With access to summit blocked, telescope operators abandon Mauna Kea summit
The directors of existing telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea evacuated their employees Tuesday as a growing protest against the construction of TMT blocked access to the mountain.
Jessica Dempsey, the deputy director for the East Asian Observatory, said the organizations that run the observatories made a "joint decision" to withdraw all employees as a safety precaution. [...] The telescopes, Dempsey said, have millions of dollars of instrumentation that need constant maintenance. "This is a risk for us to have to step away at this point," she said. "This is not a decision we came to lightly, but want to emphasize the importance of safety for our staffs and the facilities."
Protesters at Mauna Kea welcomed the news Tuesday, with an eruption of cheers and hugs.
'Stolen lands': dozens arrested as Hawaiians protest $1.4bn telescope
Dozens of people have been arrested on Hawaii's Big Island this week after hundreds of protesters stood, lay and even chained themselves to structures in an effort to stop the construction of a billion-dollar space observatory at the summit of Hawaii's tallest mountain.
[...] [Organizer Kahoʻokahi] Kanuha and fellow protesters have vowed to continue fighting the telescope until construction is halted, and plan to continue peaceful protests. On Wednesday an estimated 1,000 demonstrators turned up at the site, with police issuing citations to 33 people.
Previously: Divisive Giant Telescope Cleared for Construction on Hawaiian Peak
Protesters Block Road in Attempt to Halt Thirty Meter Telescope Construction
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Divisive giant telescope cleared for construction on Hawaiian peak
Last week, the state of Hawaii gave astronomers a green light to begin to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which would rise on the volcanic peak of Mauna Kea as one of the largest telescopes in the world. Project leaders say they are set to begin construction after a 4-year delay caused by sit-down protests and court challenges from Native Hawaiians opposed to structures on a site they consider sacred. But some astronomers worry the threat of disruptions and even violence will persist.
"These are passionate people," says Richard Ellis, an astronomer at University College London who helped develop the TMT concept. "They know that once it gets going their case is weaker." Others say the project should do more to engage with the protesters. "We need to talk with people who disagree with us," says Thayne Currie, an astrophysicist the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, who works on Japan's Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.
Although legal barriers are now removed, opponents say they can still try to block access to the road that leads up to the 4200-meter-high summit. "What other tools do we have, apart from having people arrested in large numbers?" asks Kealoha Pisciotta, founder of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, one of the main opposition organizations. In 2015, 1000 protesters gathered on the mountain, but "there are way, way more people involved now," she says. The astronomers "may have won in the courts, but they haven't won the moral high ground."
Previously: Protests Temporarily Halt Thirty-Meter Telescope's Construction in Hawaii
Hawaiian Court Revokes Permit for Construction of Thirty-Meter-Telescope
Thirty Meter Telescope Considering Move as Hawaii Officials Open Hearing
Canary Islands Chosen as Backup Site for the Thirty-Meter Telescope
Hawaii Protesters Block Access Road To Stop Construction Of Massive Telescope
About 300 demonstrators are trying to halt construction on the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope, developers of which are supposed to break ground on Hawaii's Big Island this week. Before the sun came up on the summit of Mauna Kea, the island's tallest mountain, a group of about half a dozen protesters chained themselves to a grate in the road at the base of the dormant volcano in an attempt to block workers from accessing the only paved road onto the what they say is a sacred site.
Imai Winchester, a teacher from Oahu who was among the protesters chained to the road, said he arrived at about 3 a.m. local time. "A handful of us committed ourselves to this action to bring light to the situation here," Winchester told KHON. The goal of the civil disobedience, he said, is to inform people about the "desecration of our lands, the failure of the state and its agencies to properly manage something that is important." He added that he expected to be arrested for the nonviolent protest but that it is the group's "burden as well as our privilege to show our children and the rest of the world how much we love our land."
Daniel Meisenzahl, a spokesman for the University of Hawaii, a member of the international partnership of scientists behind the telescope, said it is unclear if the protest has delayed construction convoys.
Previously: Divisive Giant Telescope Cleared for Construction on Hawaiian Peak
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @12:22AM (4 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @12:23AM (1 child)
Paid protester.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @12:37AM
Europeans [wikipedia.org] have no reasons nor money. Who then?
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Friday July 19 2019, @01:18AM
This circus has been running for nearly a decade. The lawyers have jobs.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 19 2019, @03:13PM
They could be given jobs keeping protesters out.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:06AM (20 children)
Your virgin mountain has already been penetrated
“Since the creation of an access road in 1964, thirteen telescopes funded by eleven countries have been constructed at the summit”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea [wikipedia.org]
What’s the big deal this time?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:12AM (11 children)
Ah, this time leftist elements want to ensure US science falls behinder and behinder. How better than to stir up the local unemployed and uneducated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:34AM (3 children)
Well the good news is you can move to Cali and steal 950 bucks a day in shit from a store and they just fine you a ticket. No more jail time for you...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @03:02AM (1 child)
And if you're an illegal alien you also get a drivers license, healthcare, education, housing, and welfare.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @03:16AM
Don't forget the complimentary free Obamacare sex change.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @11:42AM
How about you try that? I'll get the popcorn....
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @03:12AM (6 children)
Shut-up little right-wing shitfuck. It's conservatards who are the biggest threat to science.
It's not "leftists" who try to force schools to teach "creationism" in science class. It's not "leftists" who always claim that evolution is "just a theory", or organize delibarate misinformation campaings against climate science and scientists.
And don't get me started on moon-landing hoaxers, flat-earthers, etc. All overwhelmingly conservative.
The only people hell-bent on dragging humanity back to the stone-age are regressive conservatards like you.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @05:07AM (3 children)
But evolution is only a theory..... BOOM!
The thing is that any discussion instantly turns into a slinging match that makes the American Chopper meme look tame.
There have in the past been several fraud cases where the fame of discovery drove the hype wagon on evolution. (early 20th century especially)
Everything needs to be scutinised, over and over. This is how they push quantum physics. Now if Neils Bohr's atom theory was taken as holy writ and never challenged - well. Same with all the evolution material - look at the evidence, then look again as the tools have improved. Carbon dating is not as flawless as you may have bee (mis)led to think. And that is just one test scientists rely on.
It is almost like Evolution is the state religion now and if you say anything against it, you are excommunicado (John Wick style).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 19 2019, @03:14PM
But gravity is only a theory!
(and a movie)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @04:06PM
Funny how creationists like you (and let's make one thing clear: you ARE a creationist; you're not fooling anyone) always try to instill uncertainty and doubt about the scientific method by trying to sound all rational and sciency themselves, making ample use of false dichotomies and logical falacies to try to drive their point. It cracks me up even more when they try to picture science in a bad light by liking it to religious absolutism (false equivalence) when we all know full well that what's making them push their own agenda is precisely the same religious (christian, to be more precise) absolutism.
But what sadens me is that they're doing all of this knowingly and on purpose, demonstrating the fact that they have no morals whatsoever. People with ethics don't need to be told that the delibarate use of misinformation, doubt, uncertainty, and fear to push a goal is inherently unethical, regardless of how "noble" said goal is percieved to be. After all, Al-Qaeda terrorists are also absolutely convinced that their goal is noble, and also believe that the end justifies the means, any means.
See ? I can make use of false equivalence too. :) But is it really ? ...
It is ironic that some christians, who claim to be the champions of morality, demonstrate by their actions that they have in fact no morals whatsoever.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday July 19 2019, @06:45PM
But God is only a fiction: a boogeyman to scare kids into doing right and scam money from people... and molest children if you are so inclined.
Are you a molester?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @03:55PM
It used to be that the right wing were the knuckle draggers, but damn, the radical left is giving them a real run for the title right now but for different reasons.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Friday July 19 2019, @09:03PM
Whenever I see a post that starts out by calling somebody a "shitfuck", I know it's going to be insightful, well though-out, and potentially capable of bringing the opposition closer to the poster's PoV.
That was sarcasm, in case you weren't sure. How is parent modded up? Where's his data on the moon-landing hoaxers being "overwhelmingly conservative"?
Regardless of your position on the telescope, or politics in general; parent's type of discourse is IMHO not constructive and not to be encouraged with Internet points even if they did post AC.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday July 19 2019, @03:22AM (5 children)
Social media.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday July 19 2019, @03:36AM (4 children)
Or, maybe 121 years after the US annexed their country because 5 massively wealthy families wanted slaves to work on their plantations, the Hawaiian people are still angry.
Who knows, maybe they're just over-reacting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @05:07AM (3 children)
Hawaii never had slavery.
But if there's one thing these professional agitators are consistent about, it's complete disregard for the actual history of Hawaii.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @06:48AM
And you know, Native Hawaiians, much like Native Americans, never made very good slaves. They would rather die than be enslaved. So like in the "new world", the whiteys had to import labor. In the (Ed) Case of Hawaii, it first was Portuguese. Then Chinese. After that, Japanese. And then Philipinos, all brought over to work sugar plantations. Now it is mostly Koreans, to run drugs, gambling dens, and prostitution. And, of course, "spiritual tourism", like Tulasi Gabbard and this "sacred mountain" nonsense.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 19 2019, @03:15PM
Huewei probably does have slavery.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday July 21 2019, @11:33PM
Of course Hawaii had slavery. They never called it that, because slavery is almost illegal in the US, but that's exactly what it was.
As another poster has noted however, Hawaiians make poor slaves, so the Big 5 had to import their slaves.
(Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Friday July 19 2019, @03:50AM (1 child)
It is the weirdo who makes everything about penetration again. Not sure what your fixation on that word is but you should see a shrink about it. I imagine you think that word will have an effect like yelling moist repeatedly. Mostly it looks like you are trying poorly to use the word of the day but the word never changes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @06:52AM
The Hawaiian word is "piko", meaning navel, belly-button. There is a lake on Mauna Kea, one of only two natural freshwater lakes in the Islands, both on the Big Island, and it is where the parents of newborns used to deposit the umbilical cords of their babies. Navel-gazing: star-gazing. Whateva, bra!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @12:29PM (1 child)
If the protesters want to make a difference, they need to get the political backing to not renew the lease.
The current lease includes planning for this event. UH would have to move out and clean off the mountain top.
That is a pretty drastic, but possible outcome. Seems like more that just a few protestors or the governor should have a say in it.
A state wide referendum is the right thing to do.
Starting a mega telescope this late in the lease presumes that the lease will be redone.
That seems less than an honorable way to do things.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @03:57PM
Right, because science should be subject to a public vote.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 19 2019, @07:42PM
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/07/19/breaking-news/thirty-meter-telescope-protesters-train-for-confrontation-with-authorities-on-mauna-kea/ [staradvertiser.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]