#ben magec

[knario47]

GOBIERNO COLONIZADOR CANARIO

La miseria personificada se llama MISERABLES

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[yo-sostenible]

Nace ‘Con los pies en la Tierra’, el primer pódcast de Ecologistas en Acción, una experiencia piloto abierta a tu participación. Puedes escuchar nuestro primer programa de radio y escribirnos a podcast@ecologistasenaccion.org. https://anchor.fm/s/f99afb10/podcast/rss Viajamos a la asamblea de Ecologistas en Acción en Alacant, donde Carmen, Sara y Erika, coordinadoras de esta organización ecologista nos hablan, con Zulema de Alicante, de las luchas y actividades que vienen en 2025; Pau Monasterio del grupo local de Valencia nos cuenta de primera mano el impacto ambiental de la dana en la Albufera; profundizamos en los impactos, límites y movilizaciones contra la turistificación en Canarias, Balears y Alacant con Elena y Marina de la plataforma vecinal Alicante, dónde vas, con Margalida Ramis, de GOB Mallorca (Grup Balear d’Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa), Pablo Díaz, de Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción de Canarias, y Carlos Arribas, de la Colla Ecologista d’Alacant; en la sección Gallipata escuchamos las reflexiones de Martín, Samuel, Olalla, Lucas, Ramón y Martín, niñas y niños de 8 a 13 años, sobre manifestaciones y acciones ecologistas; Valentín nos trae las últimas novedades de Libros en Acción; y además, noticias, convocatorias y buena música. En este podcast piloto hemos escuchado las músicas libres de Tremenda Jauría en la sintonía, Un Cuento Propio, Get It On, JungleBungle, Ignacio Alfayé para el Espacio Bebé de la PAI, Energysound, Los Brodies, Summer House, La Monkiband, Namaste de Audionautix yGrandilocuentes Monocotiledóneas, todas ellas cedidas por sus autores y con licencias libres. ¡Muchas gracias por vuestro arte! Puedes escuchar Con los pies en la tierra en la página web de Ecologistas en Acción, en radios libres y comunitarias y en las plataformas de podcasts. ¡Escuchanos y entra en acción! Equipo Con los pies en la TierraEquipo Gallipata

[tuportavoz]

PACMA y PETA, junto con el apoyo de Greenpeace, Anima Naturalis y Ben Magec, convocan un acto contra la granja de pulpos en Las Canteras

PACMA exige al Gobierno de Canarias que frene el proyecto de Nueva Pescanova, calificándolo de cruel e irresponsableLas Palmas de Gran Canaria, viernes, 4 de octubre de 2024 — PACMA y PETA, en colaboración con Greenpeace, Anima Naturalis y Ben Magec, organizan una protesta este sábado 5 de octubre, a las 12:00 horas, en la Playa de Las Canteras (zona Playa Chica), en conmemoración del Día…

[chamelgaspardblogs]

Ordenan por fin el derribo del hotel RIU Oliva Beach

Tras una larga batalla en defensa de las Dunas de Corralejo, el Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico confirma, en conformidad con el dictamen del Consejo de Estado, la caducidad de la concesión otorgada al hotel RIU Oliva Beach para seguir ocupando este Espacio Natural Protegido y ordena derribar las edificaciones. Ben Magec, la federación canaria de Ecologistas en…

[the-telescope-times]

Stalled in Hawaii, giant telescope faces roadblocks at its backup site in the Canary Islands | Science | AAAS

The Native Hawaiian protesters blocking the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of Mauna Kea appear to have settled in for the long haul. After 2 months of protests, their encampment on the Mauna Kea access road has shops, a cafeteria, and meeting spaces. “It’s like a small village,” says Sarah Bosman, an astronomer from University College London who visited in July. “There are signs up all over the island. It was a bit overwhelming really.”

The stalemate between astronomers eager to build one of the world’s next great telescopes and opponents, many of whom believe the site is sacred, has shifted attention to the TMT’s “plan B,” an alternative site on La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. But La Palma is looking like another bed of nails for the project.

Astronomers say that the 2250-meter-high site, about half as high as Mauna Kea, is inferior for observations. Canada, one of six TMT partners—which also include Japan, China, India, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of California—is especially reluctant to make the move and could withdraw from the $1.4 billion project, which can ill afford to lose funding. Finally, an environmental group on La Palma called Ben Magec is determined to fight the TMT in court and has succeeded in delaying its building permit. It says the conservation area that the TMT wants to build on contains archaeological artifacts. “They’re willing to fight tooth and nail to stop TMT,” says Thayne Currie, an astronomer at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

[freehawaii]

TMT DENIES REPORT THAT TELESCOPE SITE DECISION IS IMMINENT

Honolulu Star-Advertiser - October 29, 2019

Officials with the Thirty Meter Telescope on Monday denied a report in the Canary Islands that a decision on where to construct the $1.4 billion project will happen within the next few weeks.

The newspaper El Dia reported in its online edition Sunday that officials with the TMT International Observatory developers met with La Palma business leaders and told them that the decision on location would occur within “a matter of two or three weeks.”

The report comes as the TMT International Observatory Board of Governors is meeting this week in California at its regularly scheduled quarterly meeting.

The news of the imminent decision, according to the newspaper, came from TMT observatory scientist Christophe Dumas and Gordon Squires, TMT vice president for external relations, who met with the business leaders as part of a visit to the telescope’s backup site.

In the meeting, Dumas and Squires described the difficulties that the proposed cutting-edge telescope is experiencing in Hawai`i and said they believe La Palma is a real possibility as the location of the telescope.

In addition, they said the intention of the international coalition is to start construction in April.

In a statement sent Monday to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Squires said Mauna Kea remains the preferred site for the TMT, but the nonprofit continues to follow a process allowing it to relocate to its Plan B site on La Palma should it not be possible to build in Hawai`i.

 Squires, who is in California for the TMT board meeting, said no time frame has been identified for deciding on a location and that even if La Palma is selected as the site for TMT, it is unknown when construction might begin.

In any case, he added, the TMT has not yet received all the permits and permissions necessary to build on La Palma.

According to El Dia, the two- to three-week time frame matches what the president of the local town council has said about the timing of TMT’s decision-making.

Dumas and Squires told the business group that construction will last 10 years, the paper said, and that educational training will be available to the local population. The consortium, they said, is committed to offering annual scholarships — something it is already doing in Hawai`i.

Another newspaper, Diario de Avisos, reported Friday about Dumas’ visit to the island. 

The report said La Palma is becoming an increasingly probable location for the telescope, and next week’s meeting of the board of governors could be key to the fate of the TMT in the Canaries.

Diario de Avisos and other media outlets have been reporting in recent weeks that local officials are moving swiftly to process the permits necessary to give TMT the green light for construction.

But, as in Hawai`i, the TMT could run into some additional roadblocks. At least one environmental group in the Canary Islands has pledged to continue to fight the project.

An organization known as Ben Magec, part of the Spanish “Ecologists in Action” federation of environmental groups, already won a victory this summer when a judge overturned a concession granted by the local government.

In August, Pablo Batista, a Ben Magec spokesman, said in an email that the group will likely take legal action if the TMT were to win approvals once again.

Batista said the proposed La Palma construction site is a conservation area with archaeological sites that the group aims to protect.

Meanwhile, protesters continue to make their stand at Mauna Kea, blocking a project they say will desecrate a sacred summit. The nonviolent demonstration has been ongoing since the middle of July.

At this week’s TMT International Observatory quarterly meeting, representatives from Japan, Canada, India and China will meet with their partners from Caltech and the University of California.

Last month a report issued by a group of astronomers advising the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy said holding out several years for construction on Mauna Kea may be worth it to get the superior viewing conditions found atop Hawai`i’s tallest mountain.

 The report to the Canadian Astronomical Society’s Canadian Long Range Plan 2020 panel says Mauna Kea’s site characteristics are vastly superior to La Palma’s.

“TMT is being built for future generations, and will have a productive lifetime of many decades. We should not be shortsighted about the impact of a few years’ delay, but must build the best telescope we can, on the best site we can: of the options available, this site is Maunakea,” the report said.

While the TMT is delayed, the project’s components and the scientific instruments continue to be manufactured around the world. Officials say they will be able to be mounted on the giant telescope whenever and wherever it is built.

[tenerifeweekly]

The TSJC revokes the annulment of the land concession to install the TMT in La Palma

The TSJC revokes the annulment of the land concession to install the TMT in La Palma

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 23 Sep. (EUROPE PRESS) – The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has revoked the judgment of first instance that in July 2019, upholding an appeal by the Ben Magec Ecologist Federation, declared null the concession of public utility mount to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC ) for the construction of the thirty meter telescope. The…

[thebeautifulshirtsbloger]

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 The judge also sided with the plaintiff, the environmental group Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción, in rejecting arguments by TIO’s legal team and the island’s government that the land concession was covered by an international treaty on scientific research. An official for the Canary Islands High Court said questions about the ruling could not be answered because other court officials in a position to answer the questions were on vacation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to be named in media reports. The island's local elected government chief, Mariano Zapata, said it was “sad” that advocacy groups “are so occupied by administrative matters instead of environmental issues.”.

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[hector-dager]

Canarias. La educación ambiental apuesta por la movilidad sostenible

Canarias. La educación ambiental apuesta por la movilidad sostenible

Desde hace cuatro años Ben Magec – Ecologistas en Acción lleva a cabo con Guaguas Global dos proyectos de educación ambiental sobre movilidad sostenible, “Al cole en Guagua” dirigido a los alumnos y alumnas de primaria, y “Muévete Sostenible” enfocado al alumnado de secundaria de toda Gran Canaria. Con ambos proyectos, la federación pretende impulsar el análisis y la reflexión sobre los impactos…

[knario47]

BEN MAGEC.

(ECOLOGISTAS EN ACCIÓN)

Ayúdanos compartiendo y, si puedes, haciendo una donación en la cuenta que aparece en el último póster, ahul.

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[yo-sostenible]

Advierten de un posible colapso hídrico en Canarias

Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Accion presenta un informe jurídico en el que señala a la Ley de Aguas de Canarias como inconstitucional y de no haber sido una norma jurídica eficaz para frenar la sobreexplotación de los acuiferos. A su vez plantea una serie de propuestas legislativas y de funcionamiento con el fin de conseguir una gestión más ambiental y social del agua en Canarias.La federación…

[hectordager]

Canarias. La educación ambiental apuesta por la movilidad sostenible

Canarias. La educación ambiental apuesta por la movilidad sostenible

Desde hace cuatro años Ben Magec – Ecologistas en Acción lleva a cabo con Guaguas Global dos proyectos de educación ambiental sobre movilidad sostenible, “Al cole en Guagua” dirigido a los alumnos y alumnas de primaria, y “Muévete Sostenible” enfocado al alumnado de secundaria de toda Gran Canaria. Con ambos proyectos, la federación pretende impulsar el análisis y la reflexión sobre los impactos…

[kiro-anarka]

La Federación Ben Magec- Ecologistas en Acción analiza en este decálogo la situación ambiental y social del archipiélago y hace una valoración del Pacto por la Reactivación Social y Económica del archipiélago recientemente firmado por el Gobierno de Canarias y su olvido de medidas vinculadas a la sostenibilidad ecológica en las medidas planteadas.

En el Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente la federación ecologista canaria Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción quiere compartir con todas las personas este día de ilusión y esperanza desde los retos globales y locales a los que nos enfrentamos.

El año en curso ha supuesto un colapso para gran parte de la actividad vital, social y económica de nuestro mundo, en especial nos solidarizamos con quienes han perdido a seres queridos y también con las personas damnificadas, hoy en situación de precariedad laboral, paro o vulnerabilidad social.

Nuestra tierra canaria en especial ha sido golpeada con fuerza fruto de su dependencia del binomio, en formato de monocultivo, del ladrillo/turismo. Canarias cuenta con un paro estructural de más 255.000 personas y una alta tasa de pobreza endémica extrema, es campeona en fracaso escolar y está dos puntos por debajo de la media en gasto en servicios sociales y salud pública de los territorios administrados por el Estado español. A todo ello hay que sumarle 200.000 trabajadores/as más en situación de ERTE. El resultado es desolador: hoy más del 50 % de la población activa no puede trabajar.

Pero también este año nos siguen afectando otros fenómenos que no siendo tan visibles resultan igualmente graves. En 2019 hemos superado las 415 partes por millón de CO2 en la atmósfera, con el riesgo de llegar al “no retorno climático”, peligro que se une a la gran pérdida global y local de especies vegetales y animales que forman parte de nuestra biodiversidad y que tan importante es para evitar pandemias como la que nos asola actualmente, provocada por la COVID-19.

Ante esta difícil situación desde la Federación Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción se quiere manifestar lo siguiente:

1. La “nueva normalidad”, más allá de las mascarillas y las distancias no se puede rediseñar con hojas de rutas de recuperación que se apoyen en los pilares que nos han llevado a la situación actual. En este sentido queremos aportar una mirada crítica a la propuesta del Gobierno de Canarias de un Pacto para la Reactivación Social y Económica de Canarias (PRSEC). A nuestro entender, el esfuerzo para proteger a las personas más vulnerables no puede basarse como acción central en la cultura del ladrillo y el cemento, en buena medida culpable del deterioro social y ambiental de nuestro archipiélago.

En ese sentido es necesario recordar que en relación a la pandemia sólo hemos aplanado la curva de contagio, pero no está resuelta, siendo probable el virus COVID-19 haya venido para quedarse. En el documento del pacto se obvian estrategias que se basen en los posibles escenarios futuros (rebrotes de pandemias locales o globales) y solo se centra en volver a una “vieja normalidad”, que ya no parece ser posible.

El “rey” del turismo de masas, como hasta ahora lo conocemos, ha muerto y es hora de que una república democrática de nuevas formas de hacer y vivir sea posible aquí y ahora.

2. El modelo keynesiano de recuperación sin dejar a nadie atrás nos parece que atesora valores importantes, pero claramente insuficientes en un contexto a largo plazo. Sobre todo obvia lo central y deja fuera, como si se tratase de “externalidades” pilares esenciales como la ecología, la salud ambiental, la justicia climática y la equidad social estructural de más de 255.000 personas sin empleo.

3. Las estrategias que propone el Pacto de la reactivación del Gobierno de Canarias reproducen estilos clásicos más cercanos a modelos de “Reconstrucción Nacional post guerra COVID-19”. Debemos recordar que no se han caído edificios, ninguna bomba ha destruido carreteras e infraestructuras. Esta pandemia ha colapsado el modelo de relaciones sociales y económicas y necesitan más que reconstrucción una “deconstrucción”. Requiere de un reajuste de las prioridades y los valores que nos fortalecen y cohesionan como sociedad. Si algo hemos aprendido con esta pandemia, y deberíamos haber aprendido todos/as, es la centralidad de los cuidados de salud y bienestar social.

Urge una nueva relación social que configure nuestro modelo productivo, centrada en los cuidados y no en el crecimiento por desposesión tanto ambiental como social.

4. La sostenibilidad, nos recuerda César Manrique, no es un cuadro al final del pasillo, un párrafo al final de un documento, tampoco un ventanuco/respiradero en edificios y construcciones malolientes e insalubres. La sostenibilidad deben ser los cimientos mismos de nuestro hecho civilizatorio, asumiendo que no se puede crecer infinitamente en un planeta que es finito.

5. El Documento del Pacto apuesta por una prosperidad compartida (“para devolver cuanto antes a Canarias a la dinámica de prosperidad compartida” [Prioridad Estratégica 5, pág.3 de 30]). Pero la “prosperidad” previa a la pandemia a la que se pretende volver estaba muy lejos de ser compartida. No hay ninguna medida para el reparto de las plusvalías o grandes beneficios, o impuestos como la ecotasa turística o la devolución de la RIC de los empresarios para fines de interés general… Con más de un 25% de paro estructural anterior a la pandemia no sabemos de qué prosperidad compartida se habla.

6. El documento del pacto apuesta por que el sector de la construcción siga siendo el líder, el motor de la solución propuesta (IV.5.d.). Arrastrando aún la crisis global del ladrillo del 2009 no hay ningún indicador objetivo en el sector de la construcción que resalte su carácter de liderazgo desde hace más de una década. Más de medio millón de viviendas vacías en Canarias y una infraestructura turística que ha llegado a prestar servicios a más de quince millones de visitantes anuales, son evidencias suficientes de que la oferta está sobredimensionada con respecto la demanda real y a la capacidad de carga de nuestro territorio.

7. Según el pacto, las infraestructuras viarias y “la promoción de nuevos productos turísticos” serán los pilares que sustenten todo el proceso. Todos los escenarios futuros de movilidad coinciden en la caída inevitable del modelo caduco del vehículo individual y la inversión en nuevas carreteras. Más asfalto ya no es igual a más actividad económica. Los retos de la reconversión y descarbonización del transporte no se mencionan en el pacto propuesto.

8. La propuesta de flexibilizar las leyes que garantizan sostenibilidad y protección de los bienes ambientales comunes (paisaje, agua, suelo, biodiversidad, etc.), además de una perversión irresponsable, ahonda en la deuda eco estructural suicida con las generaciones futuras y solo atrae capital riesgo o fondos buitres en detrimento de fondos soberanos e inversión con sentido y calado más estructurales y sostenibles.

9. El pacto no se centra como eje en la economía circular, ni el reciclado de materiales y procesos, ni se plantea reciclado del suelo urbano residencial turístico deteriorado, tampoco aborda con rigor y profundidad la urgente necesidad de una economía azul para la gestión eco-integral del ciclo del agua. Se aleja de propuestas concretas y directas como alternativa real y viable de creación de empleo. Tampoco articula medidas de ordenación y planeamiento para tales fines.

10. El pacto no se apoya en las certezas, oportunidades/fortalezas propias del territorio y las gentes de Canarias, solo se centra en miradas y expectativas a corto plazo, en ese sentido tal vez sea útil algún refrán de la sabiduría popular… “atajo y camino corto siempre acaba, con tobillo roto, y del sendero… andar cojo”. En ese sentido es tiempo de caminos limpios que nos lleven a una verdadera prosperidad compartida. El reto, en este Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente, es la soberanía alimentaria, la justicia climática, el destino turístico ecológico de carbono cero, la soberanía energética y la cultura del buen vivir centrada en los cuidados de las personas residentes y de quienes nos visitan.

[biofunmy]

Will the United States Lose the Universe?

The United States is about to lose the universe.

It wouldn’t be quite the same as, say, losing China to communism in the 1940s. No hostile ideologies or forces are involved. But much is at stake: American intellectual, technical and economic might, cultural pedigree and the cosmic bragging rights that have been our nation’s for the last century.

In 1917, the 100-inch Hooker telescope went into operation on Mount Wilson in California, and Edwin Hubble eventually used it to discover that the universe is expanding. Until very recently, the mightiest telescopes on Earth have been on American mountaintops like Palomar, Kitt Peak and Mauna Kea. They revealed the Big Bang, black holes and quasars.

But no more. In 2025 the European Southern Observatory, a multinational treaty organization akin to CERN but looking outward instead of inward, will invite the first light into a telescope that will dwarf all others. The European Extremely Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal in Chile will have a primary light-gathering mirror 39 meters in diameter, making it 13 times more powerful than any telescope now working and more sharp-eyed than the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The European goliath will be able to see the glow of planets orbiting other stars and peer into the black hearts of faraway galaxies. Who knows what else it might bring into view.

There are two American-led telescope projects that could compete with the European giant, if they are ever built: the Thirty Meter Telescope, slated for construction on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, and the Giant Magellan on Cerro Las Campanas, in Chile. But both are mired in financial difficulties and political controversies, and their completion, if it happens, is at least a decade away.

Work on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or T.M.T., has been stalled for years by a protest movement arguing that decades of telescope building on Mauna Kea have polluted and desecrated a mountain that is sacred to Polynesian culture, and have violated the rights of native Hawaiians. The team behind the project has vowed to move it to the Canary Islands if it can’t go forward in Hawaii.

Both projects are hundreds of millions of dollars short of the financing they need to build their telescopes. Without them, American astronomers, accustomed to V.I.P. seating in observations of the universe, could be largely consigned to the cosmic bleachers in years to come. Early next year, probably in late February, representatives of the two telescope projects will appear before a blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences to plead for help.

The panel is part of the so-called Decadal Survey, in which the astronomy community ranks its priorities for spending federal money. Congress and agencies like the National Science Foundation traditionally take their cues from the survey’s recommendations. A high ranking could shake loose money from the National Science Foundation, which has traditionally funded ground-based observatories.

Without the National Academy’s endorsement, the telescopes face an uphill struggle to reach completion. Even with an endorsement, the way will be tough. The Trump Administration appears to be trying to eliminate the National Science Foundation’s funding for large facilities such as observatories. So much for successes like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which detected colliding black holes. Luckily for now, Congress has resisted these cuts.

The telescopes are not cheap. They will need at least a billion more dollars between them to get to the finish line, maybe more. So far, the team behind the Giant Magellan Telescope has raised about $600 million from its partners and seeks an equivalent amount from the National Science Foundation.

The T.M.T. collaboration, now officially known as the T.M.T. International Observatory — T.I.O., in case you haven’t read enough acronyms — has publicly put the cost of its telescope at $1.4 billion, but recent analyses by knowledgeable outsiders come up with a price tag of more than $2 billion.

In return for that investment, all American astronomers, not just collaboration members, will gain access to both giant telescopes to pursue certain important projects.

Granted, even without these mammoth glass eyes, American astronomers will still have instruments in space, like the beloved Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope. But Hubble is growing old, and the Webb telescope, with a snake-bitten history of development, will spend a tense several months unfolding itself in space once it reaches orbit in 2021.

Astronomers will also have the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, already under construction in Chile, which will in effect make movies of the entire universe every few nights. But that telescope is only 8 meters in size and will not see as deep into space as the Really Big Eyes. And, of course, U.S. astronomers will be able to sign on to projects as partners of their European colleagues, much like American physicists now troop to CERN, in Geneva.

The need for giant, ground-based telescopes was apparent to American astronomers 20 years ago. The Thirty Meter project originated at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, and has grown to include Canada, Japan, China and India. The Giant Magellan started at the Carnegie Observatories and now includes several universities and research institutes, as well as South Korea, Australia and the State of São Paulo, in Brazil.

The two projects have been fighting for partners and funds ever since. Two telescopes, one in the North and the other in the South, would complement each other, so the story has gone. Until now, neither telescope has been able to enlist the federal government as a partner.

Last year the two groups agreed to make joint cause to Academy panel and the astronomical community.

As Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said then, “Both projects finally woke up to the fact they are being creamed by the European 39-meter.”

But the Thirty Meter team has yet to make peace with the protesters, in Hawaii, for whom the telescope represents a long history of colonial disrespect of native rights and culture.

Last July, construction workers arrived at Mauna Kea to start building the telescope, only to find that nine protesters had handcuffed themselves to a cattle guard, blocking the road up the mountain.

The ensuing standoff captured the imagination of people sympathetic to the plight of Indigenous people, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawaii (who is also running for president), and generated unease within the collaboration. In July, Vivek Goel, vice president for research at the University of Toronto, one of the Canadian partners in the Thirty Meter project, issued a statement that the university “does not condone the use of police force in furthering its research objectives.”

The Thirty Meter team recently secured a building permit for their alternative telescope site, on La Palma, in Spain’s Canary Islands. But that mountain is only half as high as Mauna Kea, leaving more atmosphere and water vapor between the astronomers and the stars. Some of the T.M.T. partners, like Canada and Japan, are less than enthusiastic about the possible switch. An environmental organization, Ben Magec, has vowed to fight the telescope, saying the area is rife with archaeological artifacts. Moreover, moving the telescope off American soil, would only complicate the politics of obtaining funding from the National Science Foundation.

Back in 2003, when these giant-telescope efforts were starting, Richard Ellis, an astronomer now at University College London, said, “We are really going to have a hard time building even one of these.” He didn’t know just how true that was.

Now, as the wheels of the academic and government bureaucracy begin to turn, many American astronomers worry that they are following in the footsteps of their physicist colleagues. In 1993, Congress canceled the Superconducting Super Collider, and the United States ceded the exploration of inner space to Europe and CERN, which built the Large Hadron Collider, about 17 miles around, where the long-sought Higgs boson was eventually discovered.

The United States no longer builds particle accelerators. There could come a day, soon, when Americans no longer build giant telescopes. That would be a crushing disappointment to a handful of curious humans stuck on Earth, thirsting for cosmic grandeur. In outer space, nobody can hear you cry.

Sahred From Source link Science

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HEREʻS THE ARTICLE MENTIONED IN YESTERDAYʻS FREE HAWAI`I TV

 New York Times - December 23, 2019

The United States is about to lose the universe.

It wouldn’t be quite the same as, say, losing China to communism in the 1940s. No hostile ideologies or forces are involved. But much is at stake: American intellectual, technical and economic might, cultural pedigree and the cosmic bragging rights that have been our nation’s for the last century.

In 1917, the 100-inch Hooker telescope went into operation on Mount Wilson in California, and Edwin Hubble eventually used it to discover that the universe is expanding. Until very recently, the mightiest telescopes on Earth have been on American mountaintops like Palomar, Kitt Peak and Mauna Kea. They revealed the Big Bang, black holes and quasars.

But no more. In 2025 the European Southern Observatory, a multinational treaty organization akin to CERN but looking outward instead of inward, will invite the first light into a telescope that will dwarf all others. The European Extremely Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal in Chile will have a primary light-gathering mirror 39 meters in diameter, making it 13 times more powerful than any telescope now working and more sharp-eyed than the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The European goliath will be able to see the glow of planets orbiting other stars and peer into the black hearts of faraway galaxies. Who knows what else it might bring into view.

There are two American-led telescope projects that could compete with the European giant, if they are ever built: the Thirty Meter Telescope, slated for construction on Mauna Kea, in Hawai`i, and the Giant Magellan on Cerro Las Campanas, in Chile. But both are mired in financial difficulties and political controversies, and their completion, if it happens, is at least a decade away.

Work on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or T.M.T., has been stalled for years by a protest movement arguing that decades of telescope building on Mauna Kea have polluted and desecrated a mountain that is sacred to Polynesian culture, and have violated the rights of native Hawaiians. The team behind the project has vowed to move it to the Canary Islands if it can’t go forward in Hawai`i.

Both projects are hundreds of millions of dollars short of the financing they need to build their telescopes. Without them, American astronomers, accustomed to V.I.P. seating in observations of the universe, could be largely consigned to the cosmic bleachers in years to come. Early next year, probably in late February, representatives of the two telescope projects will appear before a blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences to plead for help.

The panel is part of the so-called Decadal Survey, in which the astronomy community ranks its priorities for spending federal money. Congress and agencies like the National Science Foundation traditionally take their cues from the survey’s recommendations. A high ranking could shake loose money from the National Science Foundation, which has traditionally funded ground-based observatories.

Without the National Academy’s endorsement, the telescopes face an uphill struggle to reach completion. Even with an endorsement, the way will be tough. The Trump Administration appears to be trying to eliminate the National Science Foundation’s funding for large facilities such as observatories. So much for successes like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which detected colliding black holes. Luckily for now, Congress has resisted these cuts.

The telescopes are not cheap. They will need at least a billion more dollars between them to get to the finish line, maybe more. So far, the team behind the Giant Magellan Telescope has raised about $600 million from its partners and seeks an equivalent amount from the National Science Foundation.

The T.M.T. collaboration, now officially know as the T.M.T. International Observatory — T.I.O., in case you haven’t read enough acronyms — has publicly put the cost of its telescope at $1.4 billion, but recent analyses by knowledgeable outsiders come up with a price tag of more than $2 billion.

In return for that investment, all American astronomers, not just collaboration members, will gain access to both giant telescopes to pursue certain important projects.

Granted, even without these mammoth glass eyes, American astronomers will still have instruments in space, like the beloved Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope. But Hubble is growing old, and the Webb telescope, with a snake-bitten history of development, will spend a tense several months unfolding itself in space once it reaches orbit in 2021.

Astronomers will also have the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, already under construction in Chile, which will in effect make movies of the entire universe every few nights. But that telescope is only 8 meters in size and will not see as deep into space as the Really Big Eyes. And, of course, U.S. astronomers will be able to sign on to projects as partners of their European colleagues, much like American physicists now troop to CERN, in Geneva.

The need for giant, ground-based telescopes was apparent to American astronomers 20 years ago. The Thirty Meter project originated at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, and has grown to include Canada, Japan, China and India. The Giant Magellan started at the Carnegie Observatories and now includes several universities and research institutes, as well as South Korea, Australia and the State of São Paulo, in Brazil.

The two projects have been fighting for partners and funds ever since. Two telescopes, one in the North and the other in the South, would complement each other, so the story has gone. Until now, neither telescope has been able to enlist the federal government as a partner.

Last year the two groups agreed to make joint cause to Academy panel and the astronomical community.

As Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said then, “Both projects finally woke up to the fact they are being creamed by the European 39-meter.”

But the Thirty Meter team has yet to make peace with the protesters, in Hawai`i, for whom the telescope represents a long history of colonial disrespect of native rights and culture.

Last July, construction workers arrived at Mauna Kea to start building the telescope, only to find that nine protesters had handcuffed themselves to a cattle guard, blocking the road up the mountain.

The ensuing standoff captured the imagination of people sympathetic to the plight of indigenous people, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawai`i (who is also running for president), and generated unease within the collaboration. In July, Vivek Goel, vice president for research at the University of Toronto, one of the Canadian partners in the Thirty Meter projected, issued a statement that the university “does not condone the use of police force in furthering its research objectives.”

The Thirty Meter team recently secured a building permit for their alternative telescope site, on La Palma, in Spain’s Canary Islands. But that mountain is only half as high as Mauna Kea, leaving more atmosphere and water vapor between the astronomers and the stars. Some of the T.M.T. partners, like Canada and Japan, are less than enthusiastic about the possible switch. An environmental organization, Ben Magec, has vowed to fight the telescope, saying the area is rife with archaeological artifacts. Moreover, moving the telescope off American soil, would only complicate the politics of obtaining funding from the National Science Foundation.

Back in 2003, when these giant-telescope efforts were starting, Richard Ellis, an astronomer now at University College London, said, “We are really going to have a hard time building even one of these.” He didn’t know just how true that was.

Now, as the wheels of the academic and government bureaucracy begin to turn, many American astronomers worry that they are following in the footsteps of their physicist colleagues. In 1993, Congress canceled the Superconducting Super Collider, and the United States ceded the exploration of inner space to Europe and CERN, which built the Large Hadron Collider, 27 miles in diameter, where the long-sought Higgs boson was eventually discovered.

The United States no longer builds particle accelerators. There could come a day, soon, when Americans no longer build giant telescopes. That would be a crushing disappointment to a handful of curious humans stuck on Earth, thirsting for cosmic grandeur.

In outer space, nobody can hear you cry.