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Hawaii News

Pro-telescope group touts educational benefits

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Richard Ha, left, and Keahi Warfield gave a presentation Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Honolulu about the educational benefits of the Thirty Meter Telescope project.

Building a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea will come with educational opportunities that Hawaii shouldn’t close the door to, the president of a Native Hawaiian group that supports the project said.

Perpetuating Unique Educational Opportunities President Keahi Warfield told a Waikiki hotel banquet room filled with members of the Rotary Club of Honolulu on Tuesday that he believes there’s a “silent majority” of the public who support the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The $1.4 billion telescope has divided the Native Hawaiian community, with many opponents saying it will desecrate sacred land. The state Supreme Court invalidated the project’s permit last year and ordered a new contested case hearing. Warfield’s group, PUEO, is allowed to participate in the upcoming hearing.

The nonprofit organization’s board consists of Native Hawaiian elders, Warfield said.

“Many people have come forward to thank us for exposing a view that they were afraid to voice,” said a bullet point in a presentation Warfield showed the Rotary Club. Many don’t feel safe expressing support for the telescope, he said.

Intense protests on the Big Island mountain prompted a halt in construction.

Telescope officials have said they want a permit in place by the end of the year or early next year to resume construction in 2018. Meanwhile, telescope officials are looking for possible alternate sites in case TMT can’t be built in Hawaii.

A young girl told Warfield she no longer wants to grow up to be a scientist because of the debate, which has pitted family members against each other, Warfield said.

The group “is not about choosing sides,” he said. Rather, it’s about showing that culture and science can coexist and guiding children from “preschool to Ph.D.,” he said. The group also aims to show that there are Native Hawaiians who support the project and have a deep connection to the mountain. Warfield described his youth hunting on Mauna Kea and going up to its summit.

He pointed to Hawaii’s high cost of living and students’ lagging test scores as signs that training youth to be ready for high-tech jobs at the telescope is crucial for the state’s economic future.

Many Rotary members stuck around after the presentation to chat with Warfield and PUEO board member Richard Ha, president of the Big Island’s Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

“I think there’s a big opportunity for kids from here to tap into the science that’s all around and in the Big Island,” said H. Mitchell D’Olier, chairman of the Harold H.L. Castle Foundation, citing examples such as volcanology and marine science.

9 responses to “Pro-telescope group touts educational benefits”

  1. what says:

    The TMT telescope is a sacred shrine to the heavens.

    • allie says:

      Hawaiians have always had reasons to be for or against the scope. That is fine. I just wish those supporting it on cultural and historical grounds had had the courage to come forward earlier. Many apparently were intimidated by the small but intense protests earlier this year. They did not want to stand out or be threatened by so many mainland environmental zealots and wannabes who kept the Governor and the media cowed.

    • Vector says:

      The whole earth is a sacred shrine to the universe.

  2. keonimay says:

    Just remove, all of the other inactive telescope buildings.

  3. krusha says:

    Why do they even have to explain the educational benefits of this thing? Pretty much common sense unless you have none like the people still worshiping the mountains like they are Hawaiian gods.

  4. seaborn says:

    The telescope will have no effect on the Hall of the Mountain King, or whatever nonsense the folks are pretending exists at the summit.

  5. wrightj says:

    A lot of people don’t care to learn about the universe; they see only as far as the tips of their noses.

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