Greenpeace Irreparably Damage Ancient Nazca Lines

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/11/370125769/greenpeace-apologizes-for-stunt-at-perus-sacred-nazca-lines
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/greenpeace-irrevocably-damages-fragile-nazca-lines-peru-during-publicity-stunt

Quote :

Pro tip: If you want to be taken seriously when you are delivering an important protest against the destruction of the Earth, it’s best to not desecrate a World Heritage Site in the process.

While this advice could probably be categorized under “logic for five year olds,” it has apparently eluded the folks at Greenpeace. Protestors from the group inflicted irreversible damage to the Nazca Lines in Peru when they laid out banners ironically decrying the destruction of the environment.

Why is this such a big deal? The Nazca Lines are a collection of hundreds of geoglyphs that were made by indigenous people over 1,500 years ago in the Pampas of Jumana in the Nazca desert...

In order to make the lines, the Nazca people excavated 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches) of reddish stone from the ground, revealing the light-colored soil underneath. The soil has a large amount of lime, which hardens and protects the lines from wind erosion. However, the properties of the ground which has allowed these glyphs to endure for over a millennium are why nobody—not even presidents or diplomats—are permitted to walk near the sites without approval and specialized footwear, as footprints can leave marks that will also endure over time. The area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 in order to preserve the images.

Not giving a damn about all of that, the members of Greenpeace willfully trespassed on the famous hummingbird structure in order to lay out their banners which read: "Time for Change! The Future is Renewable.”

Nice people. I hope they're prosecuted.

Greenpeace has form. It falsified a pic of a deformed baby after Chernobyl.

The self-righteous ones were also the victims of the only successful French military action since Napoleon.

I'm confused.

Who, exactly, were they trying to send the message to? The sign wasn't visible unless you were right on top of it. But, as established in the article, you can't get close enough to see it.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I'm confused.

Who, exactly, were they trying to send the message to? The sign wasn't visible unless you were right on top of it. But, as established in the article, you can't get close enough to see it.

They rightly presumed that damaging the site would get them lots of international coverage.

They were playing chicken with the Spanish Navy a few weeks ago, trying to disrupt the passage of an oil tanker off the Canary Islands.

Predictably, they came off second-best - but they made sure they got everything on film and edited it to make it look like the Spanish were the aggressors. Apparently they thought no-one would notice the way they clearly put themselves in danger and made no attempt to avoid a collision, even though they were in a smaller boat and maritime law puts the burden of responsibility squarely on them.