The $110-million-per-year environment giant Greenpeace can be a very restrictive corporation.
Even as the money pours in from the Greenpeace biotechnology front, trouble is brewing.
'Any Greenpeace organizer who thinks he can raise concerns and funds from farmers on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is sorely misguided,' says Randy Motts, a Nebraska corn grower. 'Farm country is a long way from the corporate board rooms of Europe. American farming will not become the next Brent Spar issue on which Greenpeace can make its living.'
Traditional Greenpeace fundraising had suffered until their recent success in generating European outcries over biotechnology.
It seems that the more corporate Greenpeace becomes, the more trouble they have holding on to their fortunes.
Greenpeace USA, owes Greenpeace International millions but cannot hold staff and does not make money. Greenpeace USA has been a ward of Greenpeace International, but in the two years of receivership the international office has made little progress.
Here in Canada, the short leash kept on the Toronto Dundas West office, is said to be demoralizing Greenpeace Canada Executive Director Peter Tabuns.
Thilo Bode's announcement that he will resign as executive director of Greenpeace International follows the departure of several high-level Greenpeace members, further destabilizing the world's largest environmental organization.
'With the legitimacy of Green politics in Europe, there is a pull from European affiliates to act professionally, as if the organization belongs to the power structure,' say FSN and wire service reports. 'In North America and Australia, however, Greenpeace's traditional policies are deemed far too radical for the organization to be politically viable, therefore the group relies on confrontational direct action.'
In developing countries, Greenpeace's strict hierarchy makes it quite vulnerable to claims that it is as much a 'neo-Colonial' force as corporations are.
The challenge to potential Bode replacements, including Canada's Peter Tabuns will be to develop policies and activities for an organization with such different roles in various societies and for Greenpeace in all of these activities to appear a seamless consistent organization.
Brilliant public relations strategies have kept the tills running for Greenpeace, but some of their successes in seizing newspaper headlines have worn the tarnish off its reputation.
According to FSN, 'the Brent Spar incident defines Bode's term in office and provides an example of the tension between the activist and the professional sides of Greenpeace.'
'In 1995, the organization deemed Royal Dutch Shell’s offshore platform, Brent Spar, to be unfit for deep sea disposal due to the radioactive drilling waste stored inside. Activists raided the platform and held out against authorities until Shell agreed to disassemble the platform on land.
'By almost all accounts, including ex post facto analyses by Greenpeace, the platform was not an unusual danger to the environment, it did not contain radioactive wastes, and the environment perhaps only minimally benefited by it being disassembled on land. The platform, however, placed Greenpeace's name on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Revenue poured into the organization and its national affiliates. Royal Dutch Shell dramatically changed its environmental policies. Offshore oil drilling became more expensive for all oil companies. It was a true victory, except for growing awareness of the scientific fallacies that rested at the root of the campaign. Bode's reaction was to apologize to the world community and demand that all Greenpeace affiliates use greater discipline in making scientific arguments.'
Scientific arguments have continued to dog Greenpeace in other efforts. Some of Greenpeace's recent 'science' on biotechnology, phthalates and other issues has continued to build on misrepresentations and blatant falsehoods.
Responding to such allegations, one Greenpeace organizer stated, 'Our purpose is not to be scientifically correct, that's the corporation and robber-baron's job. Our job is to move the needle and affect radical change.' This was exemplified by actions of Greenpeace U.K. director Lord Peter Melchett arrested last year for vandalism and property destruction targeted at British farmers participating in government-sponsored field trials of genetically modified crops. Melchett’s arrest and continuing calls for attacks on farmers embarrassed colleagues in the environmental action movement to the point that he was condemned by Friends of the Earth and others worried about negative public reaction to the illegal nature of the acts. Similar actions in 1996 in the United States damaged Greenpeace's reputation there following broad public and farm community condemnation for attacks on farmers' property in Atlantic, Iowa.
The made-in-Canada company that grew from a loosely knit group of west coast hippies to a $10-million a year corporation may be finding it uncomfortable in the corporate board room.
Thilo Bode, imprisoned in Canada for five days after protesting against clear-cut logging in British Columbia in 1997, will step down as Greenpeace International Executive Director in 2001.
'I've announced my decision today to allow time for the organization to find a new leader and ensure there is continuity at the top of Greenpeace,' Bode told Reuters News Service.
Greenpeace said it regretted Bode's decision but accepted it as a personal choice.
Bode was head of Greenpeace’s German arm from 1989 to 1995, before becoming the organization's worldwide executive director.
As Greenpeace's head, he was involved in the Izmir protocol on the protection of the Mediterranean Sea and the Barcelona protocol, which banned trading in hazardous waste from the European Union to developing countries.
Peter Tabuns, Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, is rumoured to be in the running as Bode's replacement.
In the aftermath of companies like General Motors announcing it would phase out all PVC from the interior of its cars and trucks by 2004, A Belgian chemical firm is so confident of its new method of recycling PVC, it has told the European Union to revise its estimates for PVC recycling.
Solvay has announced plans to build its first commercial plant to use the new technology, called VinyLoop, and is talking to potential partners about building 10 more across Europe, reports ENDS Environment Daily.
VinyLoop is a new way of recycling PVC and any additives it contains while leaving other plastics. According to Solvay, the process produces a PVC recyclate that is much purer than other mechanical recycling techniques.
PVC is a plastic comprising macro-molecules which are made up of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms. It is made by combining ethylene, produced by refining petroleum, with chlorine, produced from rock salt.
From the mineral water bottle to the car dashboard, PVC is part of everyday life for most people. It was one of the earliest and is still the most widely used plastic because it is light, non-flammable, impermeable, enduring and easy to maintain.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which is campaigning for a complete ban on PVC however, claim that it causes unacceptable environmental harm during every stage of its life cycle from production and use to disposal.
General Motors charged its suppliers with the job of finding alternatives to PVC, which is used in components such as instrument panels and doors. Last December, European Union member states unanimously approved a precedent setting ban on soft PVC teething toys, following a flurry of Greenpeace protests.
In April, three European Commission studies on PVC waste management concluded that PVC waste volumes will almost double over the next 20 years. The studies also said that significant quantities of phthalates and other PVC additives will continue to leach out of landfills. They are expected to influence the European Union’s PVC policy.
Solvay’s first plant will be built in Ferrara, Italy, with a capacity of 8,500 tonnes a year. It is expected to be operational next year. The company said it sees particular potential for recycling of cable scrap and flexible plastic packaging. April's European Commission studies concluded that only a maximum of 18 percent mechanical recycling of PVCs could be expected using current technology.
Solvay officials do not dispute the figure, but a spokesperson said that the advent of VinyLoop means that the commission 'would have to look again at the real potential for mechanical PVC recycling.' The company's recycling claims carry increased importance because the European Commission is about to publish a policy paper on PVC and the environment, which is expected to pose tough questions to an industry already on the defensive.
It was bound to happen sooner or later: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have laid claim to having God on their side.
Already pulled in five prairie cities, a billboard ad promoting vegetarianism that shows God wielding a handful of carrots and asparagus, along with the phrase, 'I said, 'Thou Shalt Not Kill',' says no to meat.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association has referred to past PETA campaigns as 'tasteless publicity stunts.'
PETA campaigns notwith-standing, it's as sure as God made little green apples, that they're still packing them in at great steak houses like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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