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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.”
(Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Sunday December 14 2014, @05:04AM
Edill said :It can also be simple ignorance, even from people as ostensibly educated and considerate as Greenpeace."
No, I don't think so.
Most of the GP volunteers have at least some college education, live a spoiled brat lifestyle, come from a long distance, with time to think about their plans on the way, and have heard about the destruction of other historic sites. They HAD to know what they were doing was wrong. The site is a world treasure.
It is inconceivable that they could have stumbled into this project without even once having a second though that it was wrong.
If Greenpeace is so ignorant to provide ships and support but no supervision for such hooligans than GP is responsible. Slap Kumi Naidoo in jail until several hundred million guilt dollars are are collected by the Green Peace supporters to bail him out.
I hope they can find the actual perpetrators and imprisoned them for a at least half a decade as well.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Sunday December 14 2014, @05:35AM
Note, I said "can". I'm very dubious myself that their ignorance was anything but willful in nature. It would be absolutely incredible that anybody higher up in Greenpeace knew such damage would be a direct result of their actions as well. If it's proven that GP executives knew beforehand, than GP executives should be handed over. However, nothing was actually destroyed. They only *added* next to existing features. Their failures were due to a lack of sophisticated knowledge about geology and the ground. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they did not know their own shoes would be putting indelible marks on the ground, which does not excuse them in any way. I was only attempting to remove malice as a motivator, not inconsideration or arrogance. Complete repair is wholly impossible, but matching the colors and luminosity with other materials laid over it, isn't. From the sky we might never know Greenpeace was there as the lines and hummingbird are intact and untouched. This isn't as permanent or as damaging as Peru would have you believe, but it's absolutely as damaging in terms of relations and trust. I would not be surprised if Peru now completely locks the whole area to outsiders, and possibly over reacts to prevent people from accessing its cultural heritage.
As for your feelings of justice, I'm somewhat on board. It was highly illegal to enter those grounds under any conditions, and Greenpeace members did it precisely because they refused to respect such laws. Otherwise, it wouldn't make the news right?
Ohh, the half decade is way too long a sentence. I would suggest 30 days instead of 5 years. It's a Peruvian prison system, so those 30 days will seem like lifetimes, and most probably wouldn't survive as Peruvian prisons are managed and operated by the prisoners, not government staff. If we wanted to be lenient, it would be something like 3 days, and that's not a slap on the wrist. Even with 3 days, I'm pretty sure the guys will come out beaten and most likely raped within an inch of their lives. The women will be separated and off in a different facility, not even on the same grounds AFAIK.
I'd rather choose prison in North Korea, if I had a choice at all.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday December 15 2014, @04:16PM
A) Greenpeace is an *environmental* organization, not an art preservation society. They didn't cause any environmental damage here. They aren't accused of causing any environmental damage here. What they're accused of is scuffing up the margins of a canvas. You're basically saying a veterinarian MUST know how to care for a Picasso painting simply because they went to school. And not only that they must know how to care for it, but that they must give a damn too. And to go one step further, if someone were trying to create the Nazca lines today, Greenpeace would be *totally* against it. They exist to *limit* human alteration to our environment, not to preserve and encourage it. I can understand why people would be upset about this "damage", but it doesn't contradict the mission of Greenpeace in any way.
B) They were accused of *walking through sand*. That's all. They didn't touch the lines, they didn't intentionally screw with anything. They moved a bit of sand. Just like the wind has been doing for over a thousand years. Just like animals have been doing for over a thousand years. Who in their right mind would think that would be a problem?