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from the they-will-just-have-to-hubble-along dept.
From Nature.com:
Hawaii's supreme court has ruled that the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of the mountain Mauna Kea is invalid. The 2 December decision is a major blow to the international consortium backing the US$1.5-billion telescope, and a win for the Native Hawaiians who have protested against its construction on what they regard as a sacred summit.
And the top reddit comment on the article, which I found neatly summed up the situation.
I spent time in Hawaii and talked to locals that were born and raised there about this issue. Its polarizing.
People against it brought up the need for spirituality and respect for the Hawaiian culture lost over hundred of years of Western influence.
Argument for the telescope, however, claimed that building it would do nothing but respect their history. How did the ancient Hawaiians get to the island? They used the stars. It was "in their blood" to understand the heavens. Most of the those complaining are young disenfranchised people struggling in one of the crappiest economies in America.
Of course this could be a generalization based on second hand observation.
As for me, as big as these telescopes are, they look like ants on top of these massive volcanoes. Ruining the scenery is nonsense.
We covered the Groundbreaking for World's Largest Telescope nearly a month ago.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by tizan on Saturday December 05 2015, @12:15AM
There might have been mistakes and bad politics etc...
But there are only 2 places in the world for such a telescope ... Hawaii and Chile
So if we are to do such development and science we have to go to these two places...
There are plenty of telescopes up there...so what is the issue:
I think Hawaiians are partly reacting to the way some telescope operators dump stuff around the mountain etc.....ram battering your way for the next telescope brought it to a boil.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @01:33AM
There's a better place than both of those... About 100 miles straight up↑
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:49AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:52AM
More importantly, the local populating has elected to fight 1.5 billion dollars in development. With such prosperity, perhaps we could reallocate their federal tax funds to build out NASA instead. Let them be unemployed in their spiritual paradise.