Unite to Save the Maunas
Mahalo piha to everyone who submitted testimony on the two latest telescopes proposed for Maunakea and Haleakala. The University has been allowed to push telescope construction on both sacred summits for decades without any management plan to ensure the protection of the sacred and fragile resources in these conservation districts. Today, the University is back again with its old friend, the National Science Foundation, bringing even more destruction and desecration to our islands.
On Haleakala, the University and NSF propose to build another solar telescope to re-study solar-terrestrial interactions. Can the 14-story Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) even be built on Maui, since the Maui County caps all buildings at 12-stories? The University and NSF would rather desecrate this sacred viewplane, pollute this critical habitat, and break the law, than assess whether building at the two other possible locations will have less cultural and environmental impacts.
On Mauna Kea, the University, the National Science Foundation, and the independently wealthy, Gordon Moore, are targeting the last pristine plateau near the summit. The pressure to build the collosal Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is immense. These developers, expecting to pocket millions in profits, are willing to make any promise to get the TMT built. Last week, the Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs gave in to the pressure. They rushed through a motion in support of citing the TMT on Mauna Kea. OHA may have surrendered, but we -- the public, Hawaiians and conservationists together -- can stand strong and defend our sacred mountain.
Click here to take a stand in defense of our sacred summits.
(http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2699/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1198)
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