Archive for December 5th, 2015

In this Paris, climate change just means another long, brutal winter

LA Times: In the fall of 1863, two families pushed into the northern edge of Bear Lake Valley, quickly built a log cabin with a dirt floor and then hunkered down to endure the brutal winter. The settlers had big plans. They wanted to start farms and establish a village with a grand church at its center. As years passed and more people arrived, they decided to name their new village for the man who plotted it, Frederick Perris, but to spell it differently - ambitiously-in honor of a faraway urban ideal....

Taking to the hills: tribal groups face up to climate change

Agence France-Presse: Tashka Yawanawa's Amazonian tribe lived on the plains along the Gregorio River for millennia -- until a wall of flood water last year forced them to flee their homes for good. "We had never seen a flood this big, this fast, this ferocious," the tribal chief told AFP on the sidelines of UN climate talks in Paris aimed at agreeing a pact to stave off disastrous climate change. He chalked the flooding disaster up to global warming. "This was the first time we felt the direct impact of climate...

Sanders: Climate change poses ‘major’ national security threat

Hill: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says climate change poses “major” national security threat to the U.S. “I mean, we’re talking about, according to the CIA, future, major national security issues when people are forced to migrate because their countries or their land are flooded, they can’t grow food,” Sanders said at a rally in Keene, N.H., on Saturday. “We’re talking about a major, major crisis.” The Vermont senator said there is no longer any debate among scientists...

Next step TMT project unclear as idle trucks remain atop Mauna Kea

West Hawaii Today: What will become of the construction equipment that has been sitting idle near the summit of Mauna Kea since April? That is the question that many in Hawaii were asking Thursday, following the previous day’s ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court invalidating the construction permit issued to the Thirty Meter Telescope. Immediately following the ruling, Lanakila Mangauil, one of the leaders in the effort to block the construction equipment when it was first being hauled up the mountain, said he...

Reterritorialising social media

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The power and prevalence of social media in global indigenous rights movements - from the protection of a sacred mountain in Hawaii, to gas pipelines on Native land in North America and the ongoing fight to stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities, social media is being used by indigenous rights activists to organise politically. A symposium at the University of Wollongong brought together activists and thinkers to consider the ways social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and self-hosted...

Telescope opponents: Construction equipment must be removed

NYSE: The Hawaii Supreme Court on Wednesday revoked a permit that would have allowed the controversial construction of one of the world's largest telescopes on a dormant volcano considered an ideal location on Earth to view the stars. In its latest ruling, the Supreme Court has said that there was an error on part of Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources for it issued the building permit without conducting a hearing of the contested case. Mele-Ana-Kekua had been camping on the mountain for about...

Thirty Meter Telescope Construction Permit Revoked by Hawaii Supreme Court

Lighthouse: The Thirty Meter Telescope would have set atop Mauna Kea, next to these four telescopes in the Mauna Kea Observatories. Thirty Meter Telescope construction permit revoked by Hawaii Supreme Court is hailed as a victory for the native Hawaiians and protesters opposing its construction. Thirty Meter Telescope construction permit revoked by Hawaii Supreme Court is hailed as a victory for the native Hawaiians and protesters opposing its construction. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project was...

Hawaii Supreme Court Revoke Permit Build World Largest Telescope

Northern Californian: On Wednesday, the Hawaiian Supreme Court revoked a permit that would have allowed the controversial construction of one of the world’s largest telescope on the dormant volcano considered as an ideal location on Earth to view the stars. The court said that constructing the telescope on the mountain Mauna Kea is invalid and the Hawaii’s Board of land and Natural Resources should not have approved the permit in 2011. In April, the plans to build world’s largest telescope on the top of Mauna Kea were...

Effort To Build The World’s Largest Telescope Hits Major Setback

Star Daily Science: An international consortium that wants to build the world’s biggest telescope on the Big Island of Hawaii says it’s deciding what to do next, after the state’s Supreme Court invalidated the project’s building permit. The consortium “will follow the process set forth by the state, as we always have. We are assessing our next steps on the way forward,” said Henry Yang, chairman of theThirty Meter Telescope International Observatory Board of Directors. In its written opinion, the court said the Hawaii...

Hawaii telescope: Did indigenous rights just beat astronomical discovery?

Monitor: A Hawaiian Supreme Court ruling Wednesday on a contentious proposal to build a large, Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea validated the rights of indigenous Hawaiians. The court ruled that the state of Hawaii should not have given the telescope project a permit without formally hearing the position of the Native Hawaiians – who hold the Mauna Kea mountaintop sacred – first. This ruling emphasized that the state must value concerns from the indigenous people who brought the lawsuit and who slowed...