248
outreach and at the same time make it known that the IAC was working for
the benefit of all.
It was at that time that a serious problem came to light in La Palma: a campaign had been mounted against Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. I
explain in the course of this chapter how we finally found a solution.
In 1988 the Law on the Protection of the Astronomical Quality of the IAC
Observatories, popularly known as the Sky Law, provided legal protection of
the Canarian Observatories from light, industrial, and radioelectric contamination, and also prevented flights over the Observatories. The purpose of the
law was to preserve the skies above the summits of the islands of Tenerife and
La Palma as an international astronomical reserve (see Chap. 18). But we were
coming up against too many difficulties in the application of the law in La
Palma, in spite of the fact that the law was accompanied by economic aid for
the reconversion of lighting fixtures.
It is interesting to see how the problem had arisen through certain vested
interests playing on popular sentiment. It is not my intention here to mount
a sociological study of the matter, but it is basically the same phenomenon
that fans the flames of all kinds of separatism. I shall just give a few items of
information.
A local ecologist group, wishing to make a name for itself and accustomed
to being subsidized to keep it from causing trouble, had set its sights on Roque
de los Muchachos Observatory, the giant infrastructure being set up with
generous international resources. It was not difficult for them to persuade the
population that up there on the mountain the boffins were producing dangerous waste that was contaminating the island’s aquifers. If ‘they’ were dumping
hazardous substances, the ecologists argued, all that poison would find its way
into the water galleries from which the island’s potable water was extracted.
There was waste from toilets, they said, and enormous scientific instruments
were spewing out harmful materials. That was why, they claimed, cancer levels
were rising on the island. They even went so far as to assert that there were
military lasers and other secret weapons in the Observatory. It is an old ploy:
if you are up against a well-known entity, run to the news media and set yourself up as a defender of the people, a simple and inexpensive way to earn fame
and cachet.
Then advantage was taken by certain opportunistic politicians to gain votes
by following this populist route, fanning rumours, and declaring, ‘They won’t
let us see during the night’ with those ‘dim yellow lamps’; they are ‘robbing
us’ and ‘using our summits, giving us nothing in return’. In this way they
managed to foment a general rejection of the ORM among the population of
La Palma that became deep-rooted and entrenched.
F. Sánchez
outreach and at the same time make it known that the IAC was working for
the benefit of all.
It was at that time that a serious problem came to light in La Palma: a campaign had been mounted against Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. I
explain in the course of this chapter how we finally found a solution.
In 1988 the Law on the Protection of the Astronomical Quality of the IAC
Observatories, popularly known as the Sky Law, provided legal protection of
the Canarian Observatories from light, industrial, and radioelectric contamination, and also prevented flights over the Observatories. The purpose of the
law was to preserve the skies above the summits of the islands of Tenerife and
La Palma as an international astronomical reserve (see Chap. 18). But we were
coming up against too many difficulties in the application of the law in La
Palma, in spite of the fact that the law was accompanied by economic aid for
the reconversion of lighting fixtures.
It is interesting to see how the problem had arisen through certain vested
interests playing on popular sentiment. It is not my intention here to mount
a sociological study of the matter, but it is basically the same phenomenon
that fans the flames of all kinds of separatism. I shall just give a few items of
information.
A local ecologist group, wishing to make a name for itself and accustomed
to being subsidized to keep it from causing trouble, had set its sights on Roque
de los Muchachos Observatory, the giant infrastructure being set up with
generous international resources. It was not difficult for them to persuade the
population that up there on the mountain the boffins were producing dangerous waste that was contaminating the island’s aquifers. If ‘they’ were dumping
hazardous substances, the ecologists argued, all that poison would find its way
into the water galleries from which the island’s potable water was extracted.
There was waste from toilets, they said, and enormous scientific instruments
were spewing out harmful materials. That was why, they claimed, cancer levels
were rising on the island. They even went so far as to assert that there were
military lasers and other secret weapons in the Observatory. It is an old ploy:
if you are up against a well-known entity, run to the news media and set yourself up as a defender of the people, a simple and inexpensive way to earn fame
and cachet.
Then advantage was taken by certain opportunistic politicians to gain votes
by following this populist route, fanning rumours, and declaring, ‘They won’t
let us see during the night’ with those ‘dim yellow lamps’; they are ‘robbing
us’ and ‘using our summits, giving us nothing in return’. In this way they
managed to foment a general rejection of the ORM among the population of
La Palma that became deep-rooted and entrenched.
F. Sánchez