The debate over the Thirty Meter Telescope planned for Mauna Kea has generated more heat than light in recent weeks, so much so that people who deserve to have a voice may have backed away, hesitant even to touch such a hot subject.
The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs will host the next chapter in that ongoing chronicle at its Thursday meeting, as the board of trustees revisits the official OHA position supporting the controversial project led by an astronomy consortium in cooperation with the University of Hawaii.
As the principal advocate for the Native Hawaiian community, OHA has a duty to encourage all opinions, rejecting the combativeness of recent weeks.
The voices that have been drowned out lately — the ones making the case that the TMT, carefully managed, would benefit education in both science and Native Hawaiian history and culture — need to be heard, too.
Further, one key voice in support that needs to be heard, but has fallen mute, is that of Gov. David Ige. As leader of this diversified state, Ige should be making a strong statement in support of this worthwhile project. TMT would be the most advanced telescope on Earth — enabling study of celestial objects in our Milky Way, scientists say, as well as neighboring galaxies "at the very edge of the observable universe, near the beginning of time." This is the very kind of prestigious, prominent project UH should embrace.
This week’s OHA meeting comes in the context of various lapses, starting with lax standards that allowed protesters inadvertently to bring invasive ants into an environment they say they cherish.
More distressingly, there was a violently threatening verbal assault on a project supporter who had launched a pro-TMT petition drive. The attack was posted on a page generally visible to anyone on Facebook by a protester who is part of a local campaign to raise money against the TMT. The poster later apologized, but not before his rant put out a disturbing message of intimidation.
Another episode, seemingly not homegrown, was the series of cyberattacks on state government and TMT websites. The Operation Green Rights blog claims a connection to the hacker group Anonymous, and also claimed responsibility for this particular hack.
Kealoha Pisciotta, a longstanding member of the telescope opposition, took the right steps by disavowing such destructiveness and urging the start of a dialogue instead.
"We don’t need to shut things down," she said. "We need to open things up."
That’s encouraging to hear. The movement needs to put distance between itself and such deplorable actions, including the refusal to accept money raised associated with the use of abusive tactics.
There’s been a timeout on site work at Mauna Kea, time that should be put to better use by attempting "to open things up" in the search for compromise.
Despite all the rhetoric, we hope fervently that compromise is possible. For one thing, allowing a vocal minority to stop the project cold, even though the TMT went through seven years of review and consultation, sends a terrible message to the world. The message: No matter what process is followed, new enterprises in Hawaii ultimately get shut down.
Granted, legal challenges still remain before TMT work is fully enabled. However, assuming the project does clear the hurdles, TMT officials should be able to proceed — and this state should have their back. The permission granted should allow for peaceful, free expression in protest but also ensure the safety of work crews on the site.
Over the years, the state has not provided proper stewardship of such an important and truly special place. There are 13 telescopes up there now, the result of construction that hasn’t been executed with care.
The opposition movement has yielded positive improvements such as better management planning, including the plans to decommission and remove obsolete structures. It behooves the research community to hew firmly to those plans.
Above all, astronomy has offered the promise of educational opportunities for Hawaii’s students, those who visit the associated ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, those who gain from the scholarships program and those who advance to careers in this field.
Many Native Hawaiians, including traditional navigator Chad Kalepa Baybayan, have argued that a scientific instrument of this caliber does not constitute desecration, but is consistent with the work of the ancestors, who also tapped the resources of the mountain.
TMT, he wrote in a profound 2013 essay, will "vastly increase the capacity for the kind of scientific research vital to the quest for mankind’s future."
Losing this opportunity would be a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
