Hundreds form chain at University of Hawaii to protest Thirty Meter Telescope

[BumRushDaShow]

40. No - it's to show analogies about what was once pushed as "science"

that ultimately impacted humanity in a negative way.

If you want to stick with astronomy, what about all the debris in orbit right now?



(this is just a pic of the stuff big enough for NASA to track)

Yes, the benefit has been enormous - notably in terms of weather system tracking, communications, global positioning systems and mapping, and even peering into space (e.g., via Hubble, which offers a remarkable view of space beyond the distortions that occur due to the Earth's atmosphere). But the other side of that coin is the debris that is left in orbit - analogous to all the plastic crap (more "science&quot that litters the oceans. Cleaning that up is daunting, yet the debris continues to increase because it's not something that the average person can see or is aware of outside of those who look for the info.

I will give another analogy of "science" gone awry- the Wind Turbines... These were promoted with the insistence that they were "harmless" and a great way to harness "natural" energy. Yet now we know that the placement of many of these turbines in the "best locations" for capture of certain prevailing wind currents, have also often resulted in negative impacts to migrating birds. Additionally, they can or do produce subsonic radio waves (due to the massive movement of air), where the few folks who happened to be downwind from the units, were allegedly impacted by the persistent (barely or inaudible) "hum", resulting in chronic headaches and other ailments.

Europeans and their descendents have a historic propensity to bowl through the lands and people of non-European populations in their own quest for "exploration" and later for what they define as "science". But that "science" often lead to disasters like the Tuskegee Experiment, which is why many non-Europeans (and minority populations here in the U.S.) have reached the end of their ropes and have had enough, after centuries of this type of mentality. And justifying this telescope by saying "Well there are already 13 telescopes there" just dismisses the fact that the native Hawaiians had been reduced to a minority with a tiny population over the centuries, who did not then, and do not now, have the clout to say "no".

IMHO, the "telescope" debate has been raging about something that essentially uses the same sort of technology that was used in the 17th century, but on a increasingly larger scale. Why not get some of the best minds to come up with a different way and a different technology?