Panic in Paradise: Invasive Species Hysteria and the Hawaiian Coqui Frog War

by Sydney Ross Singer, Soma Grismaijer

Hawaii's environment is under attack by the most invasive species on the planet -- humans. Armed with bulldozers, chainsaws, acid, and caustic lime, an army of killer environmentalists is attacking tiny tree frogs that they fear might pose the greatest threat to Hawaii since European contact. The Aloha State is now the Emergency State. Tourists and residents beware! Hawaii is now an environmental war zone. But is this really a frog of mass destruction? Or is Hawaii just suffering from a bad case of enviromania? According to medical anthropologists Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, the frog war is a carefully planned fraud, motivated by corruption and conflict of interest, and rooted in a philosophy of hate and intolerance for non-native species. Panic in Paradise exposes the hidden agendas and lies that have driven Hawaii's residents to hysteria and willing to spend millions on an unwinnable, unnecessary, destructive environmental war. "Frogs are disappearing from the Earth because of pollution," Grismaijer notes, "and here in Hawaii they are trying to pollute the environment to kill the frogs."

118 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005