Why Protesters Don't Want a Giant Telescope Atop This Hawaiian Volcano
Scientists want to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea, a sacred Hawaiian volcano.
People have been protesting the plans for a month, with supporters including actors Jason Momoa and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
While astronomers have selected alternate build sites for TMT, Mauna Kea remains their first choice.
Hawaiians are protesting the planned construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano considered to be "the realm of the gods" because it reaches into the clouds.
TMT, which comes with a price tag of $1.4 billion, is expected to be able to take photos that are 12 times sharper than the Hubble Telescope, according to Live Science. But it isn't the project's cost that has protesters concerned.
"This is about humanity, this is about empathy, this is about respecting, with a heart full of relevance, a culture," said actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who lived in Hawaii when he was a teenager.
Johnson, the most prominent protester in a group that also includes fellow actor and native Hawaiian Jason Momoa, said building the TMT on the sacred volcano would be a complete disregard for locals who see it as their church.
A post shared by therock (@therock) on Jul 25, 2019 at 9:47pm PDT
"Like a mother it protects us, it keeps us from harm," one of the protesters said about Mauna Kea, which sits on the Big Island and is the highest point in the entire Hawaiian archipelago.
Mamoa, meanwhile, took to Instagram to voice his displeasure, writing "TMT + MAUNA KEA = DESECRATION." (He also scribbled the message across his son's chest when they visited the island to protest.)
A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) on Aug 3, 2019 at 12:16pm PDT
On his own chest, Momoa wrote: "TMT + CANARY ISLANDS = DISCOVERY," in support of building the telescope abroad.
Per a statement on TMT's official website, the extensive search for TMT's site began in 2003. For five years, the researchers looked at atmospheric characteristics and narrowed the locations to Chile, Mexico, and Mauna Kea. Those characteristics included "optical turbulence levels as a function of height, cloud properties and atmospheric transmission, precipitable water vapor, and meteorological parameters such as wind speed, direction, air temperature, solar radiation and cooling rates of the ground."
The Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO) ultimately decided that Mauna Kea checked enough boxes and selected it as the preferred site for the TMT. But the TIO also chose "several alternative sites to ensure that construction can begin in a timely fashion." One of those alternate locations is the Spanish island of La Palma.
“We support science," Momoa wrote on Instagram, noting that Polynesians used the stars to sail the seas. "But this has to stop. You cannot build an 18-story building on our sacred mountain.”
You Might Also Like
