By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff
08.05.15
The Mauna Kea mountain towers nearly 14,000 feet over the waves of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii.
Lush forests surround its base, while sparse clouds swirl its rocky upper slopes. A dormant volcano,
Mauna Kea rises more than 6 miles above the sea floor, making it the world's tallest mountain from base to peak.
Everyone treasures the mountain. Environmentalists value its unique ecology. Astronomers gaze skyward from its peak. And Native Hawaiians believe that their gods live at its summit.
But the spectacular mountain has become the subject of conflict. A proposal to install a $1.4 billion telescope at the top of Mauna Kea has led to a bitter fight, led by those who honor it most.
On one side are scientists from some of the world's most powerful research centers. On the other are a small but determined group of activists who want to protect the sacred mountain.
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is named for the diameter of its enormous, light-gathering mirror. It will see as much as 100 times farther and more clearly than any other telescope. The TMT will allow astronomers to gaze deep into the universe's past and out toward it farthest galaxies. It will measure
18 stories tall and be far larger than anything on the mountain's summit.
Lately, the TMT's opponents seem to be gaining ground.
Last week, hundreds of demonstrators delayed construction for the second time. They crowded the road to the mountain's summit, waving flags and singing songs as construction vehicles attempted to inch past them. Some left boulders and stone altars, or ahu, in the middle of the road, while others camped at the construction site overnight. A dozen protesters were arrested.
In August, the Hawaii Supreme Court will hear a case challenging the telescope.

This is not the first time that Mauna Kea has been fought over. Ever since 1968, when the first plans for a telescope were announced, activists have opposed construction on the mountain. Now there are
13 telescopes, and many Native Hawaiians believe that each one dishonors the mountain.
In Hawaiian tradition, Mauna Kea is the place where the sky and earth separated to form the heavens and where the mother and father of the Hawaiian race first met. The mountain is home to more than
250 shrines and burial sites. In the past, its summit was so revered that only high chiefs and priests were allowed to ascend it.
Mauna Kea represents the Native Hawaiian people's ancient ties to creation itself, said Kealoha
Pisciotta. She is a Native Hawaiian activist and one of six involved in bringing the court challenge to stop the TMT.
For more than 10 years, Pisciotta worked as a technician on one of the mountain's telescopes.
Meanwhile, she maintained a family shrine near the summit and led a cultural heritage group called
Mauna Kea Anaina Hou.
"I have always supported astronomy," Pisciotta wrote. "However, I do not believe it is of so much importance that it should be allowed to overtake and destroy everything else in its wake."
Activists like Pisciotta believe that the telescope will ruin the mountain's beauty and spiritual power.
They also say it will threaten the rare and fragile habitats on Mauna Kea. But an environmental study found this would not happen.
In April, an email petition was sent to scientists. It had an attachment from another scientist that said that the TMT was being "attacked by a horde of Native Hawaiians who are lying" about it.
Many Hawaiians felt the email and the description of Native Hawaiians as a "horde" was racist.
The email only made Hawaiians angrier and more opposed to the project.
Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada is a Native Hawaiian and a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at
Manoa. He wrote that any time native people want their culture to be respected or to protect their holy places, they are dismissed as old-fashioned and against progress.
The TMT is just the latest in a long line of projects that have conflicted with native groups. Often, the qualities that make sites valuable to science — their remote location and beautiful views — are what drew native worshipers to them in the first place.
In Mauna Kea's case, some astronomers are questioning whether the telescope is really worth it.
Emily Rice, an astrophysicist who had used a telescope on the mountain, wrote on Twitter that she did not like how the project was being done.
"Astronomy is awesome, but it's not life or death," she tweeted. "We can take the time to do things right & set an example."