What has the state done about the situation? They favor construction of the telescope, saying it will create 140 well-paid technical jobs and add $150 million a year to the state’s economy. On the other hand, many Hawaii residents, including some Native Hawaiians, believe that the protests are misguided. Hundreds of astronomers from around the world signed a letter published in the journal Nature that opposes the arrests of protesters and the ways the project has been pushed ahead. Native rights activists elsewhere have shared messages and images of support on social media. There have been supportive demonstrations not just in Honolulu but in mainland cities like Las Vegas, and more are planned. That’s why there are already about a dozen other active telescopes there. At about 14,000 feet above sea level, the summit of Mauna Kea provides some of the world’s best viewing conditions of the night sky, with clear air and very little light pollution. The Thirty Meter Telescope, designed by a consortium of universities and research institutes in the United States, Canada, China, India and Japan, will use an immense mirror and some of the world’s largest sensors to peer deep into the universe, providing images at 12 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. Though the protests have been peaceful, at least 33 people have been arrested, given citations and released. That has kept construction equipment from reaching the summit to start building a $1.4 billion scientific project, the Thirty Meter Telescope, and it has forced other scientific facilities at the summit to shut down. Several hundred Native Hawaiians and Hawaiian rights activists have been camped for almost a week at the foot of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, blocking the only road to the top of the mountain. Here is what you need to know about the dispute in Hawaii. A last-ditch effort by Native Hawaiians to stop construction at a culturally significant site on Hawaii’s Big Island has begun to attract national attention - echoing in some ways the protests by Native Americans in 20 against the Dakota Access pipeline project.
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