While it is still unclear about all the "unethical" practices the Hanso Foundation has used in their attempt to study and change the Valenzetti Equation, it is very clear that they do not want the world to know about them.
As we find out in The Lost Experience, after failed attempts at using different sites as their testing grounds, they decide they must go back to the Lost Island to continue research, despite formerly being run off the island by the "hostiles" (aka The Others). It is also clear that whatever they are doing involves the deaths of 30% of the people already on the island, so you can understand why The Others would not want them there, as they are on the island for a different reason which has not yet become clear to me.
So why this island for the DHARMA work? Because on the island they had tapped into a huge electromagnetic source, which by regulating the exact amount, could be used to bend the light around the island to render it "invisible" from a certain distance (and onward).
Any change in the electromagnetic usage (whether greater or smaller) would bend the light in a different way, no longer making the island invisible. Since Ben started with the DHARMA people, he knows this, and despite killing them, allows their security measures (The Hatch specifically) to remain so that no one comes back to the island to interrupt his "new" people.
When the hatch implodes, the island becomes visible to a lot more people than just the members of the Hanso Foundation, who already know it's location.
The DHARMA people believe that they are saving the world through their research, so by pushing the button they feel they are saving the world by making sure that their work is invisible to the world and can continue.
Theory by AUsenik
As we find out in The Lost Experience, after failed attempts at using different sites as their testing grounds, they decide they must go back to the Lost Island to continue research, despite formerly being run off the island by the "hostiles" (aka The Others). It is also clear that whatever they are doing involves the deaths of 30% of the people already on the island, so you can understand why The Others would not want them there, as they are on the island for a different reason which has not yet become clear to me.
So why this island for the DHARMA work? Because on the island they had tapped into a huge electromagnetic source, which by regulating the exact amount, could be used to bend the light around the island to render it "invisible" from a certain distance (and onward).
Any change in the electromagnetic usage (whether greater or smaller) would bend the light in a different way, no longer making the island invisible. Since Ben started with the DHARMA people, he knows this, and despite killing them, allows their security measures (The Hatch specifically) to remain so that no one comes back to the island to interrupt his "new" people.
When the hatch implodes, the island becomes visible to a lot more people than just the members of the Hanso Foundation, who already know it's location.
The DHARMA people believe that they are saving the world through their research, so by pushing the button they feel they are saving the world by making sure that their work is invisible to the world and can continue.
Theory by AUsenik
