[meteorite-list] Wabar Crater Under Threat From Vandals

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:21 2004
Message-ID: <002101c3eed1$617810e0$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

This is not true! Waber is 18 hours in the sand dunes, and is small craters,
not larger than Meteor Crater.
What crap is this? Anyone elaborate?
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 10:47 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Wabar Crater Under Threat From Vandals


>
>
> http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=39241&d=9&m=2&y=2004
>
> Wabar Crater Under Threat From Vandals
> Arab News
> February 9, 2004
>
> JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia has 'nothing' to offer the world
> tourist. Whole deserts full of it. It has captivated the imagination of
> explorers and visionaries for millennia and it is beginning to lose the
very
> quality that makes it special; the absence of everything else.
>
> One of Saudi Arabia's greatest geological wonders, essentially a large
hole
> in the ground, has finally proved too tempting as a rubbish tip. The Wabar
> Crater is becoming a tourist attraction but is also attracting the
attention
> of graffiti writers and depositors of garbage.
>
> As part of the process of making this tectonic treasure much more
accessible
> and open to all to wonder at, paved roads now lead to the very edge of the
> rim, affording a stunning view into the now dry lake bed 350 meters below.
> The crater stretches over 2 km from rim to rim, far bigger than the meteor
> impact site that is a major tourist attraction in Arizona. On the night of
a
> full moon, the pure white salt of the lake bed glows as if lit from
within,
> throwing a crepuscular glow onto the stark cliffs around.
>
> A few meters from the rim, lies a field of black lava, textured with
> bas-relief ripples and swirls as if still liquid. Moonlight glistens on
the
> semi-polished surface of the flows, silvering the furrows and smooth
curves.
> Small caves, the result of huge burst bubbles of superheated steam, lie
> open, roofs partly collapsed allowing rare views inside the lava mass.
> Smaller caves and fissures are home to foxes and small mammals, their
tracks
> in the windblown sand betraying their occupancy.
>
> The total silence is broken only by the gentle rustle of a blue plastic
> carrier bag as it tumbles in the night breeze, or the staccato clatter of
an
> aluminum can rolled over the cliff by a playful zephyr.
>
> The national tourist drive which provided the roads, has also spawned a
rash
> of startlingly ugly white rectangular sheds, placed there as protection
from
> the sun and for families to relax in and enjoy the scene. Large
> white-painted surfaces also attract the semi-literate with their
spraycans.
> All of the white surfaces - and even the blue road signs indicating the
> route to the crater - now display the scrawl of the graffiti writers. Some
> have even ventured into the crater, leaving evidence of their passing
> splashed on the cliff walls.
>
> In August last year, Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary-general of the
> Supreme Commission for Tourism, said he believes that tourism will grow
from
> the bottom up. He sees a future where towns and villages will be able to
> form a tourism council and develop a local tourist industry. By involving
> the local people in the commerce of tourism and letting them benefit from
it
> financially, he said, they will realize its benefits.
>
> "They will also protect it. No one can protect the industry except people
> who feel that it is theirs," he said. "It's a new decentralized approach -
> the government within five years will literally be out of your hair.
That's
> what's planned, it's what we have announced and it's what the Council of
> Ministers has agreed on."
>
> These are impressive objectives and there are places in the Kingdom that
> equal any of the heavily protected World Heritage Sites found elsewhere on
> the planet.
>
> The man with the spraycan or the individual who is willing to dump a
> truckload of industrial garbage in a beauty spot clearly has no
> understanding of the value of the site and is ahead of the game. His
efforts
> to leave his own unique "footprints in the sands of time" have overtaken
> attempts at conservation through restriction of access or by educating
> people to appreciate their heritage.
>
> The individual who litters with drinks cans and plastic bags is willfully
> careless of the fact that others, who have the same wish to visit a site
of
> great beauty, might not wish to sit in a half-eaten kabsa or swat
itinerant
> plastic bags. If this behavior goes on for five years, the damage to the
> tourist attraction might be so great that it cannot be reversed.
>
> "It's nothing to be ashamed of if you are selective about the kind of
> tourist you want, especially in a country like Saudi Arabia," said Prince
> Sultan. "We are not the kind of country that has to have tourists at any
> cost or at any price."
>
> Again, these are right and noble ideals. But the sad truth is that until
> environmental education gets through to the average citizen, the unique
> wilderness heritage of the Kingdom will be under greater threat from the
> indigenous rather than the foreign tourist.
>
> It seems that as long as a carload of individuals can drive right to the
> edge of the crater, treat it as a dining area or rubbish tip and then
> disappear back home with ease thanks to an open road, the preservation of
> the wilderness will be under threat. Its survival requires responsibility
> and an appreciation of nature that some people simply do not have.
>
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Received on Mon 09 Feb 2004 12:55:53 AM PST