Judge overturns BLNRs approval of TMT sublease for Mauna Kea telescope

[TexasTowelie]

HILO — A Hilo Circuit Court judge on Thursday overturned the state’s approval of the Thirty Meter Telescope’s sublease for Mauna Kea.

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., which was representing plaintiff E. Kalani Flores, said Judge Greg Nakamura ruled the state Board of Land and Natural Resources violated their client’s constitutional rights for rejecting his request for a contested case hearing before it consented to the agreement in 2014.

The sublease is between TMT International Observatory and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, which holds a master lease for much of the mountain. At the time, the Land Board said the decision was a matter of internal management, not subject to the quasi-judicial hearings.

“To me, it confirms that Native Hawaiian cultural practices have a right to be involved in these agency decisions,” said NHLC attorney David Kopper. “And their interests are no less important than other commercial interests.”

Read more: http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-news/judge-overturns-blnr-s-approval-tmt-sublease

[n2doc]

1. Good n/t

[longship]

2. No. Not good.

The TMT is to be built on already set aside astronomy preserve, set aside decades ago. The reason this was done is because the Mauna Kea summit is the most exquisite site in the Northern Hemisphere for visual astronomy.

Then there's the fact that the Mauna Kea summit is huge -- a mountain much larger than Everest, of which the astronomy preserve is a rather small part (contrary to what the article in the OP states -- facts matter, damn it!).

Finally, one of the objections, possibly the main one, is that building such a telescope up there disrespects native heritage and culture. This boggles my mind because there would be no native culture on Hawaii if it weren't for their ancestors traversing the Pacific in canoes by navigating by the fucking stars!

Build the TMT!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Right! I understand emotional attachments to certain lands, even ones...

that were often destroyed by the original owners, but this "sacred land" crap gets ridiculous. It's become a ready excuse to deny progress. Mauna Kea was a native mining operation until Europeans showed them better ways to screw up the land.

We're not digging up graves, so who are these gods of the mountain and snow that scientific study can't progress, even if ecological concerns are taken into account?

[longship]

4. Oh and the ecological concerns are foremost.

The astronomical preserve is also an ecological preserve. Very little lives at that altitude, least of all the astronomers who operate the telescopes remotely. The staff at the summit is bare bones, and all are altitude acclimated. Still, there's supplemental oxygen available there in case of altitude sickness.

But back to the ecology. When the large telescopes in the preserve are built the rule is that there shall be minimal environmental impact. That means that whatever material is not needed up there is taken off the mountain. The result is the preserve is just as pristine as before the telescope was built. The environmental impact is very small. They take this shit very, very seriously.

It will be no different with the TMT.

And remember, the astronomical preserve is a small part of one of the largest mountain summits on the planet. There is plenty more room up there for the volcano gods. And the telescopes are not even visible from lower altitudes.

Those who object to this have no rational case. They just hypocritically hate science when their ancestors settled those islands guided by the very stars they somehow now do not want science to study.

Build it!