
Builders bulldoze Mayan Pyramid - codecurve
http://news.uk.msn.com/world/builders-bulldoze-big-mayan-pyramid
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snowwrestler
Like the rest of the commenters I feel horrified about this.

But why do I feel this way? The vast majority of buildings are demolished and
recycled. What is about this one--the age, I assume? Maybe it's a symbol of
humanity's time on the earth--but why is that personally important to me?

Maybe I'm nuts but I think it's fascinating to really dig into the "why"
behind such a common emotional reaction.

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thaumasiotes
Many humans value stasis for its own sake. This is the urge powering most of
the US environmental movement.

~~~
Webster
And here I thought that the driving force was the desire for clean water and
clean air.

~~~
thaumasiotes
This is fairly easy to dispute... people aren't even asking for clean water
and clean air (we have those already!). They're asking for things like habitat
preservation and biodiversity.

Here are the Sierra Club's top goals[1]:

\- end use of coal, oil, and natural gas (this is three goals for them, but I
see them as thematically linked)

This is a mix. They attack all three for being "dirty". They also attack oil
because oil corporations are engines of political corruption (it strikes me
that while this is something you can come up with if you're already against
oil on principle, you're unlikely to decide, based on this, that you should be
against oil). And, they attack oil and natural gas (I didn't check coal)
because the extraction process causes "environmental damage".

\- "Resilient Habitats"

Seems to be half about preserving existing ecosystems and half about
preventing climate change. Nothing to do with clean water or clean air.

\- "Protecting America's Waters"

Definitely a clean water issue.

Here are Greenpeace's "What We Do"s[2]:

\- Protecting Ancient Forests

"We're working to create a world with zero deforestation." This is a stasis
issue.

\- Protecting our oceans

Unlike the Sierra Club, Greenpeace is not worried about water pollution. It's
worried about overfishing (and especially overwhaling). This is another stasis
issue.

\- Stopping Global Warming

Yep, a stasis issue.

Look at my sibling comment -- the problem with destruction of this buried
temple is that the loss is irrevocable. It's not that the temple was in use
for any purpose (it wasn't), or that there could have been a future use; it's
just that something we "had" is now gone.

Don't confuse the reason a movement began with the same movement's current
goals. Movements do not cease just because they've achieved their goals.

[1] <https://content.sierraclub.org/sierra-club-programs>

[2] <http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/>

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lake99
I hope Belize and other such places learn their lesson from this about leaving
important places unprotected. For instance, if someone _can_ blow up Giant
Crystal Cave of Mexico, just for the fun of it, _someone_ will, eventually.

It's not as if there is a shortage of stupid people anywhere.

~~~
skreech
Yes, and when local governments lack the power, desire and/or resources to
protect heritage sites, can the larger world community step in, and how?
Perhaps start by buying the land where such sites are located?

~~~
lake99
Sure, the private-property solution can work well, as can active governmental
protection. In this case though, Belizean laws made the destruction easy. This
monument was on private property, but the monument itself was under government
"protection". The owner of the land had no incentive to protect it.

~~~
swombat
He would have had an incentive if letting it be damaged recklessly meant he'd
go straight to jail...

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mu_killnine
Unfortunately, I doubt that anything (beyond a few incensed academics) will
come of this. That, to me, is the true tragedy because it virtually ensures
that it's only a matter of time before this happens again.

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swombat
I say strip them of their rights and ship them to Afghanistan to have a drink
with their buddies who blew up the 1,500-year old Buddha statues there...
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan>)

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binaryatrocity
My heritage and history destroyed, and for what? It's stuff like this that
makes me not want to wake up in the morning, much less procreate.

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matthuggins
I hate humans. I hope we go extinct.

~~~
zokier
I'd understand that sentiment better if the item in question wasn't a _human_
monument.

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tetha
I'm sad now.

