Bishop Hill The Greenpeace ‘archaeologist’
Dec 31, 2014 Greens This is a guest post by Shub Niggurath.
When the Nazca lines fiasco broke, Greenpeace's response was to assure the world it worked with an archaeologist, taking every possible precaution:
@MartaBeatrize The activists worked with an archeologist, and were very careful to protect the Nazca Lines.
— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) December 10, 2014
@sophiehigman We can assure you that no damage was done and the action was assessed by an experienced archaeologist who was with us.
— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) December 9, 2014
Questions arose immediately:
@Greenpeace @MartaBeatrize name the archaeologist and their credentials please.
— Roddy Campbell (@Roddy_Campbell) December 24, 2014
So @Greenpeace Me=PhD in Andean archaeology & yrs at an Andean World Heritage site yet I dunno how to not break Nazca. Who's your archaeo?
— Donna Yates (@DrDonnaYates) December 13, 2014
The archaeologist was eventually identified in a New York Times report of the incident. It named Wolfgang Sadik, an 'archaeologist-turned activist' who we were told had 'set aside his studies to work for Greenpeace'. The NYT relied on a Reuters video to relay how Sadik seemed to be directing 'some of the other activists'. It quoted photographer Rodrigo Abd:
“The archaeologist explained where to walk and where not to walk... There was a great concern not to even leave a mark of your shoes on the ground, and if a rock was moved put it back in its place.”
The article further quoted Wolfgang Neubauer of the University of Vienna who informed Sadik was his doctoral candidate and had 'put off his studies to work with Greenpeace.'
This blog will show there's more than what the New York Times let its readers in for. Far from being an archaeologist, Wolfgang Sadik is a committed long-time Greenpeace member and activist, who has conducted several campaigns for the organization including some in leadership positions.
Sadik's recorded Greenpeace activism appears to begin over a decade ago in 2003 when he appeared in Tuwaitha, Iraq near Baghdad as a 'Greenpeace spokesman'. Sadik was part of a 6-member Greenpeace team that measured radiation and radiation sickness at sites where looted material from the Tuwaitha nuclear facilities had made their way.
In 2007, Greenpeace planned for a symbolism-laden stunt at Mount Ararat near Turkey. Sadik was the leader. Battling skepticism within Greenpeace ('too sentimental, too American, not serious enough') Sadik pushed plans for building a boat-shaped 'Noah's ark' structure on the slopes of the mountain to coincide with a G8 summit at Heiligendamm.
In one respect, similarities between the Nazca stunt and Greenpeace's Ark are striking. Sadik the team's 'action coordinator' reasoned:
The Ark was an available and widely-known symbol, so why not use it?
Sadik's ark project was successful in attracting month-long 'international media attention' (Greenpeace criterion for success); he is reported to have said the stunt 'had had the biggest impact of any campaign Greenpeace had ever created in that part of the world'.
In the period afterward, Sadik appears to have shifted to archaeology, working with Wolfgang Neubauer on archaeological excavations in Hallstatt, Austria. A 46-page glitzy pamphlet produced in 2008 highlights his work on the site. It is not clear when he stopped in archaeology.
In February 2011 Sadik surfaced in Fukushima, Japan, once again measuring radiation levels. This time, Der Speigel was laundering Sadik's views as a 'Greenpeace expert' as it warned of a possible reactor meltdown. Sadik was already back with Greenpeace earlier in the year: in January he was in a round-table discussion with host Reinhard Ueberhorst in his capacity as Greenpeace's 'Energy 2010 campaign manager'. Last year Sadik was part of another ark building project 'Arche2020' as 'project coordinator' from Greenpeace Germany.
From the above, it is evident Greenpeace performed little to no archaeological due diligence in planning their Nazca act. Instead of employing external and independent expertise, it went with what was available inside, using wrong advice from an activist member as cover for its actions. These are things one frequently finds Greenpeace criticizing corporations and governments for.
Reader Comments (59)
I'm reminded of the old question of how to be both scum and dregs at once. Greenschaum!
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Greenpest.
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Grenpeace is merely one of the highest profile of the NGOs that have become little more than bullying parasites.
Some perspective and less hypocritical hysteria is surely in order.....
From http://www.labyrinthina.com/mariareiche.htm
"During this work of measuring lines I saw that there were many figures. I could recognize them because I had seen one! Others couldn't.
That is why the Pan American highway cut the figure of the lizard in half. Before the highways construction in 1938 people drove randomly over the lines and figures without seeing anything! ......
There are extremely strong winds here, even sandstorms, but the sand never deposits over the drawings. On the contrary, the wind has a cleansing effect taking away all the loose material. This way the drawings were preserved for thousands of years. It is also one of the driest places on earth, drier then the Sahara. It rains only half an hour every two years! Now all this has changed due to air pollution. Huge masses of dust and sand blow in from a large iron mine southwest of Nasca and fill the entire region with contamination, this produces precipitation, not enough for agriculture, but enough to endanger the figures....."
Oo-er so the lines are affected by local industry more than by people even driving over them and the now sanctimonious Peruvian government was responsible for by far the worst desecration. And this is from the real expert who kept the lines swept clean all these years on her own while the locals just called her a crazy old witch.
So, the leniency of Mr. Putin was probably misguided ;)
Anyway, who those mothers are is nicely described by Dr Patrick Moore "Greenpeace dropout" - at least he holds the first Canadian doctorate in ecology, he should be a nice figure - role to this GP wannabee.
Re: Richo @ 2 Jan 06:12 - I must disagree. Now if they had spelled out their message with bodies of executed 'infidels', 'apostates' and 'adultresses' (et cetera ad infinitum), they would be no better. Of course, not slaughtering your opposition is a pretty low hurdle.
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Kim, are we so bad that you now converse with adverts and talk with Turing?