Drama overshadowing bigger picture?
Last night on PBS I heard about the Extremely Large Telescope. It is also an optical scope and is 30% larger than TMT, 39 meters vs 30 meters.
It is well under way in the Atacama Desert in Chile and scheduled to come online by 2025. It caused me to wonder if the TMT would be obsolete before it comes online? Is it possible we have heard so little about ELT because of intramural politics? Inquiring minds would like to know more!
Jim Gordon
Kealakekua
Two faces of TMT opposition are confusing
Now that the TMT project has been delayed for a couple more years, the protestors can go home. Many protestors came from other places and of course many celebrities had to make a show. Now, those folks are gone back to where ever they came from, leaving the Big Island of Hawaii to the locals.
As Brian Haney put it so eloquently, “I wish that the Hollywood celebrities who are trying to stop the telescope would help us stop over-development, but many of them are probably living in these communities that are designed to keep us out.” Yes, the celebrities, they want their privacy on their ocean front homes and keep the public away from their own public private beach.
There are many great stories of how all of the protestors want to save the mountain from more building. How all of the protestors helped one another, picked up trash and recycles, they were even concerned about not dropping any brown water on the mountain. What wonderful stories these are. But then what happened? It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll was up on the mountain trying to save it, but then after the TMT project was delayed, Mr. Hyde came down from the mountain.
Now the local protestors have come down from the mountain and see what is going on here on the Big Island of Hawaii. Plenty is going on; more building. New roads along with their road rage. They throw trash along the side of the road, just look around as you are driving and you will see lots of trash. A new shopping center in Waikoloa is planned, a new Safeway in Kona not to mention lots of new housing everywhere. Lots of new housing and a hotel planned for Kona. Remember before there were big box stores, less housing and less traffic. Fewer traffic lights and no Kaloko industrial area. Once there was no shopping center in Hilo, no Kona Commons because it was a vacant lot. And now the expansion of the Kona airport.
There is a lot of talk about removing the unused telescopes on the mountain. What about all the big buildings that are vacant like K-Mart, Sports Authority and soon to be Safeway. No talk to removing these. But at least for now there is no TMT to desecrate Mauna Kea Mountain.
Ted Johnson
Kailua-Kona
Joke of an
award, right?
I just read that our County of Hawaii Mass Transit Department won an an award for excellence in “Transportation Planning.”
It’s not April Fool’s Day, so are you kidding me?
David Hirt
Waikoloa Village
