Tmt

Railroad ties are leeching contaminants and toxins into the environment: Link: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/bnsf-railway-fined-for-treated-railroad-ties-in-water/ – Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance co-founder, recently wrote one of the most powerful articles that we have read in a long, long time. Her piece, titled The Girls and the Grasses, is like poetry. We invite you to read it here: Link: http://dgrnewsservice.org/2015/08/25/lierre-keith-the-girls-and-the-grasses/ – Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International writes about the colonial and racist origins of the “conservation” movement. His organization helps push an alternate perspective. ...

Will Falk is a Deep Green Resistance member who has spent much of the past year assisting indigenous resistance movements at the Unist’ot’en Camp and, more recently, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. In this article, he speaks to the dangerous powers that come from the science of the dominant culture (civilization). Many view the debate surrounding the Thirty Meter Telescope’s proposed construction on Mauna Kea and Kanaka Maolis’ opposition to it as fundamentally a question of science versus culture. On the benign end, the word “science” has come to connote something close to cool and objective rationality – nothing more nor less than a collection of knowledge to be used in man’s (isn’t it always “man’s”?) noble aim to transcend nature. More malevolently, however, pitting science against indigenous culture is nothing more than insidious racism. This racism operates on the often unchallenged claim that science is an inherently western way of knowing and therefore superior to indigenous ways of knowing. ...

Defending Wildlife in Colorado The DGR Southwest Coalition recently held their annual Southwest Gathering, sharing skills & good food, and engaging in many discussions & strategy sessions. As part of the gathering, Deanna Meyer of Deep Green Resistance Colorado joined Brian Ertz of Wildlands Defense to discuss their recent campaign against a Castle Rock mega-mall development. We’ve reported here a little bit on the struggle, and are excited to share this video of Meyer and Ertz describing the campaign in more detail. ...

For many years now, indigenous Hawaiian people have been involved in a battle to stop the construction of a new 30-meter telescope (TMT) array on Mauna Kea mountain, which is a sacred place and the source of all drinking water on the island. The project would be the size of a sports stadium - bigger than all the other telescopes on the mountain combined. But now the construction is going ahead. The bulldozers have been moving over the past two weeks. On March 26th, a series of peaceful protests began. More than 31 people have been arrested so far, and a brief moratorium on construction until April 20th has been placed in effect. This is time for the land defenders to come together and build even more pressure! ...

Recently, some friends of ours organized a protest on the slopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, against the desecration of sacred lands by the construction of a massive telescope facility. To see a slide show of images from the protest, visit the Deep Green Resistance Hawaii website.

For Immediate Release Media Inquiries contact: Keala Kelly 808-265-0177 Email: sacredmaunakea@gmail.com Website: http://sacredmaunakea.wordpress.com/ Mauna Kea Protest Tuesday, October 7, 2014 – 7am to 2pm, Saddle Road at the entrance to the Mauna Kea Observatory Road Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians will gather for a peaceful protest against the Astronomy industry and the “State of Hawaii’s” ground- breaking ceremony for a thirty-meter telescope (TMT) on the summit of Mauna Kea. CULTURAL ISSUES: Mauna Kea is sacred to the Hawaiian people, who maintain a deep connection and spiritual tradition there that goes back millennia. “The TMT is an atrocity the size of Aloha Stadium,” said Kamahana Kealoha, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner. “It’s 19 stories tall, which is like building a sky- scraper on top of the mountain, a place that is being violated in many ways culturally, environmentally and spiritually.” Speaking as an organizer of those gathering to protest, Kealoha said, “We are in solidarity with individuals fighting against this project in U.S. courts, and those taking our struggle for de- occupation to the international courts. Others of us must protest this ground- breaking ceremony and intervene in hopes of stopping a desecration.” Clarence “Ku” Ching, longtime activist, cultural practitioner, and a member of the Mauna Kea Hui, a group of Hawaiians bringing legal challenges to the TMT project in state court, said, “We will be gathering at Pu’u Huluhulu, at the bottom of the Mauna Kea Access Road, and we will be doing prayers and ceremony for the mountain.” When asked if he will participate in protests, he said, “We’re on the same side as those who will protest, but my commitment to Mauna Kea is in this way. We are a diverse people…everyone has to do what they know is pono.” ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: The principle fresh water aquifer for Hawaii Island is on Mauna Kea, yet there have been mercury spills on the summit; toxins such as Ethylene Glycol and Diesel are used there; chemicals used to clean telescope mirrors drain into the septic system, along with half a million gallons a year of human sewage that goes into septic tanks, cesspools and leach fields. “All of this poisonous activity at the source of our fresh water aquifer is unconscionable, and it threatens the life of the island,” said Kealoha. “But that’s only part of the story of this mountain’s environmental fragility. It’s also home to endangered species, such as the palila bird, which is endangered in part because of the damage to its critical habitat, which includes the mamane tree.” ...

sacred mauna kea This comes from our friend Anne Keala Kelly, an award-wining native Hawaiian journalist and activist whose previous film, Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai’i is a powerful indictment of American settler-colonialism in the Hawaiian islands. “Why The Mountain”: A Documentary Film to Protect Sacred Mauna Kea Mauna Kea is majestic. Environmentally, it’s one of the most extraordinary places on earth. Located on Hawai’i Island in the middle of the Pacific, with an above sea elevation of 13,800 feet, when measured from its base beneath the ocean it’s more than 33,000 feet high. It is the tallest mountain in the world. It’s also a target for a form of exploitation that threatens the island’s ecosystem and the cultural, spiritual and religious survival of the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians). ...