[ExI] Update on the Hawaiian observatory shutdown

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting John Clark:


>  > All I am saying that the astronomers should not give up.
>
> I disagree. I hate to say this but the astronomers are never going  
> to win this fight. Now that protestors are organizing to stop  
> astronomers from moving to La Palma in the Canary islands, the  
> (distant) second best observing site in the northern hemisphere,

This I don't understand. Is this the design for the telescope a  
hideous eyesore? Does it spew toxic waste? That conflict has nothing  
to do with religion, race, or colonialism. The protesters there are  
affluent mostly white Europeans.

> I think it's time for astronomers to face reality and make the  
> painful decision to abandon half the universe and build the  
> magnificent telescope at Dome C in Antarctica or in the Atacama  
> Desert of Peru in the southern hemisphere where people are more  
> civilized than in the north.

If the TMT is of any use in detecting asteroids posing a threat to the  
biosphere or even a hypothetical off-world invasion fleet, then it is  
a existential risk to NOT build it in the northern hemisphere which is  
where 90% of the human population lives.

> The wonders that exist in deep space in the northern half of the  
> universe, as well as near earth asteroids and comets, will have to  
> wait for future generations to find, generations that are more  
> enlightened. 

The astronomers really need to spin this NEO detection angle. I doubt  
environmentalists want to go extinct. It might work on the Hawaiians  
too.

Stuart LaForge