The World Monuments Fund has been attempting to acquaint people with threatened ethnic heritage sites like Machu Picchu in Peru, shrines in Cambodia, and Yemen’s old city of Taiz, among others, for years. But this year’s listing of at-risk places goes much further away: to the sun.
” The sky seems so far outside of our scope”, said Benedicte de Montlaur, the organisation’s president and chief professional. However, with people making more and more of a room trip, it’s the right time to getting organized.
The party named the sky as one of the 25 endangered places on its 2025 World Monuments Watch because it was concerned that the area race might worsen space debris and boost hospitality in orbit and elsewhere. The other websites on the list, endangered by issues like climate change, hospitality, conflict and natural disasters, include Gaza, a broken historic building in Kyiv, and eroding shores in Kenya and the US.
The team warns that more than 90 essential sites on the moon could get damaged as more a number of affluent people launch into space and more government agencies pursue individual spaceflight. In particular, experts are worried about Serenity Foundation, the Apollo 11 getting page where pilot Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the planet’s surface.
” The sun doesn’t relate to anybody”, de Montlaur said. ” It is a symbol of hope and the future”. The World Monuments Fund has been receiving votes from world heritage specialists for its see list for nearly 30 years. The list serves the nonprofit’s other efforts to preserve cultural heritage and is intended as an educational and promotional tool.
The moon was chosen for the watch list by a section of the International Committee on Monuments and Sites devoted to aerospace heritage. Due to the” sheer number of human artifacts on its surface,” Gai Jorayev, president of the division, said members wanted sustainable management. There are artifacts of human culture besides lunar orbiters and rangers that are scattered across the moon’s surface and express scientific accomplishments. A SpaceX rocket lifted a lander that carried 125 miniature sculptures by the artist Jeff Koons to the moon’s surface last year, while Apollo 11 astronauts left a golden olive branch to symbolize peace. nyt
