{"id":903,"date":"2014-08-28T23:43:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T23:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/EH\/?p=903"},"modified":"2014-08-28T23:43:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T23:43:09","slug":"new-noteworthy-a-refuge-lost-tmt-final-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: A Refuge Lost, TMT Final Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Refuge Lost?<\/b>\u00a0Features at two units of the National Park Service on the western shores of the island of Hawai`i — Pu`uhonua o Honaunau and Kaloko-Honokohau national historic parks \u2013 are among dozens of significant cultural sites across the country that are at risk of disappearing as a result of climate change.<\/div>\n
\nThat was the message in a report released last month by the Union of Concerned Scientists: \u201cNational Landmarks at Risk: How rising seas, floods, and wildfires are threatening the United States\u2019 most cherished historic sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Pu`uhonua, described in the report as \u201ca wartime place of refuge,\u201d features vulnerable to sea level rise include the Great Wall, the `Ale`ale`a heiau, and two historic sections of trail, the report states. \u201cThese and other irreplaceable cultural resources are located in low-lying areas of the park that have repeatedly been damaged by storm surges and flooding in the past.\u201d With sea level rise, they will be even more exposed and vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Up the coast at Kaloko-Honokohau, the report states, scientists from Stanford University and the University of Hawai`i \u201cidentified the Kaloko fishpoind, the `Ai`opio fish trap, and the `Aimakapa fishpond as among the park\u2019s features most at risk from coastal hazards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beach in front of the `Aimakapa fishpond, which \u2026 may be more than 600 years old, is currently eroding t a rate of three to four inches per year. Because the beach separates the pond from the ocean, \u2026 the pond could be breached altogether by 2050,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the scale of the problem and the cultural value of the places at risk,\u201d the UCS report states, \u201cit is not enough merely to plan for change \u2026 We must begin now to prepare our threatened landmarks to face worsening climate impacts; climate resilience must become a national priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full report is available online:\u00a0http:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/LandmarksAtRisk<\/a><\/p>\n

TMT Final Judgment:\u00a0<\/b>Judge Greg K. Nakamura of the 3rd Circuit Court has signed off on the final judgment in a case involving the appeal of a permit to construct the Thirty Meter Telescope. He upheld the Board of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 award of a Conservation District Use Permit for construction of the facility near the Mauna Kea summit.<\/p>\n

The judgment entered on May 5, confirms an earlier ruling that he had made in the case. As of mid-May, Richard Wurdeman, attorney for the six parties who brought the administrative appeal, said his clients had not decided whether to pursue further legal action.<\/p>\n

Save the Date:<\/b>\u00a0On August 29, artist, chanter, scientist, and Facebook poster extraordinaire\u00a0Sam `Ohukani`ohi`a Gon<\/b>\u00a0will be the guest speaker at Environment Hawai`i\u2019s annual fund-raising dinner. Gon, recently named one of Hawai`i\u2019s living treasures, will be speaking on the topic of the Hawaiians\u2019 pre-contact ecological footprint.<\/p>\n

Tickets to the event, at the `Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, are $65. A $20 tax-deductible donation to\u00a0Environment Hawai`i<\/i>\u00a0is included in the cost. To reserve a seat, please call 808 934-0115 or email\u00a0ptummons@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Correction<\/b>: In our May “Board Talk” item on Legacy Lands projects, we misspelled Laura Devilbiss’s last name.<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Volume 24, Number 12 — June 2014<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Refuge Lost? Features at two units of the National Park Service on the western shores of the island of Hawai`i — Pu`uhonua o Honaunau and Kaloko-Honokohau national historic parks – are among dozens of significant cultural sites across the country … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-june-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}