Greenpeace publicity stunts, anti-corporate campaigns, and fund-raising appeals are often laden with false and misleading
claims about companies and their operations. The Warriors justify their actions as necessary to advancing their legal,
legislative, and regulatory agenda – and getting people and foundations to write a check or click their website’s “donate now”
button. Almost anything goes, because Greenpeace and its comrades in eco-warfare are apparently beyond the reach of the
Lanham Act and mail fraud or tax laws that apply to ordinary corporations and citizens.
In the olden days, it made sense to carve out exceptions, to protect legitimate public interest organizations from persecutions
and prosecutions based on inadvertent falsehoods or political motivations. But that was before the roster of tax-exempt
nonprofits included so many unsavory elements, like unscrupulous eco campaigners and pressure groups for whom truth,
ethics and real social responsibility mean little.
In 1995, Greenpeace attacked Shell Oil, claiming the company was going to dump tons of oil and toxic wastes in the ocean, by
sinking an obsolete North Sea oil production platform as an artificial reef. A year later, after raking in millions in contributions
and free publicity, the Warriors admitted they had known all along there had been no oil or chemicals on the platform.
Their shiny armor got tarnished, but there were no legal repercussions. A few years later, the Rainbow Warriors were caught
diverting funds raised for tax-exempt educational purposes into non-exempt, and sometimes illegal, lobbyist and activist
programs. Donors got charitable deductions, and Greenpeace got more millions to stage protests against drilling,
manufacturing, and free trade; to lobby Congress and EPA; and to vandalize crops and corporate facilities.
The IRS sent Greenpeace a strong reprimand, demanding that it cease its money laundering, but, again, no real penalties.
Canada, by contrast, refused to recognize the Greenpeace Environmental Foundation as a charity, saying its activities
provided no discernable benefits to the public and, in fact, could send families “into poverty.”
But back in the USA, former EPA Administrator-turned-Climate-Czar Carol Browner and other federal agency heads continue
to fork over large sums of taxpayer money to eco-activists, to subsidize their anti-corporate, global warming, “sustainable”
energy, and regulatory thumbscrew campaigns. Meanwhile, the taxpayers are precluded from writing off contributions to
congressional candidates who might support long overdue investigations, reforms, and penalties.
The truly odious ethical violations, however, involve activities that directly damage the livelihoods and lives of innocent
people, particularly in impoverished countries.
In Britain, France and elsewhere, Greenpeace vandals have destroyed bio-engineered crops, wiping out millions of dollars in
research to develop food plants that require fewer pesticides, are more nutritious, reduce dangerous mold toxins, withstand
floods and droughts, and increase crop yields. The people who would benefit most from this research are the poorest, most
malnourished on Earth. They could improve their lives, simply by planting different, better corn, cotton, or soybean seeds.
“With the old maize,” says South African Richard Sithole, “I got 100 bags from my 15 hectares [38 acres].” “With Bt maize, I
get 1,000 bags. And now I don’t have to buy any chemicals.”
In fact, Bt corn has enabled farmers like Sithole to cut pesticide use and expenses by 75%, triple their profits, save 35-49 days
per season working in fields, and save enough to buy a refrigerator or even a new house. And, yet, rich-country Greenpeace
activists oppose the technology.
Greenpeace campaigns against insecticides and insect-repelling DDT are even more lethal. These chemicals could prevent
malaria, which kills a million people annually and leaves millions more brain-damaged. Today, DDT is sprayed just on the
inside walls of thatch and cinderblock homes, to keep mosquitoes out and serve as a long-lasting bed net over entire families.
But Greenpeace claims “some researchers think” DDT “could be inhibiting lactation because of its estrogen-like effects and
may be contributing to lactation failure throughout the world.” No peer-reviewed medical studies back up these claims, and
lactation problems are definitely associated with the malaria and malnutrition that would be reduced by technologies the
Warriors oppose.
Worldwide, 1.5 billion people still don’t have electricity for lights, refrigerators, stoves, schools, shops, hospitals, and
factories that would bring health, opportunity, and prosperity. Yet, Greenpeace continues to battle hydrocarbon, hydroelectric
and nuclear power, telling people they should be content with solar panels or wind turbines that provide intermittent,
insufficient energy – and guarantee sustained poverty.
Greenpeace justifies its anti-energy ideologies by claiming they are preserving rivers, avoiding dangerous radiation and
preventing “runaway” global warming. It has vilified me and two of my Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow colleagues as
“climate criminals” and applauded a recent Rolling Stone magazine article that branded CFACT’s ClimateDepot.com
Director Marc Morano as a “climate killer.”
Our “crime”? Saying climate change is natural and cyclical. Noting that thousands of scientists agree there is no convincing
evidence that human CO2 emissions are causing a global warming disaster. And pointing out that, even in the midst of a global
cooling period and widening Climategate scandal, Greenpeace is still clinging to its tired fabrications and storylines.
Why the Packard, Winslow, Schaffner Family and other foundations continue to support Greenpeace remains a mystery. That
the Turner, Rockefeller Brothers, and Merck Foundations would give hundreds of thousands to Greenpeace’s
anti-biotechnology campaigns is astounding. That other donors are now using Fidelity, Vanguard and Schwab to hide their
donations suggests that they don’t want their friends and neighbors to know they give money to this shady outfit.
Last month’s climate gab fest offered an opportunity for CFACT activists to highlight these ethical lapses and give Greenpeace
a dose of its own medicine. They unfurled a "Propaganda Warrior" banner from the rails of the Rainbow Warrior ship, and a
“Ship of Lies” banner from Greenpeace’s other vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, as they lay anchored in Copenhagen harbor.
“Greenpeace’s callous disregard for the truth and people’s well-being has become intolerable,” CFACT Executive Director Craig
Rucker stated. “They need to start behaving honestly and ethically. We don’t expect them to be Mother Teresa, but it would be
nice if they’d start helping people to improve their health and living standards, and began supporting real environmental
stewardship.”
The world would be a much better place.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Paul Driessen is Senior Policy Adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All
Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype. He also is a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and the
author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death.
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