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February 24, 2003
Greenpeace's Deadly Monkey-Wrench
Greenpeace, the multi-million-dollar green behemoth best known for its save-the-whales rhetoric, is unrepentantly forging ahead with actions whose only purpose is to deny people what they need to survive. On Thursday Greenpeace activists anchored their vessel The Rainbow Warrior in Rotterdam's harbor, blocking a Dutch ship from bringing arms and other war materiel to U.S. troops. A group of 10 Greenpeace attackers also tried to board the ship, but were eventually arrested.
Greenpeace, the multi-million-dollar green behemoth best known for its save-the-whales rhetoric, is unrepentantly forging ahead with actions whose only purpose is to deny people what they need to survive. On Thursday Greenpeace activists anchored their vessel The Rainbow Warrior in Rotterdam's harbor, blocking a Dutch ship from bringing arms and other war materiel to U.S. troops. A group of 10 Greenpeace attackers also tried to board the ship, but were eventually arrested.
A growing chorus of opinion makers has also attacked Greenpeace for using scare tactics to keep starving Africans away from life-saving biotech food aid. Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando defends his group's actions, saying: "There are many organizations out there that value credibility, but I want Greenpeace first and foremost to be a credible threat." To which we can only reply: Mission accomplished, John.
Last Wednesday, Greenpeace militants showed the credibility of their "threat" by locking themselves to buses and blocking the shipment of food to Shaw's and Star Markets from a New England food distribution center. Greenpeace claims this gambit will "stop the distribution" of biotech foods -- the same staples that expert after expert concludes are perfectly safe. What it will really accomplish, though, is increasing the price of food for ordinary people (as Greenpeace's antics have done in Europe).
Greenpeace activists have blockaded Kellogg's headquarters to protest Starlink brand biotech corn, and have even dumped thousands of pounds of it outside the EPA.
Extremists popped the champagne when Starlink's manufacturer paid a massive cash settlement to farmers who planted it. But as the American Council on Science and Health helpfully points out, Starlink never made anyone sick. In fact, "the only 'damage' -- psychological or financial -- done by biotech is really a function of...the efforts of Greenpeace and others to keep the public terrified about biotech." Biology professor Robert Wager agrees, writing this week in Toronto's Globe and Mail that "half truths and misinformation have been the hallmark" of Greenpeace and other biotech critics.
Pseudo-military actions, raucous protests and fear-mongering may eventually be tactical losers, but Passacantando says that they "re-inspire" his shock troops. Too bad they aren't "inspired" to actually help people for a change.
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