This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
Native Hawaiians Continue to Protest Plan to Build Telescope on Sacred Land
By Jessica Corbett
A week after construction was scheduled to resume on a long-delayed $1.4 billion telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea — a dormant volcano on Hawaii's Big Island — thousands of Native Hawaiians who consider the mountain sacred continued to protest the planned observatory.
Explaining that the 13,796-foot mountain is considered home to Native Hawaiian deities, Kaho'okahi Kanuha — a leader of the kia'i, or protectors, who have set up camp on the mountain — told CNN Sunday that "it is without a doubt one of our most sacred places in all of Hawaii."
Kanuha said that Mauna Kea — considered by astronomers one of the best places in the world to observe the skies — already has been "desecrated" by 13 other telescopes and with the ongoing Indigenous-led movement against the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).
"This is our last stand. We are taking a stand not only to protect our mauna and aina — our land — who we have a genealogical connection to," Kanuha explained. "We are fighting to protect it because we know if we cannot stop this, there is not very much we can fight for or protect."
Pua Case, an Indigenous organizer and one of the Mauna Kea protectors, appeared on Democracy Now! Monday to discuss why thousands of Native Hawaiians and other critics of the project are protesting.
"For the last 10 years, we have held off the project of the building of an 18-story telescope on the top of our mountain, near the summit, on a pristine area called the northern plateau, over our water aquifer and the source of water for much of this island," said Case.
"We are making a stand as not just Native people and not just the local community, but really a worldwide community, because there are so many similarities," she added. "There are Native people everywhere around the world standing for their mountaintops, for their waters, for their land bases, their oceans, and their life ways. We are no different than them."
Mauna Kea is one of the most sacred mountains to the Hawaiian people. Scientists and investors are working to build a Thirty Meter Telescope atop it. But many Hawaiians haven't consented to the construction. We spoke to frontline kia'i (protectors) about why they're standing. pic.twitter.com/R4Z3kYe6vM
— AJ+ (@ajplus) July 22, 2019
A project of the TMT International Observatory — a partnership between University of California and the California Institute of Technology, as well as institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan — the controversial telescope would be the largest in the Northern Hemisphere.
The protests against the telescope were triggered by Democratic Gov. David Ige's announcement on July 10 that an access road would be closed to transport equipment up the mountain.
Last Wednesday, after police in riot gear failed to clear protectors from the access road despite arresting 33 kūpuna — elders — and one caregiver, Ige issued an emergency proclamation that expanded law enforcement's power to close off parts of the mountain and manage protests.
On the mountain Sunday, activists "scheduled a variety of workshops and training sessions throughout the day," according to Honolulu's Star-Advertiser. "Some of those workshops were aimed at sharing Hawaiian culture, although others were meant for practicing 'nonviolent direct action' in the event that law officers showed up."
Ige raised concerns by sending some members of the National Guard to the mountain last week, but the governor has insisted they are focused on transportation and duties other than managing protests and that, as of Friday, he does not plan to call in any more troops.
Though the public is right now assured by @GovHawaii that Hawai‘i National Guard sent to #Maunakea are unarmed and will assist only with transportation and road closures, their presence creates a concern for civil rights...
— ACLU of Hawaii (@acluhawaii) July 20, 2019
The demonstrations haven't been contained to the mountain or the Big Island. On Oahu, KHON 2 reported, about 2,000 people "marched two miles on Sunday from Fort DeRussy to the Honolulu zoo" to protest the telescope.
Solidarity actions have also popped up around the country, and as of press time, a Change.org petition demanding "the immediate halt to the construction of the TMT" was fewer than 1,000 signatures away from reaching its goal of 150,000.
More pics: https://t.co/T4qdoP3wfE#KuKiaiMauna - #ProtectMaunaKea Solidarity Action
— Melissa Ponder (@melponder) July 22, 2019
Salish Coast (Lakewood, WA)
July 21, 2019
Sign this petition (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation : The immediate halt to the construction of the TMT on Mauna Kea) https://t.co/bKpQPJyZ61 pic.twitter.com/LgPKRszsiH
Standing Rock Sioux stand with Mauna Kea telescope protesters https://t.co/RkzpCG6vla pic.twitter.com/54d0QnNtJ7
— Star-Advertiser (@StarAdvertiser) July 22, 2019
An open letter that has been signed by astronomers doesn't explicitly denounce the project, but calls into question how the government and the partnership behind the telescope have handled opposition.
However, the letter does "call upon the astronomy community to recognize the broader historical context of this conflict, and to denounce the criminalization of the protectors on Mauna Kea" as well as "urge the TMT Collaboration and the government of Hawaii to desist from further arresting or charging protectors, and to remove military and law enforcement personnel from the summit."
Thank you to all the scientists who are standing with indigenous voices! https://t.co/S1lAhiwfwA#DecolonizeScience #ProtectMaunaKea
— March for Science (@MarchForScience) July 22, 2019
On Monday morning, Democratic Lt. Gov. Josh Green became the highest ranking public official in the state to visit the mountain amid the protests. He told reporters, "I came here today to listen and to respect people."
"I'm here to make sure people are OK," said Green, a physician who arrived at Mauna Kea after an emergency room shift. "I'm not here for a political statement."
Green's visit came after Hawaii Island Mayor Harry Kim went to the access road over the weekend. Kim told a crowd there that "we all see different things, but I'll tell you how I feel: For the first time in my 80 years of life, I see a group of people finally coming together to feel proud of being who you are, because you are the most beautiful, warmest, givingest people on God's Earth."
Despite the local opposition, TMT International Observatory spokesperson Scott Ishikawa told Hawaii News Now on Sunday that "Mauna Kea continues to be the preferred site for TMT."
33 elders were arrested for blocking the road to the summit in a decade-long fight over the proposed construction of a giant telescope. @ienearth @lakotalaw
— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) July 21, 2019
https://t.co/WlYSELJlzt
Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Emily Deanne
Shower shoes? Check. Extra-long sheets? Yep. Energy efficiency checklist? No worries — we've got you covered there. If you're one of the nation's 12.1 million full-time undergraduate college students, you no doubt have a lot to keep in mind as you head off to school. If you're reading this, climate change is probably one of them, and with one-third of students choosing to live on campus, dorm life can have a big impact on the health of our planet. In fact, the annual energy use of one typical dormitory room can generate as much greenhouse gas pollution as the tailpipe emissions of a car driven more than 156,000 miles.
By Lorraine Chow
Kokia drynarioides is a small but significant flowering tree endemic to Hawaii's dry forests. Native Hawaiians used its large, scarlet flowers to make lei. Its sap was used as dye for ropes and nets. Its bark was used medicinally to treat thrush.
States that invest heavily in renewable energy will generate billions of dollars in health benefits in the next decade instead of spending billions to take care of people getting sick from air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels, according to a new study from MIT and reported on by The Verge.
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano could be gearing up for an eruption after a pond of water was discovered inside its summit crater for the first time in recorded history, according to the AP.
Trending
For a Sustainable Climate and Food System, Regenerative Agriculture Is the Key
By Kristin Ohlson
From where I stand inside the South Dakota cornfield I was visiting with entomologist and former USDA scientist Jonathan Lundgren, all the human-inflicted traumas to Earth seem far away. It isn't just that the corn is as high as an elephant's eye — are people singing that song again? — but that the field burgeons and buzzes and chirps with all sorts of other life, too.
Trending
Humanity faced its hottest month in at least 140 years in July, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday. The finding confirms similar analysis provided by its EU counterparts.
By Hans Nicholas Jong
Indonesia's president has made permanent a temporary moratorium on forest-clearing permits for plantations and logging.
It's a policy the government says has proven effective in curtailing deforestation, but whose apparent gains have been criticized by environmental activists as mere "propaganda."