Letter: Tourism, not astronomy, harms native population

Protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope are misplaced. Native Hawaiians and poor local people on Hawaii island suffer daily from the chronic effects of colonialism and vertically integrated corporate tourism. They should be angry at those entities, not at astronomers with whom they have a historic kinship.

In every warm and inviting island group in the world, tourism provides low-paying jobs and ruins the land for profit. While I have no standing to comment on claims of special religious significance of Mauna Kea, I am saddened that protesters have fixated on astronomy as a target of convenience instead of the real enemy, corporate tourism.

Eight hundred years ago, Hawaiians and their Polynesian cousins were the greatest celestial navigators in the world, using the stars to reliably cross vast expanses of open ocean.

Ancient and current Hawaiians and TMT astronomers have a shared historical commitment to understanding the stars that is not being addressed in the current ugly climate of protest.

It is my fervent hope that the TMT and the protesters can acknowledge their shared values and work toward a solution.

Peter Kaplan

Sarasota, Fla.

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