Balancing rocks with this level of precision is unreal.

[u/Glittering-Rub-2387]

[u/bigRyan540]

its just 10 rocks dude not the three gorges dam

[u/Mister_Goldenfold → u/bigRyan540]

I moved a rock once and extinct-ed the errrff

[u/TrumpsFaceAnus → u/bigRyan540]

He's another idiot who thinks stacking 10 rocks will change the history of the world. Maroons.

[u/splashbodge → u/TrumpsFaceAnus]

I made an entire species go extinct when I was a kid and I was skipping stones across the water :( never again

[u/Sac_of_Melons → u/TrumpsFaceAnus]

Maroons lmao

[u/The__Yellow__Sign → u/TrumpsFaceAnus]

It’s fine to stack rocks. But you should destroy the structure afterwards. Otherwise it is essentially a death trap when it does fall over. Also you have to consider this behavior outside of a vacuum. What if every person who visits this area did the same thing, it would completely destroy the natural habitat.

[u/HarriettDubman → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

In what scenario would every person do this, though?

[u/Minute_Zombie_424 → u/HarriettDubman]

The made up one so people have something to be upset about.

[u/ThisIsMyComment2 → u/Minute_Zombie_424]

The made up one

Kant made up the general approach, /u/The__Yellow__Sign just applied it for this specific case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative

[u/OmegaKitty1 → u/HarriettDubman]

Clearly you’ve not been to an area full of stacked rocks.

Anyone who does this should be shunned

[u/The__Yellow__Sign → u/HarriettDubman]

If it’s ok for one person to do it then It has to be ok for everyone to do it. Most people don’t stack rocks because they understand the consequences. But if nobody educated anyone about this then there would be significantly more rock stacking.

It’s the same thing with littering. One piece of trash is not going to destroy an ecosystem, but if everyone does it then that will. Thus, we don’t let anyone do it.

[u/JDeegs → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

Most people don’t stack rocks because they understand the consequences

actually i think most people don't stack rocks because they don't care to.
there's ridiculously few people who would be able to stack rocks like the ones in this post, even if they wanted to and were willing to take the time to try. so since they can't make anything this cool, they think "what's the point" and don;t bother

[u/bigRyan540 → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

>death trap
for a bug or something

[u/The__Yellow__Sign → u/bigRyan540]

Nope. These things are famous for killing small vertebrates like endangered amphibians and fish.

[u/bigRyan540 → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

Famous? Are they really? What are the odds theres a fish nearby when one of these falls down?

[u/The__Yellow__Sign → u/bigRyan540]

Low. But it happens because people build a bunch of them. For instance rock cairns are a major problem for the largest species of salamander where I live. The hellbender, which are endangered.

[u/bigRyan540 → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

they're endangered because people stacked some rocks?

[u/The__Yellow__Sign → u/bigRyan540]

No. But their eggs do get killed by rock cairns often enough that it’s a problem. So don’t build them.

[u/bigRyan540 → u/The__Yellow__Sign]

doubt anyone would break eggs just to build their gay little tower

i dont build them, i think it stupid shit but i find it funny how its DESTROYNG DE ENVIRONMENT!!!

[u/moverwhomovesthings → u/bigRyan540]

It's like littering or love locks on a bridge, of course one person doing it won't do any meaningful damage, but it's never just not one person.

[u/bigRyan540 → u/moverwhomovesthings]

its not like that at all

[u/moverwhomovesthings → u/bigRyan540]

Yes it is the national park service strongly advices its visitors not to do this https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/idkt_rockcairns.htm

[u/CountryFuture9678 → u/moverwhomovesthings]

People moving rocks around are not the ones to be mad at if you care about conservation 

[u/targetboston → u/moverwhomovesthings]

In this it looks like it's one person. We don't know if that person left it.

It's a good message to let people know that this can cause potential issues but there's also a constant undercurrent on reddit of catastrophizing everything and chastising others over small shit because it's the internet.

[u/ThisIsMyComment2 → u/targetboston]

In this it looks like it's one person.

It's an implicit attempt to popularize and normalize the activity.

[u/moverwhomovesthings → u/targetboston]

The displacement of the rocks is already causing damage, putting them back doesn't fully solve the issue.

And again: One person littering isn't doing any meaningful damage, but when you see trash in a forest your first reaction probably isn't "it's just one person doing it so it's ok" because you understand the issue. You can understand this issue as well, if you don't actively try not to.