Zoe Norton-Rodriguez--Science and religion fight over Hawaii's highest point

Zoe Norton-Rodriguez

9th Period

Science and religion fight over Hawaii's highest point

     The article tells how Hawaii is home to Mauna Kea, a 13,796 foot dormant volcano and sacred space. Currently there are 13 other telescopes already built there. Astronomers see this summit as the perfect place for telescopes. It's one of the highest, darkest peaks, making it perfect for seeing the stars. However, since the first telescope built there in the 1960s, native Hawaiians have been protesting and seeking legal action to stop building telescopes and taking their sacred land. A project called the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) has been in the making for many years and because of the significance of the land it was proposed to be built on, it took 7 years of legal proceedings to get it approved. Now that it is time for it to be build however, protests are stopping the building by showing up in the hundreds when they try to build. 

    This article handles a delicate issue relatively well. I'd say it leans more toward the scientist's point of view because the author is educated and separate from the traditions and cultures of the Native Hawaiians. This conflict is a much less violent parallel to the Pakistan-Israel conflict. Both sides want the land, and not just any land. This land is special to them in different ways so there's no easy answer to the problem. We know that science is very important and are willing to pour recourses into helping it progress but the natives have a different perspective. The Native Hawaiians mention in the video that they "aren't opposed to science but we need to realize that there's human limits on what we can know". We can learn more about space and stars and take pictures of space but what good does it do if it's taking over a beautiful natural space we already have here on Earth? To what extent do we need to understand the universe?