"Time for Change; The Future is Renewable" but the Past is NOT

Peru's Deputy Culture Minister Luis Jaime Castillo slammed Monday's action by the environmental group Greenpeace at the famed geoglyphs made between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago on part of Peru's coastal desert near Nazca, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"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. [...] Castillo said no one, not even presidents and Cabinet ministers, is allowed without authorization where the activists trod, and those who do have permission must wear special shoes.

The selfies they took while doing this show Greenpeace activists in sneakers and clumpy walking boots. When a storm of anger broke the next day Greenpeace offered an apology. It was "We're sorry if you were offended...." They don't even get why what they did was wrong. Here's one of the photos, here from the 'Climate Change Dispatch' a sort of carbon footprint Peter Tompa. You can see clearly the trampling which is visible.

It's the historical environment, stupid (see also here)

Just in case anyone is not clear what the lines look like close-to: here, here and here. They are very fragile, and created by the displacement of stones. Walking on and around them displaces more stones and thus alters the images and their setting.

the trampled area (outlined in red)

Just to show where you're supposed to be looking

The same area shown in one of the Greenpeace shots.
Red arrow, parked vehicle or tent - green arrow part of the trail
marked above, but can be seen here to be wheeled vehicle
tracks. 

There are six of them in this photo, note the path bottom left.
At least three others are shown in the video

And here we see that stones were used to hold the letters down

Here are some views of what it looked like before the trampling, here,  here, here and here. Note the lack of comparable trampling around the outlines created by the people who made (and then perhaps in some way used) the geoglyphs in the first place.

Here is a video of the operation - in it we can see that at least nine people (the BBC says '20') were involved in the trashing of this fragile archaeological site - part of the historical environment. And they are doing it at night.

Video posted on You Tube by Latina.pe

One of the activists photographed on site is identified as  Mauro Fernández. The rest of these people need to be publicly named by Greenpeace and their details handed over to the Peruvian authorities. Let's see them face a jail sentence like the Germans in the Great Pyramid. People need to be aware that the historical environment is fragile and finite which is why we all need to take care of it, not exploit it like these young people for a cheap five minutes of fame, no matter what they are trying to 'prove'. Greenpeace's aim is to raise public awareness, let us see them actually doing that. Let us also see them instituting a review process for their publicity stunts which includes the full range of specialists needed to assess each project, which includes assessing its permanent environmental impact.

As somebody said, has Greenpeace not heard of photoshop?

If anyone feels like contacting Greenpeace pointing out what they clearly do not yet understand - why this was the wrong place for such a stunt, and why the historical environment is important for future generations too, here are their contact details.  They also want your money, but I'd not give them any until they sort out the procedure for avoiding being the direct cause of such environmental disasters in future.