Slashdot Mirror
Hawaii Supreme Court Approves Thirty Meter Telescope On Mauna Kea (hawaiinewsnow.com)
Applehu Akbar shares a report from Hawaii News Now: After years of legal wrangling and protests, the Thirty Meter Telescope got a green light Tuesday from the state Supreme Court. In a 4-to-1 decision, the state's highest court ruled in favor of the telescope's construction atop Mauna Kea, effectively ending all legal avenues for contesting the controversial project unless the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the case. In a statement, TMT International Observatory Board of Governors Chairman Henry Yang said the body is "grateful" for the ruling and "committed to being good stewards on the mountain."
Slashdot reader Applehu Akbar adds: "Green anti-science organizations, such as Deep Green Resistance and Sierra Club, have been trying to stop TMT construction for years, in an expanded version of an earlier campaign to halt the construction of large research telescopes in southeastern Arizona. As in Arizona, their excuse was at first endangered species on the construction site, and subsequently native rights.
"TMT is an advanced world-class telescope designed to investigate and answer some of the most fundamental questions regarding our universe, including the formation of stars and galaxies after the Big Bang and how the universe evolved to its present form. Native Hawaiians will also be included in other direct benefits from the TMT," the court wrote. "Thus, use of the land by TMT is consistent with conservation and in furtherance of the self-sufficiency of the state."
"TMT is an advanced world-class telescope designed to investigate and answer some of the most fundamental questions regarding our universe, including the formation of stars and galaxies after the Big Bang and how the universe evolved to its present form. Native Hawaiians will also be included in other direct benefits from the TMT," the court wrote. "Thus, use of the land by TMT is consistent with conservation and in furtherance of the self-sufficiency of the state."
Strawman. Nobody is asking for a shopping mall on top of Moana Kea.
Moana Kea is uniquely adapted for the TMT. That some groups who claim to be "green" have tried to block the TMT using every excuse they could thus clearly and fairly defines these groups as "Green anti-science".
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Actually its the best location on US soil, but hey, if thats what you consider earth...
The Antarctic has some pretty major advantages (and challenges), however has a somewhat restricted view..
Tibet has a few locations that are outstanding..
The Atacama Desert and Equador have some pretty good (better than Hawaii) locations.
However this is a good location, and the people blocking it should be denied medical science, since they want to live without progress..
(Of course thats rarely the locals, they just get caught up in it, its a bunch of nothing-better-to-do whackjobs who travel around trying to block science 'because' )
Then nobody's land is disturbed, there's even less atmospheric distortion and you can move the telescope to point in any direction you like from any point in space you like.
Yes, it's more expensive, but the chief argument on this site for the ground telescope is that science should be done even when the ignorant object or when it affects their religious quality of life or involves taking things those people consider theirs.
I've no problems with that. Most rich people are ignorant, they consider money theirs, and money gives them a religious quality of life rather than a practical one.
Bet you ten boxes of doughnuts that right wingers will suddenly discover reasons why government would be bad for taking away their property, or for applying any of their other reasoning to them.
Mind you, I don't think that should matter. I think they should build a series of 30' telescopes in space, with interferometry. Not just in the optical range, but in other parts of the spectrum from microwave to UV.
A ten by ten interferometer would have the sensitivity to observe the surface of Proxima b. That's far more useful than a third swimming pool in a desert or a dozen McMansions nobody lives in. Give me the science.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Biodiversity at the peak of Mauna Kea? Have you been there? I have, its beautiful. Its far above the tree line, freezing cold, and nearly barren. Ahinahina grows there occasionally in the more sheltered spots, but it grows elsewhere and the cultivation / reintroduction is going well. Unless you kill all the wildlife that jumps the fences to eat the remaining naturally occurring species then this interesting adaptation of California Tarweed might be sort of lost. There isn't really anything else of interest up there except volcanic tundra, ancient quarry sites, and a few shrines. And people who claim you shouldn't do astronomy there out of respect for people to whom its sacred either have no idea who its sacred to, or want to forget their own history. If Kamehameha was alive he'd probably have loved TMT. (google Kaneakanoowaha)