Ka`u News Briefs Tuesday, May 26, 2015

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS THE TOPIC of a Ka`u Community Development Plan focused discussion today at 5:30 p.m. at Na`alehu Community Center. 

      The draft guides implementation of regional economic development strategies, including an education, enterprise development and research network and regional strategies to increase buying local. Possible actions by the county include collaborating with the private sector to identify business needs, strengthen existing industries and diversify the economy by attracting new endeavors; advancing economic development that enhances and is balanced with the county’s natural, cultural and social environments; promoting a distinctive identity for Ka`u; and commissioning a study of Economic and Financial Impact Reviews and proposing recommendations for their integration into the regulatory review and approval process.

      Community-based, collaborative actions listed toward this goal include coordinating regional, cross-sectoral economic development strategies; developing a high-tech, high-touch regional education, enterprise development and research network; and coordinating regional strategies to increase buying local.
      The CDP discusses ways to strengthen local agriculture, including agricultural land acquisition, agricultural parks and water systems, diversification of agriculture-based businesses on agricultural land and agricultural tourism.
      The CDP also suggests that developing community renewable energy would enhance Ka`u’s economy. It guides development of local, renewable, distributed energy networks while prioritizing greater public review of commercial renewable energy projects. It states that the county could encourage development of alternate energy resources, providing they complement existing agricultural uses and preserve ecologically significant areas and amend the Zoning Code to require Use Permits for commercial renewable energy projects in the County Agricultural District.
      At today’s meeting, participants’ questions, comments and suggestions will be documented. As appropriate, the CDP Planning Team will use outputs of the discussion to do additional analysis, refine the CDP rationale and/or recommend CDP revisions.
      Public input on the draft Ka`u CDP is due Monday, June 1. The document is available at local libraries and community centers and online at kaucdp.info.
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THIRTY METER TELESCOPE ORGANIZATION has released a new document that it says describes “the transformational science the Thirty Meter Telescope will enable.” The key TMT document, known as the Detailed Science Case, explains that TMT would open up opportunities for revolutionary discoveries in essentially every field of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. 

      According to TMT, the telescope will see much fainter objects much more clearly than existing telescopes, enabled by a giant mirror and advanced adaptive optics system. “With these capabilities, TMT’s science agenda fills all of space and time, from nearby comets and asteroids, to exoplanets, to the most distant galaxies and back to the very first sources of light in the Universe,” TMT stated.
      “There is virtually no cosmic stone that TMT will leave unturned,” said Warren Skidmore, editor-in-chief of the document and Telescope Research Scientist for TMT International Observatory. “We at TMT, our international partners and the broader astronomical community are all eagerly looking forward to the scientific breakthroughs that TMT will help deliver.”
      More than 150 astronomers from within the TMT partnership and beyond offered input in compiling the new 2015 Detailed Science Case.
      In preparing the document, members of TMT’s International Science Development Teams composed sections describing some of the highest profile questions in their respective fields that TMT can help answer.
      The 2015 Detailed Science Case has been updated from its original 2007 version to reflect how its first featured suite of instruments and future upgrades will achieve TMT’s envisioned science goals. The science case will be used to define the scientific priorities of TMT during the period when evaluation of second-generation instruments begins. The document will also aid in defining operational modes for the observatory as its science mission gets underway.

      See tmt.org.
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THE U.S. SENATE HAS UNANIMOUSLY passed a resolution acknowledging and honoring the young men from Hawai`i, the majority of whom were Native Hawaiian, who ensured the success of the Equatorial Pacific colonization project. This once-secret initiative began in the 1930s to enable the United States to claim jurisdiction over this hotly disputed area of the Pacific in the years leading up to World War II. The earliest colonists were new Kamehameha Schools graduates who were dispatched to the remote islands of Howland, Baker and Jarvis. These young men had been carefully selected to ensure that they could survive in the isolated, barren and inhospitable environment with little support from outside. The colonization ended abruptly when Imperial Japan attacked these islands and Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

      Sen. Brian Schatz, who introduced the resolution, commended the Hui Panala`au in this, the 80th anniversary of the first landing of Native Hawaiian colonists. “This is a remarkable story of humble valor, when 130 sons of Hawai`i made use of their island spirit and resourcefulness to make a very big difference for America and ultimately the free world,” Schatz said. “It is my sincere hope that the deeds of the Hui Panala`au colonists will be more broadly shared, understood and appreciated by the people of Hawai`i and by Americans who treasure our rich history.”



      Throughout the seven years of colonization of the islands (1935-1942), 130 young men in small groups joined the effort and risked their lives on remote islands far from the safety and security of their homes and family. The mission was led by the Department of the Interior to establish American possession at first because the islands were seen as potential stopovers for a newly budding commercial air travel industry. As World War II intensified and the Japanese empire advanced across the Pacific, control of the islands became important militarily. In their service, three young men lost their lives, one from a ruptured appendix and two following a Japanese air attack in 1941. Others sustained permanent injuries during their service. Today, there are three known surviving colonists in Hawai`i.
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