(TibetanReview.net, Sep23’25) – In deepening trouble for the Chinese-owned Canadian outdoor brand Arc’teryx and the famed visual artist Cai Guoqiang, the China Small Animal Protection Association has said Sep 23 that the former’s massive fireworks display publicity stunt in the Tibetan Himalayas on Sep 19 could have had a devastating effect on the ecosystem’s wild life, according to China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Sep 23.
The duo carried out the online-streamed set of three fireworks at an altitude of 5,500 meters in Gyantse county of Shigatse City, Tibet autonomous region, igniting a series of synchronised explosions over a 3,000-metre-long mountain-path.
Both apologized on Sep 21 for staging the display following an explosion of online outrage. The city government ordered an investigation of the event that was apparently approved by the county government.
The report cited the association as saying in its WeChat official account post that the region, home to species including the Tibetan antelope and snow leopard, had been affected by loud noises, bright lights and smoke from the fireworks.
These could lead to stress disorder in wildlife, potentially causing them to abandon their habitats, separating mother animals and their cubs, and threatening their survival, it was stated to have added.
“Apologies are just the beginning. Action is the point, including third-party evaluations of environmental elements and the influence on the survival and reproduction of animals,” the group has said.
The association has called for targeted habitat restoration for small animals like pikas and technology to be used to monitor wildlife populations to support conservation strategies.
Earlier, an opinion piece on chinadaily.com.cn Sep 22 said the event revealed a troubling trend: the misuse of art as a cloak for commercial hype — a textbook case of greenwashing.
Cloaking a publicity stunt in lofty rhetoric about “paying tribute to nature” insults both art and ecology, it said.