Summary
The moon has been added to the World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) list of threatened heritage sites for the first time due to risks from commercial and governmental lunar activities.
The WMF highlights concerns about looting and damage to artefacts from Apollo missions, such as Neil Armstrong’s footprints and objects left on the moon.
WMF calls for international protocols to protect lunar heritage as private space tourism and missions increase.
The 2024 list also includes sites in conflict zones and areas endangered by climate change or unsustainable tourism.
The headline is misleading, it doesn’t appear that they want to “protect” the whole entire Moon. They’re just concerned about sites of particular historical importance like the Apollo moon landings, and the artifacts at those locations.
Basically, Americans are scared now that China is leading in the second race to the moon, they’re gonna destroy the shit the Americans left up there.
Building a moon colony and preserving it all in a museum around the lander with all the explanation text in Chinese would be such a flex though.
Like “these are archaic artefacts of an empire of old”.
Solar radiation has bleached the flags they’ve left behind, so it’s impossible to know who they were or why they left a little square with a drawing of a dick
My thoughts as well.