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posted by janrinok on Saturday December 13 2014, @09:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the protect-the-environment-by-damaging-it dept.

The NYT reports that Peruvian authorities say Greenpeace activists have damaged the fragile, and restricted, landscape near the Nazca lines, ancient man-made designs etched in the Peruvian desert when they placed a large sign that promoted renewable energy near a set of lines that form the shape of a giant hummingbird. The sign was meant to draw the attention of world leaders, reporters and others who were in Lima, the Peruvian capital, for a United Nations summit meeting aimed at reaching an agreement to address climate change. Greenpeace issued a statement apologizing for the stunt at the archaeological site and its international executive director, Kumi Naidoo, flew to Lima to apologize for scarring one of Peru’s most treasured national symbols. “We are not ready to accept apologies from anybody,” says Luis Jaime Castillo, the vice minister for cultural heritage. “Let them apologize after they repair the damage.”

But repair may not be possible. The desert around the lines is made up of white sand capped by a darker rocky layer. By walking through the desert the interlopers disturbed the upper layer, exposing the lighter sand below. Visits to the site are closely supervised - ministers and presidents have to seek special permission and special footwear to tread on the fragile ground where the 1,500 year old lines are cut. “A bad step, a heavy step, what it does is that it marks the ground forever,” says Castillo. “There is no known technique to restore it the way it was.” Castillo says that the group walked in single file through the desert, meaning that they made a deep track in the ground then they spread out in the area where they laid the letters, making many more marks over a wide area. “The hummingbird was in a pristine area, untouched,” Castillo added. “Perhaps it was the best figure.”

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 13 2014, @11:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 13 2014, @11:30PM (#125849)

    I thought you were doing good but at the end you got it wrong. The taliban weren't religously ignorant, they were religiously malevolent. Their destruction of the buddha statues (and their brother salafists' descretation of Timbuktu [time.com]) was about erasing history that challenges their world-view and more importantly their social dominance. It's the same impulse as a conqueror replacing a conquered nation's flag with their own.

    Greenpeace were just idiots, the salafists know exactly what they are doing.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Sunday December 14 2014, @04:46AM

    by edIII (791) on Sunday December 14 2014, @04:46AM (#125889)

    I didn't get it wrong as much as you misinterpreted. Perhaps I could have worded it better. What I meant by "religiously ignorant fervor", is that they themselves are ignorant of their own religion. At least that's the broken record I've heard my entire life, that of a True Scotsman's argument specifically. Your other insights are valid, I'm just not sure how I got it wrong by speaking about their own ignorance other than my choice of words.

    Unless I'm completely wrong, I've been hearing pretty much since I could walk that every religion was the correct religion, but that Man is so flawed he doesn't abide by the prescribed regulations in any religion he attaches himself too. So Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are essentially pacifist and non-violent, and yet in practice they are not. Those that would be governed by God and not Man, have a really funny way of acting exactly like they are governed by Man and not God.

    God, by whatever name, is always pressing the love, peace, and equality agenda. It's Man that is not receptive to love, peace, and equality. Even when there is no God, Buddhists apparently can start promulgating views about who can marry who which is just so utterly bizarre as a practicing Buddhist myself. Buddhists are not supposed to care about your hoohahs, who else is playing with said hoohahs, and if the hoohah activity is appropriately "homogeneous" with the participants. This only proves to me that religion itself is harmless, and that the harm comes from Man and his relationship to his religious concepts. I've yet to hear any recognized theologian talking about where Allah specifically says that women and girls (puberty not all that important) are nothing more than a commodity market of warm holes capable of making you dinner. None of that seems to stop ISIS from saying these things, but I'm not biased enough to believe that every single Muslim on the planet (especially said commodities) are intrinsically malevolent (which I may be misinterpreting your words).

    It may be important to remember that nearly a full quarter of the world's Muslims come from moderate Asian countries where they are just as repulsed by the notion of their fellow Muslims destroying ancient artifacts as we are. I was attempting to not indite all of Islam over the rampant ignorance of what their own religion actually says. There wouldn't be much a point to it, since it would equally apply to the other major religions. Islam failed from the start, as the moment the prophet died, it was all about power vacuums and not Allah. Ever since, Islam is a religion divided with a long and bloody history that has precious little to do with Allah or any divine information sent down to the monkeys.

    Greenpeace has its very own religion, and membership. The damage done was not done in accordance with any philosophies promulgated by Greenpeace. Yet, I don't call Greenpeace a group of members having malevolence. The error was on the part of these Greenpeace members, just like the errors have always been performed by those malfunctioning on a religious level.

    "Thou shalt not kill..... No seriously...... Okay, it's only 4 words, but seriously stop the killing...... Are you going to stop the killing? I'll send somebody down to explain it...... You killed my son.... and you're still not listening...." - God

    God certainly doesn't exist, and never existed in Man's image (of all things in the universe), and we should pray he doesn't exist. Otherwise he would be sending more floods at this point since he obviously can't send down angels to explain the simple concepts that we forget the moment we become angry. If God does exist.... boy that is one impressive level of patience and tolerance.

    In many ways, it is indeed ignorance and not a coincidence that the malfunctioning monkeys are harmful to each other while enjoying their state of ignorance in spite of their God's existence explicitly stating to not be malfunctioning harmful monkeys.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 14 2014, @01:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 14 2014, @01:03PM (#125936)

      Have you read the Old Testament? God is a murdering bastard that is jealous, vindictive and brutal. You seem to be getting him/her/it confused with the one from the New Testament.