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

[longship]

110. This petition is utter rubbish.

First, the Mauna Kea summit is over 4,000 meters altitude. Nothing lives up there. It is as barren as anywhere on the planet. That is why they have been building world class telescopes on that summit since the 1960's. There are already 13 world class telescopes there.

Second, Mauna Kea is one of two best places on the planet for visual astronomy. The other is the Atacama desert high in the Chilean Andes, probably the driest place on the planet. But the Atacama is in the Southern Hemisphere and Mauna Kea is in the Northern Hemisphere. To do world class astronomy one needs observatories in both hemispheres because the Earth does not flip over... at least not recently.

Now these people who are opposed to the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope are arguing that their native culture, or the environment are being destroyed. It is really, really easy to destroy both arguments.

Let's get rid of the cultural one first, since it is the easiest. Look at the summit of Mauna Kea.


Do you see those buildings? Each houses a world class optical telescope, all amongst the largest on the planet. The Mauna Kea observatory began in the 1960's and has grown since. Since then it has always been the cutting edge observatory in the Northern Hemisphere, bar none.

But where were these demonstrators decades ago? Wasn't their volcano god pissed about these older world class telescopes? At what size do volcano gods get pissed about world class telescopes? Or is it just loonies who claim to speak for volcano gods who get pissed?

The above picture shows the summit and all the telescopes there. One will note that there is no vegetation evident at above 4000 meters altitude -- more on that in a bit. But when have you heard of any demonstrations opposing the building of these other telescopes, which are all world class, largest of their kind?

That's right. There wasn't any coverage of demonstrations. Because there were not many demonstrations at all. Hawaii was apparently proud to be the host of the most prestigious astronomical observatory in the Northern Hemisphere. Second to none other.

But now some ignorant douche bags want to undo all of that. In the name of a volcano god, one more big telescope is one too many. It does not matter that this instrument will likely bring some incredible new science and technology to the 50th state, as it has for decades at the Mauna Kea summit. But the volcano gods are somehow pissed about this one instrument but have been puzzlingly quiet about all the rest.

And don't give me shit about the ecology. The reason why world class observatories are built on high peaks is so they are above much of the atmosphere. But above the more than 4000 meter Mauna Kea summit, there is precious little flora and no fauna. Look at the picture. No plants in sight because they just don't grow at that altitude. So the environmental argument is a non starter. Plus, the altitude is so fucking high that few people work there. There's oxygen bottles just in case. Much of it is automated. There will never be condominiums at Mauna Kea observatory. Just the scopes.

Observers don't even need to go to the summit. The observatory's main center is down the mountain where people do not need oxygen to work. In fact, they don't even need to be in Hawaii. Yup! It's not only automated, it's connected via the Intertubes. So a researcher from UC Berkeley can operate the huge Keck scope in real time from the comfort of her office in California. All told, that's a very small summit footprint for such a large machine.

The TMT will be the same, only better. Yup, it's much bigger, but it will push the technology much further. And there will also be the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) already begun in the Atacama. About 10 meters larger, it will be the granddaddy but will cover the Southern Hemisphere.

There are two great world class observatories on the planet, one in the north (Mauna Kea) and one in the south (Atacama). Some people would shut down one of them for a volcano god.