Poke Nūhou - Newsbriefs

By Ka Wai Ola Loa Staff

ONE EYE ON THE SUN

A rendering of the proposed Advanced Technology Solar Telescope that the National Science Foundation hopes to construct on Maui's Haleakalā. – Photo: Courtesy of LeEllen Phelps, ATST/NSO/AURA/NSF

Scientists hope to watch the sun from it's hale

The National Science Foundation recently selected Maui's Haleakalā as the site for a new $300 million solar telescope. Haleakalā was selected over Big Bear Lake in California and Spain's Canary Islands. The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, or ATST, will house a 13-foot mirror that will be the largest designed to study the sun. Scientists hope it will provide sharp views of the sun, revealing phenomenon that today's equipment cannot see. The telescope's housing will be 143 feet high and 84 feet in diameter, built on under an acre at Pu'u Kolekole, near Haleakalā's summit. The cost of the observatory has been estimated at $161 million.

Public comment due on Obama ocean policy task force report

President Obama's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force has released a preliminary report for a 60-day public review and comment period. The task force of 24 senior federal-level officials convened in Honolulu on October 29 in one of six regional meetings held across the nation. In front of an audience that numbered over nearly a thousand, over two hundred Hawai'i ocean-user stakeholders – including OHA and other Native Hawaiian organizations – testified in response to the task's force's announcement that public input would be used to overhaul the federal government's approach to coastal and marine planning. Along with the interim report, the White House released task force commissioners' statements stressing the need for broad engagement in marine resource policy-making. "The uses of our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes have expanded exponentially over time… At the same time they are facing environmental challenges including pollution and habitat destruction that make them increasingly vulnerable," said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The report, which goes by the name Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, makes recommendations intended to reduce user conflicts, increase ecosystem-based management approaches, promote "sound and transparent science, and establish mechanisms for an "information flow" that would accommodate regional interests, including those of indigenous communities. After the close of the comment period, the task force will finalize its recommendations in a final report to the President in early 2010. To view the Interim Framework report and to submit your comments, whitehouse.gov/oceans

Hula Association of the Atlantic is born

Hālau Pūlama Mau Ke Aloha Ka 'Ohana 'Ilima in Maryland has given birth to the Hula Association of the Atlantic, cleverly abbreviated HA'A. The association will publish a bimonthly newsletter, Ka Lei 'Akelanika. Membership is free and all hula and Hawaiiana enthusiasts are encouraged to join. To join HA'A and receive Ka Lei 'Akelanika, contact Kumu Hula Kas Nakamura at HulaAloha@verizon.net.