Stop The Construction the TMT Telescope on Mauna Kea and the Arrest of Mauna Kea Protectors

[longship]

105. I have a healthy respect for intelligent discussion.

I have a rather less respect, or patience, for arguments based on rubbish, like volcano gods.

You have a rather blatant tell, my friend. You tipped your hand in your OP with your first pic, which was obviously a religious statement.

I was hoping that you were not going there because that would be illogical. But yup! That's where you ended up. Not with any ecological argument, but playing the culture card.

Some questions:

Do you actually think that the cutting edge scientists who care so much about science would willfully destroy a fragile ecosystem? Or do you think that they would locate their instrument on the most barren landscape possible? Where life struggles to cling onto life? Where grad students have to have oxygen bottles handy? Where little more than lichens flourish?

Your environmental arguments are vacuous. Be honest. This about the cultural objections, the ones most easily dispensed. Your first photo in your OP shows an obvious cultural artifact.

This is not at all about environment, because any scientist will attest to the fact that this is the one of the few places on the planet where there is no environment other than maybe lichens. Do you know what? That's why they build fucking world class telescopes there! And in the Atacama desert! And at the fucking South Pole! They build them where they have a clear view and where they do the least harm. The extent to which you do not understand this is the extent to which you do not know what the hell you are talking about.

These few areas, perfect for optical astronomy, are precious. Some people want to kill them for fucking volcano gods.

And give it up. At over 4,000 meters altitude there is little ecology. And after the TMT is built, I assure you that the lichens will still be there. It's not like the scientists are going to build condos up there. Not unless they start piping up oxygen. There's no budget for that, which is precisely why they use grad students.

Once the thing is built, there will be few people up there. It's over 4,000 fucking meters altitude! The only thing that lives there is lichens. If that. (Well, that and grad students. Save the lichens. Fuck the grad students!)

The TMT will be built. That's great.

As will the E-ELT in the Atacama desert. It will be about 10 meters larger than the TMT. But since it is in the Southern Hemisphere it has a different sky to look at. That's why we have two world class telescope sites. One North (Mauna Kea); one South (Atacama).

Get used to it.