MOUNTAIN BATTLE

Abstract

An international consortium plans to construct the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island. A cutting-edge astronomical facility, it would have a light-gathering mirror 3 times bigger than any of the 13 other telescopes already on the mountain, which include some of the largest and most scientifically productive observatories in the world. Mangauil says that he was too young to be involved when the TMT began the seven-year process of obtaining state permits to build on Mauna Kea, but one of his teachers was a long-time activist fighting development on the mountain.