Native Hawaiians are protesting a telescope project on their sacred mountain.

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When Less Is More
This week, I’ve been immersed in our upcoming Autumn issue, which is going to be all about technology and nature. I’ve been editing essays, looking for “techy” images, and pondering our cover artwork. All the while, there’s been one news story ([link removed]) that keeps grabbing — demanding — my attention: the protests on Maunakea on Hawaii’s Big Island. Native Hawaiians have been lifting their voices against the construction of a massive telescope — known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) — on their sacred mountain for the past decade. With construction scheduled to begin on July 15, things came to a head. So far, thousands of Maunakea protectors have gathered at the mountain, and dozens have been arrested. Construction crews haven’t yet broken ground.

In a way, the Maunakea controversy captures many of the tensions that are coming through in our Autumn magazine. The TMT would be the largest optical telescope in the northern hemisphere, a technological masterpiece of sorts that would allow astronomers to view deep into space and shed more light on the universes around us. Maunakea, a prime location for galaxy gazing, it is already dotted with 13 telescopes, including those pictured above, at a dozen different locations, each of which has come with its own cultural and environmental toll.

The Thirty Meter Telescope, like so many of our existing and developing technologies, promises us “more.” More information, more growth, more efficiency. But at what cost? Is our quest for more worth desecrating a long-marginalized people’s sacred space?

The TMT situation is still evolving. But I know that this weekend, I’ll be thinking of the Maunakea protectors, and hoping that in this case at least, everyone ends up agreeing that less is more.

In Solidarity,
Zoe Loftus-Farren
Managing Editor, Earth Island Journal
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WHAT WE'RE READING
The Deer Camp ([link removed])
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The Deer Camp: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them is a powerful, moving account about a broken family — a philandering father, his long-suffering wife, and his three sons who carry a deep anger towards their dad but crave his love at the same time — and a patch of degraded Maine woodland that heals them. Journalist and author Dean Kuipers’ memoir is very much in line with Nabhan’s thoughts on the restorative power of land.
This Land ([link removed])
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Christopher Ketcham was a regular Journal contributor for many years (now that he’s a big name, we can no longer afford him!), so we were thrilled to receive a copy of his debut book, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West. Written in true Ketcham style (read: borderline misanthropic), the book details, with much outrage, how public lands in the US are under assault as never before from federal land management agencies, Big Green groups, and ranchers. Ketcham, whose writing is being compared to that of his hero, Edward Abbey, makes a passionate call for protection of America’s last wild places.
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