One of the leading groups opposed to building the world's largest telescope at the summit of Hawaii's revered Mauna Kea volcano vows the fight against the space exploration site is far from over, despite a state panel's vote last week in favor of the project.
"We're not going to go away because of one bad ruling," Nelson Ho, co-chair of the Mauna Kea Issues Committee from the Sierra Club's Hawaii Chapter, told Latinos Post. "We're in the early rounds of the boxing match and this is a twelve-rounder."
Hawaii's Board of Land and Natural Resources approved plans for the so-called Thirty Meter Telescope, a collaboration between the University of California system, the California Institute of Technology, or, Caltech, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy. China, India and Japan have also joined the effort as governmental partners.
According to a report in the Associated Press, the telescope's primary mirror would measure nearly 100 feet (30 meters) long and be able to collect data from an area nine times greater than that scanned by the largest optical telescopes used today.
The Thirty Meter Telescope's images would also be three times sharper than anything currently captured.
That improved range and strength would help researchers see an estimated 13 billion light years away.
The next procedural step for the group spearheading the TMT project is to negotiate a sublease for the site with the University of Hawaii, which itself leases the summit area from the state.
The Sierra Club and a handful of other environmental and Native Hawaiian culture organizations assert the TMT will severely damage the area atop the volcano, which Native Hawaiian traditions hold as sacred, a gateway to the afterlife that once only high chiefs and spiritual leaders were allowed to visit.
At least one ancient burial site is confirmed on the mountain, which naturalists also say is one of the last pristine environments in Hawaii, let alone the world.
When it was planning the since-abandoned Outrigger Telescoping Project on Mauna Kea in the early 2000s, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration completed a study of the environmental impact of astronomical research facilities on the area, which in part concluded, "From a cumulative perspective, the impact of past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future activities on cultural and biological resources is substantial, adverse and significant."
Kealoha Pisciotta, president of the native culture-oriented group Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, which roughly translates to Mauna Kea Gathering Place, explained in a 2011 piece posted at kahea.org that Mauna Kea is for the practitioners of Native Hawaiian beliefs what Mecca is for those who follow Islam, or Mount Sinai is for Christians.
"Even if other sacred sites around the world were good sites for astronomy it is not likely that astronomy proponents would consider proposing what they are for Mauna Kea," Pisciotta said. "Observatories are not being proposed or built on top of Mount Fuji, because it is a place of national importance and because it is held in spiritual reverence by the people of Japan.
"No one has proposed to level Mecca or Mount Sinai either," she continued. "Would not the worshippers of Islam be upset if the dome of the rock was being leveled to put observatories on it? Or would not the Catholic people be upset if the Vatican was going to be taken down so a McDonalds[sic] or a bunch of unrelated developments could sit there instead?"
Pisciotta continued in the 2011 piece that "I have always supported astronomy...however, I do not believe it is of so much importance that it should be allowed to overtake and destroy everything else in its wake."
She said she was focused on "protecting the cultural and natural resources of Mauna Kea," which are genuinely threatened, unlike the world's network of 93 astronomical study sites across the globe. "Here on Mauna Kea many of the plant and animal species can only be found on Mauna Kea."
The volcano is, among other things, the natural habitat of the rare flightless wekiu bug, which lives at the summit and feeds on the remains of other insects.
Ho, who personally took up the cause of protecting Mauna Kea in the early 1980s, suggested there are an array of strong cultural, religious and environmental reasons the telescope project should be thwarted.
As well, both the world's astronomical community and those opposed to the proposed TMT site have already identified several other potential locations for the telescope that would be far less problematic.
That said, Ho alleges the main reason plans for the Mauna Kea site have progressed as far as they have is because "the University of Hawaii is in such great need of having the Number One astronomical facility in the world...it's a matter of selfish pride."
Officials from the University of Hawaii were not immediately available for comment.
In actuality, no matter where the TMT is eventually built, it's likely it wouldn't hold the bragging rights as Earth's largest telescope installation for very long, if ever.
A group of European countries has already announced plans for the even larger European Extremely Large Telescope, which will have a mirror that measures 138 feet, or 42 meters.
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