Telescope project irks Hawaii natives

HAWAII (AFP) — Anger is brewing on the Big Island of Hawaii over plans to build a giant telescope on a dormant volcano that is highly sacred to the region’s native population.

For months, hundreds of protesters have delayed the start of construction on Mauna Kea volcano of the so-called Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, which astronomers say will have a dozen times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The demonstrators, who have converged on the site peacefully, argue that the $1.4 billion project would sit on a volcano that is sacred to Native Hawaiians and would harm the environment.

Celebrities like Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa and Bruno Mars have lent their support to the protesters.

“What I realized today, and obviously I’ve been following this for years now, is that it’s bigger than a telescope,” Johnson, who lived in Hawaii as a child, reportedly said when he visited the site earlier this summer.

Work on the project — set to be completed by 2027 — was supposed to start in 2015 but has been hampered by repeated protests.

“Construction has been delayed for years because of this situation,” Christophe Dumas, a French astronomer and head of operations at TMT, told AFP. “The cost has also risen significantly… and the process to obtain a construction permit lasted 10 years.”

Protest leaders say the consortium of scientists behind the project can build their scope on a less controversial site, including on a mountain in Spain’s Canary Islands, where they say it would be a win-win situation for everyone.