El "arqueólogo" de Greenpeace. Bishop Hill Blog, 31/12/2014

http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2014/12/31/the-greenpeace-archaeologist.html

The Greenpeace ‘archaeologist’

Dec 31, 2014Greens

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:

Questions arose immediately:

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.