This is an interesting point. It can work out the other way. The Thirty Meter Telescope, a very large segmented mirror optical telescope, is being built on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Construction is being protested by activists for desecrating the mountain:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Meter_Telescope_protest...

and a pretty good listicle here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/hawaii-telescope-pr...