Activists Opposing Construction of World’s Most Advanced Telescope on Hawaiian Mountaintop Protest at Caltech

A group of about 20 activists comprised of Hawaiian transplants, cultural practitioners and Native Americans rallied in front of Caltech’s Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics Friday afternoon to speak out against the proposed construction atop Hawaii’s Maunakea mountain of what would be the world’s most advanced telescope.

The $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope project is a partnership among six of the world’s leading astronomical organizations, including Caltech, where the nonprofit organization which manages the project is headquartered.

The construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope has been a slow process since the project broke ground in 2014. The project continues to fuel a contentious dispute between native Hawaiians who fear desecration of what they say is sacred land and the project’s scientists who want to pursue important discoveries about the universe.

“We’re here because we want to show our people back home in Hawaii that we stand in solidarity with them,” said Hawaiian native and activist leader Mikilani Young.

“They’re trying to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on our sacred mountain and where our ancestors are buried,” said Young. “We don’t want them to build it.”

According to Young, Maunakea is considered by many to be Hawaii’s spiritual grandmother.

“It just shouldn’t be. It’s hard to explain to a person who is science minded and I’m sure a science mind would have a difficult time explaining to someone who’s very spiritual minded. For us, it’s just not appropriate. In our culture no one was supposed to be allowed up there, not even us, unless you were a high priest,” said Young.

Thirty Meter Telescope Executive Director Ed Stone said the project team understands the importance of the site to Hawaiians.

“It’s a cultural issue, it’s a religious issue and in some cases it’s a sovereignty issue — [some] feel that the U.S. illegally took over Hawaii — so there are a number of different aspects of opposition,” explained Stone.

“We believe there can be a balance between science and culture on Maunakea and we are doing what we can to help provide that balance,” Stone said.

He pointed to the fact that the team has retained hydrologists and archeologists to be certain that construction won’t disturb area aquifers or sacred burial grounds.

Once completed, Thirty Meter Telescope promises to provide vivid and cutting-edge images of everything from exoplanets to distant galaxies.

If the Thirty Meter Telescope is built in Hawaii, it will be the most powerful telescope in the world.

Equipped with a 30-meter primary mirror, the Thirty Meter Telescope will have 144 times the light collecting area of the Hubble and have spatial resolution at near-infrared and wavelengths 10 times that of Hubble’s.

“This is the best site in the northern hemisphere,” explained Stone who said that it has the least fluctuation of wind patterns which makes for the best seeing of stars.

“It pushes our capability to the point where we can see back to the era where the first stars formed and where there was first star light in the universe,” said Stone.

Astronomy aside, Hawaiians like Young say their ancestors are laid to rest on Maunakea and should be respected.

“For us it is ‘enough is enough’ building on our sacred mountains. We have been fighting them since the early 1970s and they just continuously just keep building without our permission — without even asking us as Hawaiians. It is seeded land. It belongs to the Hawaiians,” Young said.

Young has been to the site at Maunakea as well as the other 13 telescopes which operate in the region.

“Just to have one telescope up there is already desecration,” said Young.

According to the Thirty Meter Telescope website, several archaeological inventory surveys conducted in the area confirm there are no known burial sites or other historic features on or near the planned telescope location on Maunakea.

Activists are also concerned about contamination of the mountain’s water supply by the telescope’s construction and operation. But Stone says in reality, Maunakea is not a dominant water source on the island.

“The rain falling on Maunakea is not a major source of water. All the water on the top that we use, we truck up because there is no natural source up there that we can use. All of that water is later trucked back down as waste water. None of it is discharged on the ground — so there’s no way that this observatory can affect the water that people will be drinking,” explained Stone.

According to Stone, the top of the mountain is rather dry compared to the nearest city on the coast approximately 20 miles away. The mountaintop receives about eight inches of rain a year, he said. The annual rainfall on the coast reaches 130 inches per year.

Throughout the planning process for the Thirty Meter Telescope, officials said they have made a concerted effort to ensure that Thirty Meter Telescope’s operations are respectful to traditional cultural practices in the area.

“This is a sacred site to some Hawaiians and that’s why we are following the State process very carefully because the State is determining what is an appropriate use,” said Stone.

The project’s overseers are actively looking for alternative sites just in case Hawaii proves to be too inhospitable.

“This is a process which has its own momentum,” said Stone who hopes the Bureau of Land and Natural Resources announces a decision by October.

Due to the uncertainty in this process, an alternative site has been developed to possible house the Thirty Meter Telescope in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain.

Regardless of what site will be determined to house the Thirty Meter Telescope, construction is scheduled to begin by April, 2018 and is estimated to take approximately eight to ten years to complete.