The House of the Sun Needs Your Help!

photo by w. allen Haleakala -- The House of the Sun -- is the ecologically unique and culturally sacred summit on the island of Maui, where the demigod Maui snared the sun and where the last major colony of endangered Hawaiian petrels thrives. It is also the preferred site for the construction of another giant telescope.

Another giant telescope proposed on sacred land.
The University of Hawaii, together with the National Science Foundation, is pushing to construct a 14-story, 100-acre solar telescope, called the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), on the summit of Haleakala. The ATST proposes to study solar magnetic activity (basically how the sun affects things in space), an area so well studied that scientists have yet to review the data they have already collected.

"I challenge the assumption that all science is progress. Is it progress to destroy the environment, to kill endangered life? Is it progress to desecrate the culture of another, to perpetuate cultural genocide?" said Kiope Raymond of Kilakila O Haleakala. "Can the advocates for modern astronomy not use their ingenuity and innovation to find a way to conduct their science without destroying the world we live in?"

Building the ATST on Haleakala will have serious cultural and environmental impacts.
The official cultural impact assessment for the telescope found that "the overwhelming evidence, from a cultural and traditional standpoint, points towards significant adverse impact on Native Hawaiian traditional cultural practices and beliefs." The assessment concluded that "the proposed undertaking is unmitigable," and recommended that "no action" be taken. Proceeding with the ATST means undermining the constitutionally protected cultural practices on the sacred temple-summit of Haleakala.

Construction of this giant telescope will also likely disturb one of the last major nesting colonies of the Hawaiian petrel. This ground-nesting seabird was once common throughout the Hawaiian Islands, but habitat loss has pushed it to the brink of extinction. The only major nesting colony of Hawaiian petrels left on earth consists of less than 1,000 birds on the summit of Haleakala. Vibrations from the construction of the ATST could cause nesting burrows to collapse. More than 450 cement trucks are expected to traverse the historic Haleakala National Park Highway just during the most intense phase of construction.

This means the ATST will destroy ancient cultural traditions and unique habitats, in order to conduct duplicative research on weather in space. That is why we join the community's demand that the University of Hawaii and the National Science Foundation halt the proposal to build the ATST on Haleakala until three things are done:

1. an independent, community-based plan for the management of the conservation district that protects the entire summit of Haleakala is completed and fully adopted by the State.

2. an environmental impact statement for the other two possible locations for the solar telescope (La Palma in the Canary Islands and Big Bear Lake in California) is completed.

3. all of the data already collected on solar magnetic activity is cataloged, studied, and assessed to determine whether the ATST is even necessary.

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You can also visit Kilakila O Haleakala on the web to learn more about this important issue and sign their petition in opposition to the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, just click here to go to www.kilakilahaleakala.org.