Respect Pele: No More Geothermal!
August 15, 2013 comments on “Geothermal Public Health Assessment” Draft V-3 7/23/13
(Background: Mayor Billie Kenoi contracted Peter Adler, PhD at a cost of $50,000 to form a volunteer study group to do a “Geothermal Public health Assessment.” That Assessment draft can be viewed here http://www.accord3.com/pg68.cfm
My testimony at the Pahoa Community Center 3:30PM Public Hearing are below.
by Jim Albertini for Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org
1. I commend the members of the study group for all their hard volunteer work and good faith efforts in preparing
the assessment. I support the findings and recommendations in the assessment but with some additions.
I also support the points raised about the assessment by members of Puna Pono Alliance in an email sent out by the group yesterday
- A main point I want to speak to is that despite good faith efforts, we sometimes lose sight of the forest for the trees. More than 20 years ago in the struggle to save the Wao Kele O Puna rainforest from destruction by 500 MW of geothermal planned for that area, a very important video was put together by the Pele Defense Fund entitled “Pele’s Appeal.” I know that many of you in the study group have seen this video. Besides the importance of saving the forest, the video raises profound questions. What are the psychological health impacts to Native Hawaiian practitioners of geothermal drilling into the Hawaiian deity – Pele? Everyone in this room knows that Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire, the goddess of the Volcano. How does geothermal drilling into Pele affect the health of an entire race of people when their spiritual beliefs are not respected, but in fact, desecrated by geothermal drilling into Pele. In the Geothermal Public Health Assessment p. 33 Section 4 General Findings. It states the sole focus of the assessment is “what health stressors have been created by geothermal?” Well, the psychological health effects of geothermal drilling on native Hawaiians religious belief in Pele as a deity was grossly overlooked.
- I note that no Native Hawaiians, especially Pele Practitioners, were on the Study group. Dr. Maile Tuali’i, PhD from Honolulu was suppose to be a member on the study group but had to withdraw leaving no one to represent a native Hawaiian cultural and religious perspective. Surely, there were others that could have been invited: Palikapu Dedman of the Pele Defense Fund, Dr. Emmett Aluli, UH Dept. of Hawaiian Studies, many of Puna’s Hawaiian Cultural practitioners, etc.
- My main recommendation is this: Include as a separate recommended action on page 8 the need for a comprehensive study of the psychological health effect of geothermal drilling on Native Hawaiian religious belief in Pele as a deity. Put this at the top of the list of your 7 or 8 other recommendations. By putting this at the top of the list of recommendations, you would be showing respect for Hawaii’s host people and culture. You would be saying clearly that respect for Native Hawaiian religious beliefs is a top priority and the responsibility of all of us who now call Hawaii home. Also list the video “Pele’s Appeal” in the Bibliography resource list.
- I would further recommend that the study group calls for a complete moratorium on any new geothermal development until all the recommendations called for in this assessment are completed. It’s common sense. Before you cause impacts, you first need to study and understand the possible impacts of the proposed actions. Like the EIS process. You study first to eliminate or minimize the impacts. Otherwise the cart’s before the horse. The geothermal cart has been before the horse for over 30 years. Put a stop to that. Call for a halt to any new geothermal before your recommendations are completed.
Mahalo.
Jim Albertini
