Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Monday, Oct. 3, 2016

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR KA`U and Hawai`i Island. The National Weather Service reported that abundant moisture and an upper level disturbance could trigger heavy rains and thunderstorms until 6 p.m. tomorrow.

THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHED A MAUNA KEA THIRTY METER TELESCOPE cultural and scientific story this morning. Entitled Under Hawai`i’s Starriest Skies, a Fight Over Sacred Ground, Dennis Overbye’s story examines how the clash of values developed between astronomy supporters and Native Hawaiians against the project.

      “To astronomers, the Thirty Meter Telescope would be a next-generation tool to spy on planets around other stars or to peer into the cores of ancient galaxies, with an eye sharper and more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, another landmark in humanity’s quest to understand its origins,” Overbye wrote. “But to its opponents, the telescope would be yet another eyesore despoiling an ancient sacred landscape, a gigantic 18-story colossus joining the 13 telescopes already on Mauna Kea.”

      Kealoha Pisciotta, president of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, which is against the project, takes a different view. “This is a very simple case about land use,” she told Overbye. “It’s not science versus religion. We’re not the church. You’re not Galileo.”
      According to Overbye, Pisciotta used to work at an observatory on Mauna Kea with hopes of becoming a cosmologist, but she “became disenchanted when a family shrine disappeared from the summit and the plans for the outriggers (smaller telescopes at Keck Observatory) impinged on a cinder cone.”
      “Cinder cones are burial sites,” Pisciotta told Overbye. “It’s time to not let this go on.”
      Overbye quoted from a report by sociologist Peter Adler commissioned by the Moore Foundation, which has contributed large sums to the project. “Should TMT decide to pursue a Mauna Kea site, it will inherit the anger, fear and great mistrust generated through previous telescope planning and siting failures and an accumulated disbelief that any additional projects, especially a physically imposing one like the TMT, can be done properly,” Adler wrote.
      That anger was apparent on the day groundbreaking was scheduled. “Like snakes you are. Vile snakes,” Overbye reported Joshua Lanakila Mangauil saying to those gathered for the event. “We gave all of our aloha to you guys, and you slithered past us like snakes. For what? For your greed to look into the sky? You guys can’t take care of this place.”

      See nytimes.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

KEALOHA PISCIOTTA, known for her opposition to the Thirty Meter Telescope (see story above), is challenging Richard Onishi as Ka`u’s state representative in the November election. 

      The Green Party candidate’s platform includes creating a model for a regenerative economy. “Hawai`i Island, and especially District III, has a unique and diverse population with a blend of many ethnicities, cultures and lifestyles, and also a range of rural and urban centers,” Pisciotta says on her website. “Our economy is dependent on the natural beauty, health and wellbeing of the land. I believe we have much to offer our island and state by promoting and protecting our island way of living.

      “State House District III is uniquely suited for initiatives that improve the residents’ quality of life while increasing food and energy security for the entire island. With large tracts of arable land, connectivity to commercial areas and one of the state’s most significant tourist attractions, the district offers those intent on living a sustainable lifestyle the opportunity to thrive. Support at the state level for programs that increase residents’ capacity to grow food, raise livestock, catch water and generate power in sufficient volumes for sustainability is an important first step.
      “Policies that help expand this core farming community’s productivity, allowing it to also feed its urban neighbors and the more than one million national park visitors that pass through the area each year, will evolve the district’s self-sufficiency achievements into a thriving, regenerative economy.”

      Pisciotta’s also has plans for creating what she calls a just economy for Hawai`i, creating educational models that strengthen communities and “raising the standard of Aloha always and in all things.”
      “There’s a lot state government can do to ensure that Hawai`i lives up to its reputation as the Aloha State, and emphasizing the interrelationship of all things as a core social value is the place to begin,” Pisciotta says.
      See kealohapisciotta.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

A PLANET LARGER THAN EARTH has been found circling our nearest stellar neighbor, the star Proxima Centauri, astronomer Lew Cook reported in the October issue of Stars Over Ka`u. Proxima means closest to earth.

      “Astronomers using European Southern Observatory’s telescopes in Chile have discovered what can only be a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth,” Cook wrote. “This planet orbits this star every 11.8 days. Eleven days! That’s a short year. Newton’s laws of gravitational motion require this to be very close to the star, so you would think it would be extremely hot there. It would be, if the star were a sun-like star. But it is not! Proxima is small, cool and dim, only putting the planet at a “comfortable” distance, in the Goldilocks zone (because the temperature is ‘just right.’ Is there life on this planet? No one around here (Earth) knows!
      “If you could stand on its surface, you’d see its star – its sun shining dimly, but about four times as large as our sun. But even in the daytime, Alpha and Beta Centauri could be seen in a clear sky from Proxima’s planet.”
      See kaucalendar.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE PRINCIPLES is the topic of a bill to be discussed by Hawai`i County Council’s Committee on Agriculture, Water & Energy Sustainability tomorrow at 2 p.m. Margaret Wille’s Bill 242 requires an affirmative finding of consistency with the goals of long-term environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing by the Planning Department and Leeward and Windward Planning Commissions prior to any approval of an application, determination or advisory recommendation.

      The goals are set forth in the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, the Hawai`i County Charter and the Hawai`i State Constitution.
      Ka`u residents can participate in this and other meetings this week. Other committees meeting tomorrow are Public Safety & Mass Transit at 9 a.m.; Finance, 10:30 a.m.; Public Works & Parks & Recreation, 1 p.m.; Planning, 1:30 p.m.; Environmental Management, 2:30 p.m.; and Governmental Relations & Economic Development, 4 p.m.
      The full council meets Wednesday at 9 a.m.
      All meetings take place at Council Chambers in Hilo.
      Videoconferencing is available at Na`alehu State Office Building. See hawaiicounty.gov for agendas and live streaming of the meetings.

      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

GROUNDBREAKING FOR THE KA`U DISTRICT GYM & SHELTER took place four years ago today. It opens Wednesday, with a blessing at 10 a.m. and a community open house at 5 p.m. See flyer below.

      The size and diversity of the new facility is in direct response to comments gathered from the community, said Mayor Billy Kenoi. “The Ka`u District Gym & Shelter has been designed to expand athletic and recreational opportunities, serve as a destination for community events and emergency shelter during natural disasters.”
      Releasing funding for the gym was one of former Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s first actions for Ka`u as governor.
      Releasing the funding was also one of the first efforts by Ka`u County Council member Brittany Smart. She asked the governor to release the funds the first time she met him after the election. The late Sen. Gil Kahele and Rep. Bob Herkes also helped with funding.
      Acquisition of money for the gym followed an effort led by former County Council member Guy Enriques, in cooperation with the Pahala School principal. Enriques, who runs volleyball tournaments on the mainland each summer and takes local students to volleyball events across the country, said he hopes to bring volleyball tournaments to Pahala.

      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

JACKIE PUALANI JOHNSON PRESENTS Lili`uokalani at Washington Place tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The one-woman show features the last monarch of Hawai`i, with material taken directly from writings of Queen Lili`uokalani, her family and other historical sources.

      $2 donations support After Dark in the Park programs; park entrance fees apply.