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 participated in the founding meetings, helping to plan the first Greenpeace campaign against US nuclear testing in Alaska. He was a member of the crew of Phyllis Cormack, a chartered fishing boat that set out on the first Greenpeace voyage in September 1971. 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.

In 1977 Patrick was was elected president of the "Greenpeace Foundation", the original group in Vancouver, Canada. He replaced Bob Hunter who had been president sicne 1974. During the first campaign to save the whales in 1975, Greenpeace confronted the Soviet whaling fleet off the coast of California. Patrick and Bob were both crew members on that voyage aboard the Phyllis Cormack, the same fishing boat that was chartered for the first campaign in 1971. During the confrontation, film footage was obtained 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.

When the Greenpeace crew arrived in San Francisico the next day it was to a hero's welcome. The film footage made the evening news an all three national networks.This put Greenpeace on the world stage more than any other action, with the possible exception of the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. Support began to pour in. Patrick and Bob went on a talk radio show and appealed for a lawyer to help them incorporate a branch office in San Francisco in order to organize activities in the US, in particular to receive the donations that were pouring in, A young lawyer named David Tussman volunteered and helped Patrick, Bob and Paul Spong set up an office at Fort Mason.

As a result of all the publicity, Greenpeace offices began to spring up all over North America. Soon there were "Greenpeace" offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and Boston as well as San Francisco. Not all of them accepted the authority of the founding organization in Canada. Soon there was bitter wrangling about who controlled the name "Greenpeace" and who could raise funds claiming to represent the group. Patrick and his board in Vancouver organized two meetings to bring all the groups together to try to find a resolution. During this time David Tussman made it clear that he and the board of the San Francisco group intended to break away from the Greenpeace Foundation. Patrick believes David should have been dis-barred for breach of fiduciary duty as Greenpeaqce Foundation was his client. After all efforts to settle the matter failed the Greenpeace Foundation filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco charging that the 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 October 10, 1979 in the offices of lawyer David Gibbons in Vancouver. Attending were Patrick Moore, Bob 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 becoming a generic word that anyone could use. David McTaggart, who had come to represent all the other Greenpeace groups against the Greenpeace Foundation, was named Chairman. Patrick Moore became President of Greenpeace Canada (the new name for Greenpeace Foundation) and a diretor of Greenpeace International. Other dirctors were appointed form the US, France, UK and Netherlands. Patrick remained a director of Greenpeace International until his departure in early 1986,

After leaving Greenpeace, Moore founded Greenspirit, a consultancy focusing on environmental policy and communications in natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change.

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 forest 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, along with renewanle energy sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, and wind. 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." He believes that times have changed, the Cold War is over and the concern over climate change means we must find alternatives to fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is one of the most effective technologies to reduce fossil fuel use.

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."

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.

Bob Hunter and Ben Metcalf are actually deceased. 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