Greenpeace co-founder and its first President Bob Hunter died yesterday aged 63 following a battle with prostate cancer.
Hunter was a journalist by training. He wanted to stop whaling and nuclear testing and in many ways succeeded with his brand new environment group Greenpeace where others had failed.
He wanted to “affect the attitude of millions”. He approached the issues from the perspective of a media war and unashamedly used propaganda.
In an insightful review of Greenpeace’s early years, Fred Pearce has written “Greenpeace was far from being the first green group to oppose whaling. But it was the first green group to ignore the scientific arguments about whale reproduction rates, population dynamics, and how large a sustainable cull might be, in favour of an undiluted ethical argument: save the whale.”
The media war was effectively reduced to the simple issue of whether or not “whales are good”.
On the issue of nuclear testing Hunter admitted “we painted a rather extravagant picture .. tidal waves, earthquakes, radioactive death clouds, decimated fisheries, deformed babies. We never said that’s what would happen, only that it could happen”.
I have previously written about attending People for Nuclear Disarmament rallies in the early 1980s. It is for relentlessly pursuing the French and their nuclear testing program in the Pacific that I would like to thank Bob Hunter.
Messages of condolence are being posted at an online BBC site.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Jennifer,
Hasn’t the other founder become a Greenpeace heretic of some description?
Jim
Hi Jim,
Yes, cofounder Patrick Moore left Greenpeace some years ago and now actively campaigns against Greenpeace campaigns particularly on the issue of biotechnology inparticular GM food crops.
Moore’s home page is at
http://www.greenspirit.com/index.cfm .
Moore believes, as I do, that GM technology offers great benefits for the environment. Indeed through this technology one can grow more while using less.
I don’t how how many people are aware that about 90 per cent of Australian cotton growers now grow GM varieties and that through the use of the latest GM variety have been able to reduce insectide application rates by an average whopping 88 per cent over the last cotton season.
Greenpeace has campaigned against GM canola on the basis it would be a ‘first’, yet we are already eating a GM derived vegetable oil in cotton seed oil.
Indeed about 35 per cent of the vegetable oil consumed in Australia is from cotton seed oil which is now GM derived. I have written about this including at
http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/publisting_detail.asp?pubid=217
and http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/publisting_detail.asp?pubid=247.
Please note in these article I probably refer to a 56 per cent reduction in insectide application rates – this info is now a bit dated and relates to the older now superseeded GM cotton varieties.
I have written something short about the latest Greenpeace campaign/how the chicken industry capitulated at
http://www.ipa.org.au/files/news_934.html .
Cheers,
I attended the 2 day national organic conference adelaide where the opening and closing speakers advised attendees to rethink their views on GM.
One of the presenters. from the CSIRO, copped a real bagging from some of the attendees. He was explaining the mechanics of GM from a scientific viewpoint and was interrupted by loud hecklers from the audience. As to whether the presenter should continue the audience was divided on the issue and executive intervention allowed him to continue.
It was a definitive moment – blind emotion vs scientific observation. There was a real ‘them against us’ attitude that coloured proceedings throughout. Nice people though, and great food, its the politics that stinks.