LONDON: Hawaiians feel that the telescope violates a sacred place, while scientists want it built because it will be a key asset to studying the universe.
The push to build the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, a sacred place to natives, is enraging many activists who are blocking roads and conducting other protests in order to get the project stopped.
The nonprofit TMT Observatory Corporation wants to build the telescope atop Mauna Kea as it is an ideal location to study the stars uninhibited, but locals feel that it is offensive to their culture to build on that site and want the project stopped. Nevertheless, the site was chosen in 2009 and Hawaii’s Board of Land and Natural Resources signed off on the project in 2011.
Any large construction project on Mauna Kea, which is considered protected land, must meet certain criteria, including that it may not have a substantial negative impact on the natural resources of the area.
The board agreed that it did not such thing, but local residents don’t agree, with many of them forming groups attempting to block the construction by filing a lawsuit to protect the ancient volcano from development, and even after construction was approved, protesters began trying to block the road near the summit of the mountain.
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