Archive for September 12th, 2015

Why are Hawaiians protesting a giant telescope?

Christian Science Monitor: Eight people were arrested early Wednesday morning for protesting the construction of a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea, a mountain that native Hawaiians consider sacred. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) said its officers arrested the protestors to enforce an emergency rule enacted by the land board to prevent protestors from camping on Mauna Kea during the night hours. The protesters were in a circle praying and chanting at the time of the arrest. The emergency rule...

Eight protesters arrested on Mauna Kea

Star-Advertiser: State conservation officers arrested eight protesters on Mauna Kea early Wednesday morning for violating the state's new emergency rules that prohibit camping on the mountain, a Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman said. DNLR officers arrested seven women and a man at a protest camp across the road from the Mauna Kea Visitors Center for being in the restricted area on the mountain. The protesters have been camping on the mountain in protest of the construction of the $1.4 billion...

West Coast residents caught in a line of fire from California to Washington

Washington Post: When the emergency sirens wailed, Christine Perry muttered, "Oh, Lord, not again,' then scampered outdoors. For a second straight year, a monster fire lurked outside her tiny town of Pateros, Wash. She strained to see whether thick smoke was rolling her way. A year ago, she barely escaped her house before it was destroyed by wildfire. After rebuilding, she feared it would happen again. "Last year they told us we were safe. The next thing I knew, I was running out of the house in my flip-flops...

Sierra wildfire destroys homes, threatens 6,000 California residences

Reuters: A relatively small but fast-moving wildfire in California's Sierra Nevada mountains grew overnight, destroying homes and threatening about 6,000 residences, fire officials said on Saturday. The so-called Butte Fire has destroyed 15 homes in rural Amador and Calaveras counties, where it covers an estimated 64,728 acres (26,195 hectares), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynn Tolmachoff said. She said the fire grew overnight after officials initially overestimated...

Could a bulk water export industry ever get underway in Canada?

Vancouver Sun: An Alaskan company boldly declared earlier this year that it was going to ship tens of millions of litres of pristine water to parched Southern California. It would have represented the first solid evidence that a bulk water industry in North America is economically viable. And it would obviously have sent a message that B.C. entrepreneurs could make a go of it, if public opinion ever changed and provincial and federal governments removed their legal restrictions on bulk transfers. “The shipment...

West Coast wildfires remain untamed

Washington Post: When the emergency sirens wailed, Christine Perry muttered, "Oh, Lord, not again," then scampered outdoors. For a second straight year, a monster fire lurked outside her tiny town of Pateros, Washington. She strained to see whether thick smoke was rolling her way. A year ago, she barely escaped her house before it was destroyed by wildfire. After rebuilding, she feared it would happen again. "Last year they told us we were safe. The next thing I knew, I was running out of the house in my flip-flops...

Global population to reach 9 billion by 2045: Yudhoyono

Tempo: The global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2045, the former President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is also the Chairman of the Global Green Growth Institute, said Friday, September 11. "We are aware that the considerable increase in the global population will raise human needs for foods, energy and so on," he said while delivering a lecture at the commemoration of Padjadjaran Universitys 58th anniversary at the Graha Sanusi Hardjadinata building in Bandung, West Java,...