“We Are Not Anti-Science”: Why Indigenous Protectors Oppose the Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea

An extended conversation with Pua Case, an indigenous organizer and activist who is fighting the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians. The project has the backing of Canada, China, India, Japan and the United States, as well as institutional funders. If built, the Thirty Meter Telescope would be capable of capturing images 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope. Although Mauna Kea was approved as the site of the telescope in 2009, repeated protests and legal challenges have delayed construction. Indigenous protesters, known as protectors, say they were not adequately consulted before the sacred mountain was chosen for the billion-dollar project, and that it comes with serious environmental risks.

Watch Part 1

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