Greenpeace confirms why it is well-known primarily for being a group of shitheads

Or, as the Washington Free Beacon put it in a headline, "Greenpeace tromps on fragile world heritage site to raise awareness about Greenpeace." On Monday, as a publicity stunt during the climate conference taking place in Lima, Peru this week, Greenpeace eco-terrorists went into the Nazca desert to make a big sign with plastic letters sprawled out amidst the famous Nazca drawings:

As Gizmodo (among many others) points out, that's not only stupid, it's illegal:

The message is practically on top of the hummingbird geoglyph, which is now surrounded by their footprints. And the irony is thick. The future may be renewable, but these fragile, ancient drawings are not.
"This has been done without any respect for our laws," Peru's deputy minister for culture Luis Jaime Castillo told the press, calling Greenpeace's actions "thoughtless, insensitive, illegal, irresponsible and absolutely pre-meditated." He explained further: "It was done in the middle of the night. They went ahead and stepped on our hummingbird, and looking at the pictures we can see there's very severe damage. Nobody can go on these lines without permission—not even the president of Peru!"

Greenpeace promptly made the boo-boo all better, Reuters reports:

Environmental activist group Greenpeace apologized on Wednesday for a protest it organized at the ancient Nazca Lines etched in a desert in Peru.
The group said it was sorry if the protest at the historical site on Monday caused any "moral offense" to the people of Peru.

That should fix everything, right? Well, maybe not, since it wasn't a moral offense, it was a crime. As Gizmodo points out, using Associated Press photos (so am I), the damage by Greenpeace was extensive. Gizmodo compared the act to "walking on a Mondrian painting while it was still wet." The drawings, a UNESCO World Heritage, were made about 1,700 years ago by digging shallow trenches in the dirt, exposing the lighter-colored soil beneath the darker surface rocks. Kind of like what happens when you leave footprints:

While Greenpeace claimed it was "careful," the eco-terrorists did indeed walk on some of the lines and left a whole bunch of footprints, now clearly visible marring the drawings. Because of local conditions, those footprints are there basically forever. That's why Peru strictly controls visits to the area and requires anyone going there, mainly researchers, to wear special shoes (kind of like snowshoes) that don't leave prints in the soil. The eco-terrorists just wore their Keds. So while they were patting themselves on the back for their great PR stunt, the PR they are getting is not good and, oh by the way, Peru wants to press charges:

Peru will seek criminal charges against Greenpeace activists who it says damaged the world-renowned Nazca lines by leaving footprints in the adjacent desert during a publicity stunt.
“It’s a true slap in the face at everything Peruvians consider sacred,” said Luis Jaime Castillo, the deputy culture minister, after the action by the environmental group on Monday, at the famed drawings etched into Peru’s coastal desert, a UN world heritage site.
He said the government was seeking to prevent those responsible from leaving the country while it asks prosecutors to file charges of attacking archaeological monuments, a crime punishable by up to six years in prison.

The Guardian also has a video of the stunt, taken by the eco-terrorists themselves, showing them "carefully" tromping across the fragile site in the dark.

These guys are major turds, their positions are not well-founded scientifically or factually, and they are constantly doing stupid stuff like this to promote themselves. Gizmodo lays out a number of examples. Please, God, let them go to jail.