Protesters Block Construction of Giant Hawaii Telescope

[Peace Patriot]

14. Thank you for these Hawaiian sources on the protesters views and movement.

I was just researching it myself, and I'm beginning to realize that this is a big and long term movement that likely resulted from wrongfully fast-tracked environmental impact processes--i.e., ordinary people were ignored, once again, and environmental review was inadequate. Also, this protest movement is broad-based and diverse, including Native Hawaiians, environmental groups, ordinary citizens, ASTRONOMERS (see below) and celebrities (such as World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner and "Game of Thrones" star Jason Mamoa). This is very decidedly NOT "a few kooks."

And the issues go beyond Native Hawaiian sacred sites, and include environmental impacts (this is a large footprint telescope that will be 18 stories high--both a discrete and a cumulative impact, given the 13 other telescopes), the use of public lands that were set aside for conservation, the use of public funds, and disregard for these important matters in the decision-making process.

Here is some further information:

BBC: Mauna Kea defenders protest against 18-storey high telescope
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32239000

Everything You Need To Know About The Viral Protests Against A Hawaii Telescope
(excellent photos: See the ones labeled "Hawaii before" and "Hawaii after" for impacts of the telescopes)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/hawaii-telescope-protests-tmt-mauna-kea_n_7044164.html

Using the hashtags #DecolonizeSTEM and #DecolonizeAstronomy on Twitter, many scientists weighed in about their conflicted emotions regarding TMT. The project “is predicated on this idea that we have some permission to take over these spaces and use them for scientific research,” Adam Burgasser, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of California, San Diego, told BuzzFeed. “Even though I benefit greatly from that professionally, I don’t think we can make that assumption that we have rights to this mountain," he added.--Huffington Post (my emphasis)

Thirty Meter Telescope protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Meter_Telescope_protests

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I still DON'T KNOW whether I think that the telescope builders should abandon this site and go elsewhere (they do have other options). I am so tantalized by the prospects for mind-boggling new discoveries about the Universe, including (but not limited to) the search for other lifeforms and sentient beings! This telescope will greatly advance those discoveries, by many orders of magnitude.

In a way, I--and I think many others--are starving for this expanded view of existence, because our own society has been so damaged by the greed and power of the uber-rich, and the wrongful and disastrous path of war and bullying of others. Some of our young people feel so bereft of a future, feel that life is so meaningless, that they go shoot up kindergartens and churches. It is appalling! And our democracy seems powerless to do anything about it. Is there nothing good, and worthy, that our society can produce? Or are we just chattels of those who put high-powered weapons into the hands of the hopeless-feeling young? The latter seems to be our "signature"--mass killings by lost youngsters; also, racist killings by the police. Astronomy, astrophysics, space exploration offer hope that we can do something right.

Well, the protesters have caused me to THINK. And those "before" and "after" photos are deeply impressive. These telescopes absolutely destroy the natural landscape, even without the new bigger one. The current degradation is no argument FOR further degradation. (I've heard that one too often from logging corporations, who use the lack of endangered species as an excuse to further destroy the forest, and also cheat and lie to get around protecting endangered species and other resources.) I am torn, like the above-mentioned astronomers who also want the new telescope. I can SEE what the protestors are talking about, and it IS real. It is neither a minor matter nor a "kooky" one. Do we further degrade a bit of our increasingly degraded, beautiful, bountiful Mother Earth, in order to see 13 billion years back to the beginning of it all, to see how beautiful and amazing all THAT is, all that "out there," and ignore those who love what's IN here, now?

I fear that the protestors will be just run over, because it is a Big Tech thing, and the rich and the powerful like Big Tech things. But it's not just any Tech--it's ASTRONOMY, one of MY biggest loves!

Torn.