Since Greenpeaces wanton vandalism of the Nazca lines the increasing coverage and anger has forced even apologists like the Guardian have back tracked. Greenpeace have apologised sort of, they aren’t sorry that they’ve damaged the Nazca lines but that they’ve caused “offence” and “came across as careless and crass.”. So whilst the Peruvian Government is intending to press charges and wants the names of all of the Greenpeace activists involved, Greenpeace have said that they’re “cooperating with the Peruvian authorities and seeking to clarify what took place.”. Obviously not cooperating to the extent of handing over any names, and I’m not quite sure how you “explain what really happened” when you’ve filmed yourself:
- Illegally entering a world heritage site
- Trampling over the site in normal shoes, rather than the required special protective shoes
- Damaging the area around one of the most iconic lines whilst laying out cloth letters
- Leaving the area with the surface far from pristine, with marks left my the footprints of 20 vandals, their rucksacks and the letters laid out on the ground
Perhaps it will transpire that despite the evidence all those activists, bags and banners levitated above the fragile surface of the Nazca plain leaving it entirely untouched. Perhaps it was only after they left that evil saboteurs probably in the pay of big oil, edited the Greenpeace video digitally adding damage and sneaking in unseen to carefully destroy the Nazca plain below where Greenpeace had been levitating? Or You know maybe Greenpeace should just admit the damage and these fearless environmental crusaders should hand themselves in to accept their punishment for the environmental damage they’ve done?
Greenpeace of course have yet again gone in to what they see as damage control mode, as they couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong. They may have caused “moral offence to the Peruvian people” which they are surprised about, but no worries “if any permanent damage had been caused to the archaeological site”, what ever happened to that precautionary principe Greenpeace are usually so keen on? To put that “if” into context the Hummingbird lines next to which carried out their vandalism was the only set of lines that were still undamaged. Greenpeace though do “fully understand that this looks bad”, not that it is bad just that it looks bad. Just as well the world hadn’t picked upon their previous Peruvian stunt or we might really start to suspect that they’re a bunch of ignorant self-serving vandals that don’t actually give a shit about anything beyond their own egos (and finances). When even I fucking love science is saying an environmental group has screwed up you know they’ve really really made a mess of things. Still on the bright side we do now all know what Greenpeace mean by the legacy we need to leave for future generations – as long as it makes for a good stunt, Greenpeace are happy for that legacy to be irreparable damage to unique environments.
From now on every time I encounter a Greenpeace fund-raiser or spokesman I plan to ask them if they’ve repaired the Nazca plain yet and if not why should I trust them with any other aspect of the environment?
