.gif)
Patrick Moore (environmentalist)
Encyclopedia
Patrick Moore is a former environmental activist, known as one of the early members of Greenpeace
, in which he was an activist from 1971 to 1986. Today he is the co-founder, chair, and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies in Vancouver, a consulting firm that provides paid public relations efforts, lectures, lobbying, opinions and committee participation to government and industry on a wide range of environmental and sustainability issues. He is a frequent public speaker at meetings of industry associations, universities, and policy groups.
He has sharply and publicly differed with many policies of major environmental groups, such as Greenpeace
, on other issues including forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture, and the use of chemicals for flame retardants. He is an outspoken proponent of nuclear energy and skeptical of sole human responsibility for climate change.
and raised in Winter Harbour
, on Vancouver Island. He is the third generation of a British Columbian family with a long history in logging and fishing. His father, W. D. Moore, was the president of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association and past president of the Pacific Logging Congress. Moore obtained a Ph.D.
in ecology
from the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology, University of British Columbia
under the direction of Dr. C.S. Holling.
was formed in January 1970 by Dorothy and Irving Stowe
, Ben Metcalfe
, Marie and Jim Bohlen
, Paul Cote, and Bob Hunter
and incorporated in October 1970. The Committee had formed to plan opposition to the testing of a one megaton hydrogen bomb in 1969 by the United States Atomic Energy Commission
on Amchitka
Island in the Aleutians. Moore joined the committee in 1971 and, as Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter wrote, “Moore was quickly accepted into the inner circle on the basis of his scientific background, his reputation [as an environmental activist], and his ability to inject practical, no-nonsense insights into the discussions.” From as early as September 2005 until its alteration in March 2007, the Greenpeace International web site included Patrick Moore in a list of "founders and first members".
Moore traveled to Alaska on advanced research with Jim Bohlen, attending Wave Committee meetings. In 1971, Moore was a member of the crew of the Phyllis Cormack, a chartered fishing boat which the Committee sent across the North Pacific in order to draw attention to the US testing of a 5 megaton bomb planned for September of that year. Greenpeace was the name given to the boat for the voyage and it would be the first of the many Greenpeace protests. Following the first voyage, key crew members decided to formally change the name of the Don't Make a Wave Committee to the Greenpeace Foundation. These decision makers included founders Bob Hunter, Rod Marining and Ben Metcalfe as well as Patrick Moore.
Following US President Richard Nixon
's cancellation of the remaining hydrogen bomb tests planned for Amchitka Island in early 1972, Greenpeace turned its attention to French atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. In May 1972, Moore traveled to New York with Jim Bohlen
and Marie Bohlen to lobby the key United Nations delegations from the Pacific Rim
countries involved. Moore then went to Europe together with Ben Metcalfe, Dorothy Metcalfe, Lyle Thurston and Rod Marining where they received an audience with Pope Paul VI and protested at Notre Dame Cathedral
in Paris. In June, they attended the first UN Conference on the Environment
in Stockholm
where they convinced New Zealand to propose a vote condemning French nuclear testing, which passed with a strong majority.
Moore again crewed the Phyllis Cormack in 1975 during the first campaign to save whales, as Greenpeace met the Soviet whaling fleet off the coast of California. During the confrontation, film footage was caught of the Soviet whaling boat firing a harpoon over the heads of Greenpeace members in a Zodiac
inflatable and into the back of a female sperm whale
. The film footage made the evening news the next day on all three US national networks, initiating Greenpeace's debut on the world media stage, and prompting a swift rise in public support of the charity. Patrick Moore and Bob Hunter appeared on Dr. Bill Wattenburg
's talk radio show on KGO and appealed for a lawyer to help them incorporate a branch office in San Francisco and to manage donations. David Tussman, a young lawyer, volunteered to help Moore, Hunter, and Paul Spong
set up an office at Fort Mason
. The Greenpeace Foundation of America (since changed to Greenpeace USA), then became the major fundraising center for the expansion of Greenpeace worldwide.
The lawsuit was settled at a meeting on 10 October 1979, in the offices of lawyer David Gibbons in Vancouver. Attending were Moore, Hunter, David McTaggart
, Rex Weyler
, and about six others. At this meeting it was agreed that Greenpeace International would be created. This meant that Greenpeace would remain a single organization rather than an amorphous collection of individual offices. McTaggart who had come to represent all the other Greenpeace groups against the Greenpeace Foundation, was named Chairman. Moore became President of Greenpeace Canada (the new name for Greenpeace Foundation) and a director of Greenpeace International. Other directors were appointed from the US, France, the UK, and the Netherlands. He served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada, as well as six years as a Director of Greenpeace International.
In 1985, Moore was on board the Rainbow Warrior
when it was bombed and sunk by the French government
. He and other directors of Greenpeace International were greeting the ship off the coast of New Zealand on its way to protest French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll. Expedition photographer, Fernando Pereira
, was killed. Greenpeace's media presence peaked again.
business, Quatsino Seafarms, at his home in Winter Harbour
. In this year he was also elected president of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association. From 1990-4 he was appointed to the British Columbia Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and founded and chaired the B.C. Carbon Project. In 1991, he joined the board of the Forest Alliance of BC, an initiative of the CEOs of the major forest companies in British Columbia. As chair of the Sustainable Forestry Committee of the Forest Alliance he spent ten years developing the Principles of Sustainable Forestry, which were later adopted by much of the industry. In 1991, Moore also founded Greenspirit to "promote sustainable development from a scientific environmental platform". In 2002, Tom Tevlin and Trevor Figueiredo joined Moore in the formation of the environmental consultancy company Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. Patrick Moore is Chair and Chief Scientist of the organization.
Moore served for four years as Vice President of Environment for Waterfurnace International manufacturing geothermal
heat pumps. In 2000, Moore published Green Spirit - Trees are the Answer, a photo-book on forests and the role they can play in solving some current environmental problems. He also made two appearances on Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
in episodes Environmental Hysteria (2003) and Endangered Species (2005). In 2006, Moore became co-chair (with Christine Todd Whitman
) of a new industry-funded initiative, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which promotes increased use of nuclear energy. In 2010, Moore was recruited to represent the Indonesian logging firm Asia Pulp & Paper
(APP), a multi-national accused by activist groups of widespread and illegal rainforest clearance practices, although this is strongly disputed by Moore.Guardian article "Why is a former Greenpeace activist siding with Indonesia's logging industry?" by George Monbiot
. 2 December 2010.
, in which he expressed similar views. In 2007 The Guardian
reported on his writings for the Royal Society
arguing against the theory that mankind was causing global warming
, noting his advocacy for the felling of tropical rainforest
s and the planting of genetically engineered crops. He has expressed his positive views of logging on the Greenspirit website. In 2010, Moore was commissioned by forestry giant Asia Pulp and Paper to report on its logging activity in Indonesia's rainforests, resulting in a glowing review.
in 1976, today he supports it, along with renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal
, biomass
, and wind. In Australian newspaper The Age
, he writes "Greenpeace is wrong — we must consider nuclear power". He argues that any realistic plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels or greenhouse gas
emissions need increased use of nuclear energy. He has publicly acknowledged that this is in stark contrast to his views on this subject some decades earlier (as has another pioneer environmentalist, Stewart Brand
). Moore is supported by the Nuclear Energy Institute
(NEI), a national organization of pro-nuclear industries and in 2009 he chaired their Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. As chair, he suggested that the mainstream media and the environmentalist movement is not as opposed to nuclear energy as in decades past.
arguing there was "no scientific proof" that mankind was causing global warming.
conference in Waikiki
saying, "There's no getting away from the fact that over 6 billion people wake up each day on this planet with real needs for food, energy and materials", and need genetically engineered crops to this end. He also told the gathering that global warming
and the melting of glaciers is not necessarily a negative event because it creates more arable land
and the use of forest products drives up demand for wood and spurs the planting of more trees.
. Monte Hummel, MScF, President, World Wildlife Fund Canada has claimed that Moore's book, Pacific Spirit, is a collection of "pseudoscience
and dubious assumptions."
Journalist George Monbiot
has written critically of Moore's work with Indonesian logging firm Asia Pulp & Paper
(APP). Moore was hired as a consultant to write an environmental 'inspection report' on AAP operations, however Monbiot states that Moore's company is not a monitoring firm and the consultants used were experts in public relations not tropical ecology or Indonesian law. Monbiot writes, that sections of the report were directly copied from an APP PR brochure, commenting that hiring Moore is now what companies do if their brand is turning toxic.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service criticized Moore saying that his comment in 1976 that "it should be remembered that there are employed in the nuclear industry some very high-powered public relations organizations. One can no more trust them to tell the truth about nuclear power than about which brand of toothpaste will result in this apparently insoluble problem" was forecasting his own future. The Columbia Journalism Review points out that Moore's position at the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition was payed for by the nuclear industry and he is in fact essentially a paid spokesperson.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, in which he was an activist from 1971 to 1986. Today he is the co-founder, chair, and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies in Vancouver, a consulting firm that provides paid public relations efforts, lectures, lobbying, opinions and committee participation to government and industry on a wide range of environmental and sustainability issues. He is a frequent public speaker at meetings of industry associations, universities, and policy groups.
He has sharply and publicly differed with many policies of major environmental groups, such as Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, on other issues including forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture, and the use of chemicals for flame retardants. He is an outspoken proponent of nuclear energy and skeptical of sole human responsibility for climate change.
Early life
Moore was born in 1947, in Port Alice, British ColumbiaPort Alice, British Columbia
Port Alice is a small, quiet, town of approx. 821 located off on Neroutsos Inlet, northwest of Port McNeill, on Vancouver Island, originally built by Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills of Vancouver. The community is known for its natural beauty, pulp mill, and salt water fishing.-History:It was named...
and raised in Winter Harbour
Winter Harbour, British Columbia
Winter Harbour is a fishing village of 20 people on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, at the mouth of the Quatsino Sound. It was named in the 19th century because of its safe natural harbour.-References:***...
, on Vancouver Island. He is the third generation of a British Columbian family with a long history in logging and fishing. His father, W. D. Moore, was the president of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association and past president of the Pacific Logging Congress. Moore obtained a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
from the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology, University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
under the direction of Dr. C.S. Holling.
Greenpeace
According to Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists, and Visionaries Changed the World by Rex Wyler, the Don't Make a Wave CommitteeDon't Make a Wave Committee
The Don't Make a Wave Committee was the name of the anti-nuclear organization which later evolved into Greenpeace, a global environmental organization...
was formed in January 1970 by Dorothy and Irving Stowe
Irving Stowe
Irving Harold Stowe was a Yale lawyer, activist, visionary and a key founder of Greenpeace. He was named one of the “BAM 100” ....
, Ben Metcalfe
Ben Metcalfe
Bennett Metcalfe was a Canadian journalist and first chairman of Greenpeace, founded 1971.Ben Metcalfe was born in Winnipeg. Later he moved to the United Kingdom and at the age of 16 joined the Royal Air Force. He was posted in India and North Africa. After World War II he worked as journalist in...
, Marie and Jim Bohlen
Jim Bohlen
Jim Bohlen , was an American engineer who worked on the Atlas ICBM missile program, later emigrated to Canada after becoming disillusioned with the US government's nuclear policy during the Cold War and one of the co-founders of Greenpeace.Bohlen, one of the approximately half-dozen founders of...
, Paul Cote, and Bob Hunter
Robert Hunter (journalist)
Robert Lorne Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and politician. A member of the Don't Make a Wave Committee in 1969 with Dorothy and Irving Stowe, Marie and Jim Bohlen, and Ben and Dorothy Metcalfe...
and incorporated in October 1970. The Committee had formed to plan opposition to the testing of a one megaton hydrogen bomb in 1969 by the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
on Amchitka
Amchitka
Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island is about long, and from wide...
Island in the Aleutians. Moore joined the committee in 1971 and, as Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter wrote, “Moore was quickly accepted into the inner circle on the basis of his scientific background, his reputation [as an environmental activist], and his ability to inject practical, no-nonsense insights into the discussions.” From as early as September 2005 until its alteration in March 2007, the Greenpeace International web site included Patrick Moore in a list of "founders and first members".
Moore traveled to Alaska on advanced research with Jim Bohlen, attending Wave Committee meetings. In 1971, Moore was a member of the crew of the Phyllis Cormack, a chartered fishing boat which the Committee sent across the North Pacific in order to draw attention to the US testing of a 5 megaton bomb planned for September of that year. Greenpeace was the name given to the boat for the voyage and it would be the first of the many Greenpeace protests. Following the first voyage, key crew members decided to formally change the name of the Don't Make a Wave Committee to the Greenpeace Foundation. These decision makers included founders Bob Hunter, Rod Marining and Ben Metcalfe as well as Patrick Moore.
Following US President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's cancellation of the remaining hydrogen bomb tests planned for Amchitka Island in early 1972, Greenpeace turned its attention to French atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. In May 1972, Moore traveled to New York with Jim Bohlen
Jim Bohlen
Jim Bohlen , was an American engineer who worked on the Atlas ICBM missile program, later emigrated to Canada after becoming disillusioned with the US government's nuclear policy during the Cold War and one of the co-founders of Greenpeace.Bohlen, one of the approximately half-dozen founders of...
and Marie Bohlen to lobby the key United Nations delegations from the Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim refers to places around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The term "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and islands in the Pacific Ocean...
countries involved. Moore then went to Europe together with Ben Metcalfe, Dorothy Metcalfe, Lyle Thurston and Rod Marining where they received an audience with Pope Paul VI and protested at Notre Dame Cathedral
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
in Paris. In June, they attended the first UN Conference on the Environment
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was an international conference convened under United Nations auspices held in Stockholm, Sweden from June 5–16, 1972...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
where they convinced New Zealand to propose a vote condemning French nuclear testing, which passed with a strong majority.
Moore again crewed the Phyllis Cormack in 1975 during the first campaign to save whales, as Greenpeace met the Soviet whaling fleet off the coast of California. During the confrontation, film footage was caught of the Soviet whaling boat firing a harpoon over the heads of Greenpeace members in a Zodiac
Zodiac Group
Zodiac, which became Zodiac Aerospace in 2007, is a French corporation, specialized in the production and development of on-board systems, safety systems and cabin interiors...
inflatable and into the back of a female sperm whale
Sperm Whale
The sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, is a marine mammal species, order Cetacea, a toothed whale having the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal's head. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter...
. The film footage made the evening news the next day on all three US national networks, initiating Greenpeace's debut on the world media stage, and prompting a swift rise in public support of the charity. Patrick Moore and Bob Hunter appeared on Dr. Bill Wattenburg
Bill Wattenburg
Willard Harvey Wattenburg , better known as Dr. Bill Wattenburg or Dr. Bill, is an inventor, scientist, author, and radio talk show host residing in the Sierra Nevada region of California...
's talk radio show on KGO and appealed for a lawyer to help them incorporate a branch office in San Francisco and to manage donations. David Tussman, a young lawyer, volunteered to help Moore, Hunter, and Paul Spong
Paul Spong
Dr. Paul Spong is a neuroscientist and cetologist from New Zealand. He has spent more than 30 years researching orcas in British Columbia, and is credited with increasing public awareness of whaling, through his involvement with Greenpeace....
set up an office at Fort Mason
Fort Mason
Fort Mason, once known as San Francisco Port of Embarkation, US Army, in San Francisco, California, is a former United States Army post located in the northern Marina District, alongside San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years, initially as a coastal defense...
. The Greenpeace Foundation of America (since changed to Greenpeace USA), then became the major fundraising center for the expansion of Greenpeace worldwide.
Presidency of Greenpeace Foundation in Canada
In early 1977, Bob Hunter stepped down as president of the Greenpeace Foundation and Patrick Moore was elected president. He inherited an organization that was deeply in debt. Greenpeace organizations began to form throughout North America, including cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco. Not all of these offices accepted the authority of the founding organization in Canada. Moore's presidency and governance style proved controversial. Moore and his chosen board in Vancouver called for two meetings to formalize his governance proposals. During this time David Tussman, together with the rest of the founders, early activists of Greenpeace, and the majority of Greenpeace staff-members announced that the board of the San Francisco group intended to separate Patrick Moore's Greenpeace Foundation from the rest of the Greenpeace movement. After efforts to settle the matter failed, the Greenpeace Foundation filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco charging that the San Francisco group was in violation of trademark and copyright by using the Greenpeace name without permission of the Greenpeace Foundation.The lawsuit was settled at a meeting on 10 October 1979, in the offices of lawyer David Gibbons in Vancouver. Attending were Moore, Hunter, David McTaggart
David McTaggart
David Fraser McTaggart was a Canadian-born environmentalist who played a central part in the foundation of Greenpeace International....
, Rex Weyler
Rex Weyler
Rex Weyler is an American / Canadian author, journalist and ecologist. He has worked as a writer, editor, and publisher at newspapers and magazines, and occasionally as a commentator on Canadian television...
, and about six others. At this meeting it was agreed that Greenpeace International would be created. This meant that Greenpeace would remain a single organization rather than an amorphous collection of individual offices. McTaggart who had come to represent all the other Greenpeace groups against the Greenpeace Foundation, was named Chairman. Moore became President of Greenpeace Canada (the new name for Greenpeace Foundation) and a director of Greenpeace International. Other directors were appointed from the US, France, the UK, and the Netherlands. He served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada, as well as six years as a Director of Greenpeace International.
In 1985, Moore was on board the Rainbow Warrior
Rainbow Warrior (1978)
The Rainbow Warrior was a former UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food trawler later purchased by the environmental organisation Greenpeace...
when it was bombed and sunk by the French government
Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was an operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure , carried out on July 10, 1985...
. He and other directors of Greenpeace International were greeting the ship off the coast of New Zealand on its way to protest French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll. Expedition photographer, Fernando Pereira
Fernando Pereira
Fernando Pereira was a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin, who drowned when French intelligence used two underwater mines to sink the ship Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on July 10, 1985 .The bombing of the boat had been designed to make the ship...
, was killed. Greenpeace's media presence peaked again.
After Greenpeace
In 1986, after leaving Greenpeace not necessarily by his own choosing, Moore established a family salmon farmingAquaculture of salmon
Salmon, along with carp, are the two most important fish groups in aquaculture. In 2007, the aquaculture of salmon and salmon trout was worth US$10.7 billion. The most commonly farmed salmon is the Atlantic salmon. Other commonly farmed fish groups include tilapia, catfish, sea bass, bream and...
business, Quatsino Seafarms, at his home in Winter Harbour
Winter Harbour, British Columbia
Winter Harbour is a fishing village of 20 people on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, at the mouth of the Quatsino Sound. It was named in the 19th century because of its safe natural harbour.-References:***...
. In this year he was also elected president of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association. From 1990-4 he was appointed to the British Columbia Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and founded and chaired the B.C. Carbon Project. In 1991, he joined the board of the Forest Alliance of BC, an initiative of the CEOs of the major forest companies in British Columbia. As chair of the Sustainable Forestry Committee of the Forest Alliance he spent ten years developing the Principles of Sustainable Forestry, which were later adopted by much of the industry. In 1991, Moore also founded Greenspirit to "promote sustainable development from a scientific environmental platform". In 2002, Tom Tevlin and Trevor Figueiredo joined Moore in the formation of the environmental consultancy company Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. Patrick Moore is Chair and Chief Scientist of the organization.
Moore served for four years as Vice President of Environment for Waterfurnace International manufacturing geothermal
Geothermal heating
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004...
heat pumps. In 2000, Moore published Green Spirit - Trees are the Answer, a photo-book on forests and the role they can play in solving some current environmental problems. He also made two appearances on Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
Bullshit!
Penn & Teller: Bullshit! is an American documentary television series that aired from 2003 to 2010 on the premium cable channel Showtime. In Canada, the series aired on The Movie Network and Movie Central.- Overview :...
in episodes Environmental Hysteria (2003) and Endangered Species (2005). In 2006, Moore became co-chair (with Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd "Christie" Whitman is an American Republican politician and author who served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001, and was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She was New...
) of a new industry-funded initiative, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which promotes increased use of nuclear energy. In 2010, Moore was recruited to represent the Indonesian logging firm Asia Pulp & Paper
Asia Pulp & Paper
Asia Pulp & Paper, also known in the paper industry as APP is based in Singapore, is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. It was founded by Eka Cipta Widjaja, who had significant ties to the Suharto ruling family in Indonesia. APP claims to obtain 80-90% of the fiber for...
(APP), a multi-national accused by activist groups of widespread and illegal rainforest clearance practices, although this is strongly disputed by Moore.Guardian article "Why is a former Greenpeace activist siding with Indonesia's logging industry?" by George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
. 2 December 2010.
Views
In 2005, Moore criticized what he saw as scare tactics and disinformation employed by some within the environmental movement, saying that the environmental movement "abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism." Moore contends that for the environmental movement "most of the really serious problems have been dealt with", seeking now to "invent doom and gloom scenarios". He suggests they romanticise peasant life as part of an anti-industrial campaign to prevent development in less-developed countries, which he describes as "anti-human". Moore was interviewed in the 2007 film documentary The Great Global Warming SwindleThe Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors, and questions whether scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming exists....
, in which he expressed similar views. In 2007 The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported on his writings for the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
arguing against the theory that mankind was causing global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, noting his advocacy for the felling of tropical rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
s and the planting of genetically engineered crops. He has expressed his positive views of logging on the Greenspirit website. In 2010, Moore was commissioned by forestry giant Asia Pulp and Paper to report on its logging activity in Indonesia's rainforests, resulting in a glowing review.
Alternative energy
Although he spoke out against nuclear powerNuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
in 1976, today he supports it, along with renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal
Geothermal
Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to:* The geothermal gradient and associated heat flows from within the Earth- Renewable technology :...
, biomass
Biomass
Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....
, and wind. In Australian newspaper The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, he writes "Greenpeace is wrong — we must consider nuclear power". He argues that any realistic plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels or greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions need increased use of nuclear energy. He has publicly acknowledged that this is in stark contrast to his views on this subject some decades earlier (as has another pioneer environmentalist, Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
). Moore is supported by the Nuclear Energy Institute
Nuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
(NEI), a national organization of pro-nuclear industries and in 2009 he chaired their Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. As chair, he suggested that the mainstream media and the environmentalist movement is not as opposed to nuclear energy as in decades past.
Global warming
Moore calls global warming the "most difficult issue facing the scientific community today in terms of being able to actually predict with any kind of accuracy what's going to happen". In 2006, he wrote to the Royal SocietyRoyal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
arguing there was "no scientific proof" that mankind was causing global warming.
Genetically modified foods
In 2006, Moore addressed a Biotechnology Industry OrganizationBiotechnology Industry Organization
Biotechnology Industry Organization is an industry lobby group founded 1993 in Washington, D.C. Carl B. Feldbaum was the president until he retired in 2004, and was succeeded by James C. Greenwood.-External links:* *...
conference in Waikiki
Waikiki
Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....
saying, "There's no getting away from the fact that over 6 billion people wake up each day on this planet with real needs for food, energy and materials", and need genetically engineered crops to this end. He also told the gathering that global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the melting of glaciers is not necessarily a negative event because it creates more arable land
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
and the use of forest products drives up demand for wood and spurs the planting of more trees.
Criticism
Moore's views and change of stance (see above) have evoked controversy in environmentalist arenas. He is accused of having "abruptly turned his back on the environmental movement" and "being a mouthpiece for some of the very interests Greenpeace was founded to counter". His critics point out Moore's business relations with "polluters and clear-cutters" through his consultancy. Moore has earned his living since the early 1990s primarily by consulting for, and publicly speaking for a wide variety of corporations and lobby groups such as the Nuclear Energy InstituteNuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
. Monte Hummel, MScF, President, World Wildlife Fund Canada has claimed that Moore's book, Pacific Spirit, is a collection of "pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
and dubious assumptions."
Journalist George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
has written critically of Moore's work with Indonesian logging firm Asia Pulp & Paper
Asia Pulp & Paper
Asia Pulp & Paper, also known in the paper industry as APP is based in Singapore, is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. It was founded by Eka Cipta Widjaja, who had significant ties to the Suharto ruling family in Indonesia. APP claims to obtain 80-90% of the fiber for...
(APP). Moore was hired as a consultant to write an environmental 'inspection report' on AAP operations, however Monbiot states that Moore's company is not a monitoring firm and the consultants used were experts in public relations not tropical ecology or Indonesian law. Monbiot writes, that sections of the report were directly copied from an APP PR brochure, commenting that hiring Moore is now what companies do if their brand is turning toxic.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service criticized Moore saying that his comment in 1976 that "it should be remembered that there are employed in the nuclear industry some very high-powered public relations organizations. One can no more trust them to tell the truth about nuclear power than about which brand of toothpaste will result in this apparently insoluble problem" was forecasting his own future. The Columbia Journalism Review points out that Moore's position at the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition was payed for by the nuclear industry and he is in fact essentially a paid spokesperson.
External links
- Greenspirit, Moore's website
- Greenspirit Strategies, Moore's consultancy
- Guardian article on Moore "Why is a former Greenpeace activist siding with Indonesia's logging industry?" by George MonbiotGeorge MonbiotGeorge Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
. 2 December 2010. - Audio Interview with Moore from MassiveChange.com]
- Source Watch on Moore
- "Going Nuclear: A Green Makes the Case", Washington Post, 16 April 2006
- "Why I Left Greenpeace" article by Moore, The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, 22 April 2008 - Wired article on Patrick Moore