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UPDATE from Rich on 2/29:  Got word yesterday that the House Finance Committee passed HB839 with amendments!

From email from Rich ma over at Beach Access Hawai’i in Kailua:

I was going to use a clever subject line for this email — something like, “Show me the money!” because that’s what it comes down to now. We’re asking the State to pony up bucks to do this beach access survey and report. But a little earlier I got a phone call from someone in our group…

His mother passed away this morning and he wanted the phone number of another BAH member, because he needed help getting a canoe so he could scatter her ashes in the waters off the Mokulua islands. He said she loved Lanikai and Kailua Beach, and this is what she wanted.

Until I got involved with this cause, I didn’t know him or the paddler he wanted to get in touch with. I think it speaks volumes about what the beaches and ocean means to all who live in Hawaii. It connects us, and brings us together. You know those people who put up gates on “private” roads? Their world has gotten smaller, while our circle of friends is growing and getting bigger.

You can support the bill he’s talking about–HB839– by showing up to the hearing and/or emailing in your testimony to the finance committee. FINtestimony@Capitol.hawaii.gov (contact Rich at figeli001@hawaii.rr.com if you need sample testimony to follow.)

From BAH: The meeting will be in Room 308 at the State Capitol building. HB839 is at the top of the agenda, so testimony will probably start around 11:15 am, and could continue for a half hour to an hour depending on how many people show up.

Amid the newspaper headlines shouting “SUCCESS” over the missile interception of a faltering US spy satellite in the “middle of the Pacific,” we received the following email from Greenpeace guys. They echoed our concerns about the potential of toxics and debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands:

(from Martini Gotjé, former crew of the GP vessel Rainbow Warrior)

Here are the coordinates of the maritime warning for this sat to be shoot down by Aegis

NAVAREA XII 52/2008(19,83). NORTH PACIFIC. HAWAII. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS 210230Z TO 210500Z FEB, ALTERNATE
220230Z TO 220500Z, 230230Z TO 230500Z, 240230Z TO 240500Z
AND 250230Z TO 250500Z FEB IN AREA BOUND BY
31-45N 170-12W, 28-24N 166-42W,
23-52N 163-17W, 19-09N 161-29W,
12-41N 161-29W, 12-39N 165-32W,
18-42N 170-57W, 20-31N 172-30W,
27-03N 172-06W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250600Z FEB.

Note that the marine reserve in the NW Hawaiian Island is for a large part covered by this warning area

The toxic hydrazine what the military is talking about is then of no concern for US DoD to land in a reserve with threatened ocean life!!!!!!

See http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/e-305.htm for the real reason why they want to shoot it down. It’s all secret and new technology and they want to make sure that no one can lay their hands on any piece.

He rightly points out that what we’re really talking about is the impacts and implications of expanding militarization of places–of our oceans, of space.

From an article in yesterday’s Hartfort Courant:

“But even as debris from the shattered satellite began raining down over the Pacific Ocean, there were worries that the U.S. achievement might spur other nations to advance their own anti-satellite programs and turn outer space into a potential battlefield.”

And from an article in today’s Australia’s Hearald Sun:

General Cartwright said radar imagery indicated the SM-3 missile hit the satellite’s fuel tank and obliterated the toxic fuel.

“From the standpoint of ‘can I rule out that hazardous material will fall to the Earth?’, not at this point.

This is occurring in a year of Naval training range expansion, undersea warfare exercises, and expanded 2008 RIMPAC wargames. It is also the International Year of the Reef. We’re talking a lot this year about marine debris, overfishing, and ocean acidification and reef death from climate change and warming oceans. Important, for sure.

But can we in Hawaii–currently the most heavily militarized of the 50 states–really talk about healthy reefs and ocean protection without tackling the question of ever-expanding military activities in Hawaiian waters?

Whether we are actively consenting or not, the train is moving. To do nothing is to move with it. We have a limited amount of time to decide–and to act–on the appropriate and humane global uses of lands, ocean, air, and space. At KAHEA, this is another year of doing. We hope you’ll join us.

(map from John Hocevar, missile photo DoD, and monk seal photo credit: James Watt)