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Greenpeace Damages Ancient Nazca Lines; Peru to Prosecute
The United Nations is holding climate talks in Lima, Peru, featuring delegates from 190 countries. To get their attention, the anti-science extremists of Greenpeace illegally entered a prohibited area adjacent to one of the most famous Nazca Lines.
The activists trampled across the fragile, 1,500-year-old site to install large cloth letters reading: “Time for Change; The Future is Renewable.” To put it mildly, Peruvian officials are not amused.
They say the green group entered a strictly prohibited area and left footprints. The government is asking for the identities of those involved and threatening prosecution and six years in prison for the offenders.
“It’s a true slap in the face at everything Peruvians consider sacred,” Deputy Culture Minister Luis Jaime Castillo said, speaking to news agencies.
Greenpeace have now issued a fulsome apology, saying they are deeply concerned about any “moral offence” and stating that they will speak to the authorities and explain what really happened.
“The peaceful protest by Greenpeace in the area of the Nazca lines was to demonstrate the impacts of climate change and honour the historical legacy of this town who learned to live with the environment without affecting it,” said Greenpeace legal advisor Henry Carhuatocto.
Actually Henry, this ancient community so affected the environment that we can still enjoy their amazing artwork a millennia and a half later.
Peruvians are even more upset that Greenpeace targeted the Hummingbird, one of the most iconic of all the Nazca Lines. “They are absolutely fragile. They are black rocks on a white background. You walk there and the footprint is going to last hundreds or thousands of years,” Castillo said. “And the line that they have destroyed is the most visible and most recognized of all.”
Published in General
Historical landmarks, archaeological treasures, storefronts and property rights, none of these things can compare to the importance of my need to express my righteous indignation.
My guess: upper middle-class whities…. from a First World Western Civilization.
I would just love to know that They got six years in a Peruvian prison. Brings a smile to My face.
Gotta love the schadenfreude. Transnational progressives hoisted by their own petard.
You got to love these fools. They profess profound respect for people whose lives and habits they know nothing about and can not even muster the common sense to treat with courtesy. Perhaps the Peruvians should tell them to “check their privilege” cause I don’t think they understand instructions like “do not enter”.
It’s wierd the way the Greenpeace people have no sense of the sacred. I mean, I don’t know how you look at that hummingbird without being kind of spooked, without having the feeling that generations of the dead not only aren’t gone but that there’s not much seperating you from them, without sensing that the drawing has something to do with worship.
Proposed Official Greenpeace Response: “Hi, we’re Greenpeace and we’re better than you. You just don’t get how important our message is. If you did, you’d be like, ‘Oh, I so totally get it now.’ But you don’t, so you’re freaking out. Sad. Uhm, I guess we’re sorry that we walked all over your stupid ground drawings, which, by the way, aren’t even that good. What kind of bird is that supposed to be anyway? Listen, dudes, you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. The world is coming to an end because of corporations and Republicans…and the Kochs, so get some perspective. Obviously, you’re tree people, we’re forest people. See what I did there? I used elements in the ‘environment’ to appropriate and adapt a preexisting cultural trope to inform and educate about the ‘environment.’ Noticing a pattern, you knuckleheads? God. I thought brown people were supposed to be in touch with the spirituality of Mother Earth and stuff. Soooo, that’s it I guess. Our inherent moral superiority means we don’t have to regard your ‘property’ (there’s another issue, like the whole plateau just ‘belongs’ to you, what a-holes) as sacred or whatever. Forget it. We’re going home where there’s good wifi.”
These people are so full of themselves. They advertise that we should leave the planet be, but they absolutely cannot help themselves. They certainly are happy to leave footprints as long as it’s their own footprints. What a bunch of egotists!
I suppose we’ll all have to settle for archival photographs of the hummingbird thanks to these clowns.
Or maybe these jerks can put their words into action (“Time for Change. The Future is Renewable”). Offer to work with the Peruveans and figure out how, if at all possible, they can work together to restore the damage they’ve done. Show how it can be renewed. But I doubt it’s possible.
These folks aren’t right in the head. Perhaps the Peruvians can introduce them to an ancient mental health technique: trephining.
Notice how they only apologize for the “moral” offense they “might” have caused. Not even an acknowledgement that an actual legal offense has taken place. I love how they’re going to “explain what really happened,” to the authorities as if all of a sudden their eyes will be opened to the truth and the very real footprints will just disappear. The real gem, however, comes at the end of the BBC article where they say, “We welcome any independent review of the consequences of our activity…” and that they are ‘willing to face “fair and reasonable consequences” for its actions.’ (emphasis mine) Just from their statements you can tell they feel they’re above the law and that their own climate righteousness should be more than enough to absolve them from any real consequences (which are probably codified in law), you know, like prison time.
The future might be renewable, but the past is certainly trampled.
The future is renewable? Does that mean if I bring a can of the future to the recycling center I get 5 cents for it?
The Greenpeace apology is the same boilerplate non-apology all Leftists use. (See Jonathan Gruber’s recent “apologies.”) It is essentially an apology that their righteous actions have been misunderstood by we dimwitted knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.
Good grief! I thought this was a spoof from “The Onion”. Really? Really, really?
Implosion of Green Peace in ten, nine, eight….
This is sad, though. I’ve been to Nasca. The lines are beautiful; it’s a pity to see them destroyed.
In my experience, most bad ideas die a natural death. They may take some toll on their way out, though. This seems to be the case with Green Peace.
In the voice of Little Red Riding Hood:
What a boneheaded stunt.
I don’t see any footprints in the picture above. I suspect that even at ground level the footprints aren’t that noticeable. We’re told that these footprints will be around for “hundreds perhaps thousands of years.” What about all the footprints left behind by all those “ologists” who studied the lines before Peru decided to make them off limits? Are they still there too? I can’t see them in the photo either.
The real issue is not footprints. The real issue is that Green Peace defaced Peru’s heritage with their d— sign. It’s about a holier-than-thou attitude that ignores the rights and property of others.
Fortunately, the footprints will go away (probably sooner rather than later due to the winds on the plateau). Unfortunately, Green Peace won’t.
I saw a different photo that clearly showed the path they wore walking to and from the area. I hope they’re executed. Does Peru still do executions?
Anyway, my first thought was “Communists destroy historical treasures” — we’ve seen this movie many times before.
Yeah, I don’t think the actual footprints are necessarily the issue. It’s the metaphorical footprints in that image of desecration. Leftists are sanctimonious, self-deifying bullies. They decide what’s good, and then make the “facts” fit.
Friends of Lori Berenson?
Friends of Lori Berenson?
You know about Lori Berenson? She was SO clueless! She thought she was right to support a terrorist group in Peru because the Andean people were “so poor they have to eat guinea pigs.”
Aka “sustainable.” Meaningless jargon.
Anyone else find it odd that the words are displayed … in English? Who’s their audience? Not the Peruvians … talk about disrespect …
“who learned to live with the environment without affecting it” Okay, the ancients more or less flattened a mountaintop, carved pictures in it that have lasted thousands of years, but that’s not affecting the environment? I guess modern man is the only one that negatively affects things.
With so much focus on carbon, they forgot that there is such a thing as actual footprints.
When reading things like this about environmental renegades, I always wonder, “How did they get to Peru? It must have been either by walking or bicycling for a year or more from the U.S., or by sailing there on boats they constructed from renewable materials – because I know they wouldn’t fly in a jet airliner that was propelled by oil products! And how did they get to the site in question? It must have been by walking or on bicycles, because I know they wouldn’t use a car or a bus or a train that ran on oil products!” It’s funny how everyone is always supposed to overlook or excuse their hypocrisy because their intentions are good.
You know, I think I’ve seen this attitude somewhere before:
We’re trying to save humanity from itself –
We know what is best –
Some must be sacrificed –
My Logic is Undeniable –
It’s hippie-punching time.
Tell me the sign is biodegradable and will decay and blow away. It is, right? They didn’t use Goretex survival panels or something . . . of course not.
An excellent question. I wondered the same thing.
* No actual hippies were harmed in the posting of this sentence. Damn it.