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Astrophysicists to Hawaii: Stop ‘Criminalizing’ Telescope Protesters

A group of international astrophysicists and astronomers are speaking out against what they call the “criminalization” of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and their allies protesting the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s “big island.”

In an

Demonstrators gather to block a road at the base of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Monday, July 15, 2019, in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

 

Protesters insist they won’t back down and are calling on Hawaii Governor David Ige to rescind an  emergency proclamation he issued Wednesday that broadens the state’s power to restrict access to Maunakea and clear the way for construction crews.

The proclamation followed the arrest of a group of more than 30 activists who refused to move from the site Wednesday.

‘Reserved for the gods’

In February, Lanakila Mangauil, activist and director of the

FILE – Observatories and telescopes sit atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain and designated construction site for a new $1.4 billion telescope, near Hilo, Hawaii, Aug. 31, 2015.

‘Probing time and space’

The University of California and the California Institute of Technology in 2003 began developing the new telescope which they say will allow astronomers an unprecedented view of the universe, perhaps as far back as the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago.

One of the hot topics in astronomy now is figuring out what happened between Big Bang and what happened with the first generation of galaxies,” Doug Simons, director of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which has been operating on Mauna Kea since 1979, told VOA in an earlier interview. “These big telescopes will be first opportunity to probe time and space.”

Simons also said he respects the protesters, explaining that Mauna Kea is part of land that belonged to the Hawaiian Kingdom before it was overthrown in 1893 with support from the U.S.

“And that is an open wound from a very proud internationally-recognized kingdom,” Simons said.  “That sense of injustice has perpetuated until today.”

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