I fucking LOVE space. I'm studying to become an astrophysicist, I've literally structured my future around my love for space. Naturally, that involves an admiration of and appreciation for telescopes. I have no relation whatsoever to Hawaii, but I am in a position to really benefit from the TMT. Someday I might get to analyze data it has observed.
If this were about me and my culture (assuming it had a natural landmark my people considered as sacred as the Hawaiian people consider Mauna a Wakea), I would've probably supported the TMT being built on such a landmark still. I have little sense of spirituality, but for me building a device to scour the heavens would be a fitting way to celebrate and respect a tradition of appreciating nature. If Native Hawaiians held counsel among themselves without coercion someday and decided somehow that they'd be okay with the TMT, I'd celebrate that, because that would mean we would be getting an incredible amount of significant astronomical data for decades to come.
And
not one of that matters one bit. I'm still against the TMT being built on Mauna Kea.
Astronomy is basically looking up at the sky. It's a beautiful -and harrowing- thing, it's fascinating, it's an ancient tradition. I've made it, perhaps, my life's purpose.
And thanks to that passion for astronomy, I KNOW that nothing about it should be harmful. It's possible to look up at the sky without hurting other people. And it's not worth hurting people for, either. I don't want astronomy to be tainted by such a legacy.
And clearly, the scale of the protests shows that there's significant dissent from Native Hawaiians. If they wouldn't feel hurt by the construction and operation of the telescope, they wouldn't be protesting. That's enough for me to understand that there's no consensus among the natives of Hawaii, and that in itself is enough reason to be skeptical about TMT's place on the Maunakea summit at least.
And of course, the parallels to colonialism are still there.
The permits for the construction of the TMT weren't given by Native Hawaiians, the TMT didn't report to Native Hawaiians, the courts in which subsequent cases were held didn't follow a law determined by Native Hawaiians. It's not the Native Hawaiians who took law enforcement officers up there a month ago to deter protesters, it's not the Native Hawaiians who arrested protesters.
Everything these protesters face -legally or otherwise- is imposed upon them by a government that invaded them in the past.
If you want the TMT on Mauna Kea to be a thing the correct stance to take would be to understand and respect Native Hawaiians' right to self-determination (and determination of the future of a site central to their culture), and hope that they'll agree with you someday, while standing against current operations by the government on Mauna Kea, as they're doing nothing but trampling on a nation's society, culture and history.
Do we really need another billion dollar telescope looking at things we've already seen from other billion dollar telescopes? Some in this thread fail to see the importance of the sacred land. I fail to see the importance of this telescope.
The TMT will be basically a generational leap in astronomical observation (regardless of where it is ultimately built). It's designed to be able to detect remarkably faint amounts of energy over literally astronomical distances, and also it being in the Northern Hemisphere is important for the telescope to be able to verify observations made by telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere. It'll be an upgrade that isn't possible on currently existing telescopes. It's like getting prescription glasses for the first time and being able to read at far or close distances.
As with much of cutting-edge science, it is costly (money wise), but it would be a major boon to modern astrophysics, like what CERN is to particle physics.
I don't get how people are equating a telescope with say an oil pipeline or harmful experiments towards minorities. The telescope would be a net benefit to society and not harm the environment or any people in any meaningful way. There are already other telescopes on the mountain and many natives seem to be in favor of it.
Possible mismanagement and environmental damage -reportedly previously happened with other telescopes on the summit- is harm. Harming cultures of native peoples who have already been put through colonialism is harm.
