Hawaii's Lt. Governor questions inevitability of Mauna Kea telescope

Hundreds of protesters have converged on the road leading to the top of Mauna Kea.

As the protests against the construction of a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea entered its second week, authorities sought a way to deescalate the tension and avoid any violence.

After a lengthy visit Monday with TMT protesters blocking access to Mauna Kea’s summit, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the controversial telescope project might have to “move on” if an agreement with its opponents can’t be reached.

Protesters numbering 1500 camped out at the side of the road leading up to the 5-acre site for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), protesters consider the dormant volcano, Mauna Kea, a sacred mountain to Native Hawaiians.

There are already 13 observatories on the mountain but they would be dwarfed by the $1-billion TMT, which would stand 18 stories high. If built, the Thirty Meter Telescope would be capable of capturing images 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.

“We are not anti-science,” says Pua Case, one of more outspoken Native Hawaiian activists protesting the TMT. “We are against the building of anything 18 stories over our watershed, water aquifers, on our sacred mountain. It could have been anything; it just happens to be a telescope.”

Lt. Gov. Green, the highest ranking official to visit the site, also said he’d urged Japanese American Gov. David Ige to remove law enforcement from the mountain. Last week the governor assigned 80 members of the Hawaii National Guard to secure the mountain site.

“One project can’t be allowed to disrupt the fabric of our state’s ohana,” Green told Hawaii News Now. “So if there can’t be a brokered peace that prevents that, then the TMT would have to move on.

“I think we have to have a reckoning once and for all about if TMT should go forward," Green said. "If we go forward with the TMT without absolute buy-in from the Hawaiian people that will mean that we have not respected the Hawaiian people and after all, we are in Hawaii.”

In a statement, TMT officials said they remain “hopeful” that the project “can find a way forward." The statement continued: "TMT has become an icon for larger issues within the community. We respect those who express opposition and understand the pain they feel. However, whether or not TMT is built will not bring closure to it. We remain hopeful that we can find a way forward, with mutual respect.”

In an email to Popular Science, Scott Ishikawa of Becker Communications, who identified himself as "the spokesperson with the Thirty Meter Telescope project," wrote "We respect the rights of everyone—both supporters and protesters—to express their opinions." The mountain is special, he went on, and TMT is working to "protect and conserve Mauna Kea's cultural and natural resources, becoming a model of sustainable astronomy."

“The selected site below the summit has no archaeological shrines or features and no burials,” he went on. “It has also been documented that the site was not used for traditional or customary cultural practises.”

Meanwhile, over the weekend, demonstrations and marches against the construction of the observatory spread to Waikiki, Alaska, Maui, Las Vegas, San Francisco  and Times Square in New York City. 

The Standing Rock Sioux also sent a delegation to Hawaii in support of Native Hawaiians' quest for national recognition as an indigenous people and the Hawaiians' right to protect their sacred lands.

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