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The construction of the 18-story, $1.4 billion Thirty-Meter Telescope atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii has been temporarily halted due to protests.
The campaign has garnered celebrity support and participants across the world:
Supporters of the project point out that there are already 13 telescopes built within that conservation zone. But none are as large as the latest planned structure, dubbed the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which would require the destruction of five acres of land.
The Honolulu-born Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa posted pictures on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #WeAreMaunaKea, That and the hashtag #ProtectMaunaKea have seen big jumps in use this week. San Francisco Giants' pitcher Madison Bumgarner, Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and Momoa's on-screen spouse, Emilia Clarke, and real-life partner, Lisa Bonet, also got involved.
Momoa's Instagram account is currently dedicated to the issue with a link to an online petition pasted as his status. The Instagram account @ProtectMaunakea also hosts pictures of hundreds of people who have posted signs in support of the conservation efforts. Organisers protested off social media as well by holding a worldwide sign waving with participants from Hawaii, Alaska, New York City, Las Vegas, Kentucky, Arizona, Tahiti and Tonga.
The Thirty-Meter Telecope's web site also has coverage.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:18PM
The land is pretty barren anyway, not much to destroy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Meter_Telescope#/media/File:Mauna_Kea_observatory.jpg [wikipedia.org]
The observatory sounds like it would be pretty awesome:
All this fuss because the mountain is the home of some god. I long for the day when religion learns its proper place in the universe.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @03:45AM
All this fuss because the mountain is the home of some god. I long for the day when religion learns its proper place in the universe.
No, you have fundamentally misunderstood the situation. Religion is an aspect of culture. What's going on here is yet another brick in the road paving over native hawaiian culture. If some consortium wanted to build on top of mt rushmore, or level the statute of liberty the outrage in the US with be deafening. While the terms are religious the nature of the act is the same in all of those cases.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @08:52AM
They just failed to first bribe the local religious leaders to tell their followers that their god wants to have yet another telescope on his mountain.