Patrick Moore (consultant)

Dr. Patrick Moore, born 1947 in Winter Harbour, B.C., Canada, is a founding member of Greenpeace, although he now criticizes the organization. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology, University of British Columbia and works as a consultant and public speaker on environmental issues.

Biography

In 1971, he became an early member of Greenpeace. He served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada as well as seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International during a time in which Greenpeace became the world's largest environmental activist organization, and yet his role as a leader became more and more isolated from the rest of the Greenpeace Organization. He was unceremoniously removed from leadership positions in Greenpeace from 1978 to 1985 as his personal priorities were at odds with the effectiveness of the Greenpeace organization and vision. Bob Hunter, a cofounder of Greenpeace, called Moore, in Vancouver's North Shore News, 1980: "The Judas of the environmental movement."

Patrick Moore claims he left Greenpeace in 1986 after he saw a shift in Greenpeace's motives, criticizing the rise of environmental extremism. He believed Greenpeace became more concerned with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization rather than environmental issues. Writer Drake Bennett instead claims that Moore "left Greenpeace amid complaints about an autocratic leadership style and abrasive personality."

As recently as February of 2007, Patrick Moore recently spoke in Redding, CA at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference falsely presenting himself as a representative of Greenpeace. Northstate CA National Public Radio broadcast an extensive interview with him soon afterwards.

His self-proclaimed "Greenpeace Foundation" was involved in acrimonious litigation with the original San Francisco Greenpeace offices in the late 1970's and early 1980's over Moore's purported attempts to hijack the name and mission of Greenpeace.

After leaving Greenpeace, Moore founded Greenspirit, a consultancy focusing on environmental policy and communications in natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change. At dispute with the vast majority of the environmental movement, he claims his role is in the promotion of sustainability and consensus building among competing concerns.

He was a member of the British Columbia government-appointed Round Table on the Environment and Economy from 1990 - 1994. In 1990, he founded and chaired the BC Carbon Project, a group that worked to develop a common understanding of climate change.

Moore served for four years as Vice President, Environment for Waterfurnace International, the largest manufacturer of geothermal heat pumps for residential heating and cooling with renewable earth energy.

As Chair of the Sustainable Forestry Committee of the Forest Alliance of BC, a group created by the timber industry, he leads the process of developing the "Principles of Sustainable Forestry" which have been adopted by a majority of the industry.

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 in 2000.

Moore also made two appearances on Penn & Teller: Bullshit! in episodes "Environmental Hysteria" and "Endangered Species".

In 2006, Moore became co-chair (with Christine Todd Whitman) of a new industry-funded initiative, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which supports increased use of nuclear energy.

Views

Patrick Moore criticizes what he sees as scare tactics and disinformation employed by some within the environmental movement:

"By the mid-1980s, the environmental movement had abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism. I became aware of the emerging concept of sustainable development: balancing environmental, social and economic priorities. Converted to the idea that win-win solutions could be found by bringing all interests together, I made the move from confrontation to consensus."

Alternative energy

Moore today supports nuclear power, citing the lack of dependable alternatives. He argues that any realistic plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases should include increased use of nuclear energy. He publically acknowledges that this is in stark contrast to his views on this subject some decades earlier. In 1976, Moore called nuclear power plants "the most dangerous devices that man has ever created. Their construction and proliferation is the most irresponsible, in fact the most criminal, act ever to have taken place on this planet."

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". While acknowledging that the increase of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels, he claims that as of 2006 it cannot be fully proven that this is the reason the Earth has been warming since 1980. He stresses that it is scientific evidence, not consensus opinion, that would prove or disprove this relation.

"It's become so complicated, there's so much snake oil around the whole subject... the best comment that was ever made was by Michael Crichton in his book State of Fear: 'I am certain there is too much certainty in the world'. And I am certain that he is right."

Amazon deforestation

Moore's Greenspirit organization was founded in part to debunk alleged myths about deforestation in the Amazon. Moore teamed up with deforestation skeptic Philip Stott in 2000 to make several press appearances deposing research that indicated the rainforest was at risk.

"They are just about the healthiest forests in the world. This stuff about them vanishing at an alarming rate is a con based on bad science," Moore said [1].

Genetically modified foods

In 2006 Moore addressed a Biotechnology Industry Organization 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," in support of genetically engineered crops. 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.

Controversy

Patrick Moore has been criticized by environmentalists for many of his views detailed above. Some see him as a sell-out, 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 what they see as "polluters and clear-cutters" through his consultancy.

Patrick Moore believes that the people who resort to calling him names do so because they are incapable of conducting an intelligent discussion of the facts. Name-calling is not a valid argument.

There is some controversy over whether Moore was a co-founder, or merely an early member of Greenpeace. His claim of being a founding member is disputed by living founders of Greenpeace (Dorothy Stowe, 86 years old in 2007, Bob Hunter, Ben and Dorothy Metcalf, and Jim and Marie Bolen) and at odds with his original Greenpeace membership application.

There is no question that Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace. He attended the planning sessions for the first voyage against US nuclear testing in 1971, sailed as a member of the crew on the first voyage, and then spent 15 years in the top committe of Greenpeace, the last seven years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International.

Paul Watson, another co-founder of Greenpeace, quit the organization after Moore allegedly called a meeting to expel him from the board amid disagreements over Watson's direct action campaigns. He claims Moore "uses his status as co-founder of Greenpeace to give credibility to his accusations. I am also a co-founder of Greenpeace and I have known Patrick Moore for 35 years.... Moore makes accusations that have no basis in fact" .

Paul Watson was actually voted off the board of directors of Greenpeace Foundation by a vote of 11-1 in June 1977. He was the one dissenting vote. (Vancouver Province, June 22, 1977)

External links

• Greenspirit, Patrick Moore's website
• Greenspirit Strategies, his consultancy
• Audio Interview from MassiveChange.com
• Patrick Moore is a Big Fat Liar, attack site by the Forest Action Network
• Template:Sourcewatch
• Going Nuclear: A Green Makes the Case - Washington Post, April 16 2006