitos are the most deadly critter in the world, releasing billions of them seems insane.