Yahoo News Coronavirus: Hawaii environmental protesters abandon camp after months over fears of the deadly virus
A group protesting the building of a giant telescope in Hawaii have left their camp due to coronavirus fears.
The move ends eight months of protests on the site of the proposed build of the Thirty Meter Telescope project.
Protestors have been demonstrating on the site, because the plan is for the project to be built on Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea.
The mountain is seen as sacred land by some Native Hawaiian communities, which has stalled the building of the telescope and caused the cost to rise by over a billion dollars.
The group’s leader, Andre Perez, revealed to the AP that the protestors decided to leave in order to keep demonstrators safe, amid rising Covid-19 cases in the US.
“Because of the concern for human health and safety, we’ve decided to leave,” he said. “We feel that there’s no imminent threat from TMT, that’s our assessment, and so human health and safety is paramount for us.”
Mr Perez is not concerned that the absence of protestors will bring about the start of construction on the site, but he admits that his group ”have not gotten any pledges or any confirmation or agreement with them at all.”
Despite not having an agreement with the company, Mr Perez added: “We’re confident that they’re not going to move with TMT during this time of pandemic crisis.”
The protesters have the support of Hollywood actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who joined demonstrators to help protest the construction in 2019.
Last July, demonstrators blocked a road for over 10 days in an attempt to prevent the construction of the proposed telescope.
Construction was scheduled to begin on Mauna Kea that month, but the successful protests have prevented building work from starting.
Earlier in March it was announced that the cost of the building of the controversial telescope had risen to $2.4 billion, according to a statement from Gordon Squires, TMT vice president.
“While an exact updated project cost will depend on when and where on-site construction begins for the Thirty Meter Telescope, the latest estimate for the TMT project is in the range of $2.4 billion in 2020 dollars,” he said.
Mr Squires said the protests are partly to blame, adding: “The increase of nearly one billion dollars is due to the delay in starting on-site construction in Hawaii, as well as inflation and world market cost increases for some construction items.”
According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 97,028 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 1,475.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.
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