According to the environment section of The Guardian, the environmental organisation Greenpeace have been making more money from whaling than Iceland. These claims were made by Captain Paul Watson, the co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation and Greenpeace International.
Captain Watson flatly refused to attend last years Greenpeace office Christmas party, he argued that the Greenpeace campaign against whaling was really all about 'making whale "snuff flicks" and exploiting bleeding, suffering whales to wring out every emotional dollar it could from the public'.
Greenpeace have indeed made boatloads of money from weeping over whaling, $103m (£53m) according to The Guardian - and for what? For sailing two ships to the Antarctica in 2005, taking a few photos and holding up a couple of banners?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I believe that Greenpeace must adopt a stance whereby it can tap public opinion for the right reasons. It has done a mighty job but it cannot afford to become a little empire in itself.
Personally, I believe Sea Shepherd has adopted the role more in keeping with the times. Direct action to the point where the costs of those wishing to exploit will be extremely high is the only way to bring exploiters to heel. It also demonstrates to a battered public that moderate, measured criticism will get us nowhere. We need urgency now!
It's all a bit of a laugh, isn't it?
Greenpeace's ship the Esperanza (the only one headed for the Antarctic this summer) is apparently going to dock in Auckland New Zealand tomorrow, and stay there for two weeks, offering tours of the vessel to the public, before finally getting out of the gates down south to the Ross Sea.
Meanwhile, the whalers have been at work since around December the 10th, probably killing whales at a rate of something like 400 a month.
Sea Shepherd are happy to criticise as well, but they aren't much better - at least they have left the docks, but it still took them until the end of December to leave. Hello boys? Wrong end of the month!
I'm sick of these posers pretending to be caring about the environment - the threats to whale species today are ship strike, entanglement in fishing gear, pollution, potential negative effects from global warming etc. Whaling is insignificant in conservation terms - Watson is right that Greenpeace are in this for the money, but he's acheiving nothing than establishing his own notoriety himself.
I have to admit, I'm curious as to what makes Paul Watson even think he was invited to a Greenpeace office party last Christmas. Certainly not to the one that took place in Amsterdam, that's for sure!
Anonymous,
Cpt Paul Watson was the 7th ever member of Greenpeace International, his membership number is 007 - he probably gets automatic invitations whether he likes it or not.
Post a Comment