Greenpeace continues to make headlines—many of them quite detrimental to the organization.
They've just been blasted in a singed letter by 107 Nobel laureates for opposing the deployment of a GMO rice which would help fix a dreaded condition, vitamin A deficiency (VAD). (1)
The World Health Organization estimates that 250 million people suffer from VAD, including 40 percent of the children under five in the developing world. Based on UNICEF statistics, a total of one to two million preventable deaths occur annually as a result of VAD, because it compromises the immune system, putting babies and children at risk. VAD itself is the leading cause of childhood blindness globally affecting 250,000 to 500,000 children each year. Half die within 12 months of losing their eyesight.
Organizations like Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists have labeled it 'Frankenfood.' In the time these groups have helped block its approval, nearly 20 million people have died and another 20 million have suffered preventable blindness. (2)
Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than, those derived from any other method of production. There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment and a boon to global diversity. (1)
Greenpeace's response to this? Paul Watson, the co-founder of Greenepeace has said, “The data does not matter, it does not matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Indeed, people believe what they are told, if repeated enough, no matter what the accurate scientific data bears. (3)
Canada Court Case
Greenpeace is being called out in the courts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. They are the defendant in a RICO civil case brought by a Canadian lumber company, Resolute Forest Products. In its filing, Resolute documents that Greenpeace 'has published staged photos and video falsely purporting to show Resolute logging in prohibited areas and others purporting to show forest areas impacted by Resolute harvesting when the areas depicted were actually impacted by fire or other natural causes.' (4)
Troubles with India
On November 4, 2015, the Indian government canceled Greenpeace India Society's registration for 'fraudulently' conducting their business by falsifying balance sheets and other violations of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. For over a year, the government of India and Greenpeace have been at loggerheads. In September, for example, India's Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order canceling Greenpeace India's FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) registration, which allows the NGO to receive foreign donations. The Indian government also blocked several Greenpeace India bank accounts and froze their assets. (5)
On another front, India's domestic spy agency has accused Greenpeace and other lobby groups of hurting economic progress by campaigning against power projects, mining and genetically modified food, the most serious charge yet against foreign-funded organizations. (6)
Greenpeace believes that India should embrace energy and improve energy efficiency instead of destroying forests to access the coal underneath. Greenpeace alone was leading a massive effort to take down India's coal-fired power plant and a coal mining activity. This, in a country where seventy million households, 35-40 percent of the country's 1.2 billion people—still have no access to electricity.
Britain and France
In Britain, France and elsewhere, Greenpeace vandals have destroyed bio-engineered crops, wiping out millions of dollars in research to develop food plants that require fewer pesticides, are more nutritious, reduce dangerous mold toxins, withstand floods and drought, and increase crop yields. The people who would benefit most from this research are the poorest, most malnourished on Earth. They could improve their lives simply by planting different, better corn, cotton, or soybean seeds. (7)
Employee discontent
Greenpeace is even upsetting its own employees. It says it stands for social justice and a more equitable world. But anyone who thinks a future run by Greenpeace would be nothing but rainbows is invited to visit a Change.org petition that describes the plight of Greenpeace canvassers.
According to those who've left supplementary comments after signing this petition, Greenpeace is the furthest thing from a compassionate employer. It doesn't care if weather conditions aren't conducive , or of an employee is in the midst of a family crisis. Sidewalk canvassers who fail to meet quotas are simply tossed aside like rubbish. (8)
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Summary
From its early days of dodging harpoons and Japanese whalers in outboard motor boats, Greenpeace has parlayed media savvy, flagrant dishonesty and an aptitude for political theater into a $360 million plus year empire with offices in more than 40 countries.
But what few members of the public know is that Greenpeace isn't just about saving whales and opposing logging and oil and gas exploration. For more than a decade, its PR machine has spearheaded an effort to deny millions of children in the poorest nations the essential nutrient they need to stave off blindness and death. Also, many folks are being denied energy from sources that folks in the devloped countries have been using for years.
Protecting the environment is a great good. But environmentalist fads and junk science have killed a lot of people and continue to do so. And too few people know about it.
References
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “The death cult of environmentalism,” theweek.com, July 5, 2016
Hank Campbell, “Over 100 Nobel laureates condemn Greenepeace for opposing golden rice,” acsh.org/news, June 29, 2016
Ileana Johnson Paugh, “Drinking global warming propaganda,” Canada Free Press, November 19, 2011
Henry I. Miller, “Greenpeace is more dishonest and dangerous than the Mafia,” forbes.com, June 30, 2016
Shreya Dasgupta, “Indian government cancels Greenpeace India's registration,”mongabay.com, November 6, 2015
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
