Patrick Moore

Table of contents

1 Background 2 Leaving Greenpeace 3 An Apologist for Industry 3.1 Pro Clear-Cutting in PR Front Group 3.2 Pro-PVC with Industry Group 4 Pro-GM 4.1 In Bed With the Wise Use Movement 4.2 A Recent Conversion ... Not Quite 4.3 An Expert Witness? 5 Pro-Nuclear 5.1 Spin Doctor for the "Clean and Safe" Public Relations Campaign 5.2 Another Recent Conversion? ... Not Quite 5.3 Nuclear is a Criminal Act 5.4 But Don't Trust Nuclear Spin Doctors... 5.5 Ehmm... I'm Now A Nuclear Spin Doctor 5.6 The Nuke Conference Circuit 5.7 Kyoto "A Waste of Time and Money" 6 External Links 7 References

Background

Patrick Moore is a former environmentalist who now works as a spin doctor and consultant for controversial industries such as farmed salmon, forestry, nuclear and GM. Much of this work is funded through his consultancy Greenspirit Strategies.

Leaving Greenpeace

Moore’s current pro-corporate stance is a long way from his days with Greenpeace, of which he says he is a co-founder, although this is disputed by some from Greenpeace. ^{[1] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_let)} During fifteen years with the environmental organisation, he campaigned against nuclear testing, whaling, seal hunting, pesticides, supertankers, uranium mining and toxic waste dumping.^{[2] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_wired)}

Moore has given different accounts of the reasons for his departure from Greenpeace. He has claimed, for instance, that he quit because "in the mid-Eighties the ultraleftists and extremists took over". ^{[3] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_ff)}

But he has contradicted this by claiming that there were no indications of such problems with the organisation when he left, "I had no idea that after I left in 1986 they Greenpeace would evolve into a band of scientific illiterates who use Gestapo tactics to silence people". ^{[4] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_greensp)} In fact, according to Greenpeace's Tamara Stark, Moore's exit from the organisation was "not necessarily by his own choice".

Moore's attacks on Greenpeace and other environmentalists as "ultraleftists" who "use Gestapo tactics" have delighted industry. His language is a direct echo of Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE) who has long attacked environmentalists as "eco-fascists" and communists and called for a "holy war against the new pagans who worship trees and sacrifice people”. ^{[5] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_green)}

An Apologist for Industry

After leaving Greenpeace, Moore set up a fish farm, which failed, and in 1991 set up his own environmental PR consultancy, Greenspirit Strategies. This has attracted controversy ever since. ^{[6] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_fan)} "Patrick Moore has been called a sellout, traitor, parasite, and prostitute - and that's by critics exercising self-restraint", wrote Wired Magazine in 2004. ^{[7] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_wired)}

Moore is seen as an apologist for many controversial industries he once opposed, and twenty years after leaving Greenpeace he still uses the “Greenpeace Founder” label to try to give himself credibility. Here is a quick snap-shot of what Moore has been up to:

Pro Clear-Cutting in PR Front Group

In the early nineties Moore became a full-time paid director and consultant for the British Columbia Forest Alliance, at the time when clear-cutting in Canadian's forests was making international news. The Alliance, although presented as a "citizens group", was the brainchild of PR firm Burson-Marsteller.The Alliance had a budget of around $2m derived mostly from the forest industry and its 170 or so corporate members, and it campaigned for clear-cutting.

Moore's activities on behalf of the Alliance were extremely controversial. He claimed, for instance, that the World Wildlife Fund in some cases supported clear-cutting, provoking a furious response from Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, head of the forest programme of World Wide Fund for Nature International, who accused Moore of "grossly misrepresenting" WWF's position, something WWF "deplored". ^{[8] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_ngin)}

Jeanrenaud was not alone in his criticism of Moore. Dr Leonie Jacobs, from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, said in 1996 "Dr. Patrick Moore may be a good marine biologist and a former founder of Greenpeace but he is presently paid by the timber industry to deliberately mislead the public and politicians about the acceptability of aggressive logging practices."

Paul George, the Director, Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said "he habitually ignores the worst aspects of logging in his zeal to promote industry. It's difficult to say anything good about him". And Gavin Edwards, of the Forest Action Network called him “an apologist for the timber industry"

Monte Hummel, the President, World Wildlife Fund Canada said "I have read Patrick's book, Pacific Spirit. It is not the work of a 'forest ecologist' but a disappointing blend of pseudo-science and dubious assumptions being used to defend clear-cutting and the forest industry." ^{[9] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_fan)}

In 2000 Moore went to the Brazilian Amazon rainforest on behalf of a documentary by Marc Morano, for American Investigator. Moore subsequently dismissed concerns about the impacts of deforestation and logging, on the rainforest. “All these save-the-forests arguments are based on bad science”, he told the New York Post. “They are quite simply wrong. We found that the Amazon rainforest is more than 90 percent intact. We flew over it and met all the environmental authorities. We studied satellite pictures of the entire area. 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.” ^{[10] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_ny)}

Pro-PVC with Industry Group

Moore spoke at a public hearing held at Boston City Hall on October 23 2002, where a proposal was discussed to ban the purchase of Poly-Vinyl Chloride products using city funds. Those speaking in favour of the resolution included an Environmental Protection Agency toxicologist, a Tufts University economist, a Boston Public Health Commission official, and the head of purchasing for a cancer research center. The production and incineration of PVC products, they argued, releases chemicals known as dioxins, exposure to which can lead to endocrine disorders, cancer, diabetes, infant mortality, and cognitive and developmental problems in children. The magazine Wired reported

"Then Patrick Moore took the floor. 'It's a good thing most of the people who got up here before me weren't under oath,' he began. 'There is not a public benefit to be derived from a ban on PVC.' The whole issue is 'based on bad science and misinformation.' … Throughout his presentation, Moore made barbed references to the devious forces behind the legislation, the same pack of Luddites who 'hijacked a considerable portion of the environmental movement back in the mid-'80s and who have become very clever at using green language to cloak campaigns that have more to do with anti-industrialism, antiglobalization, anticorporate, all of those things which are basically political campaigns.' ... It was a bravura performance. When Moore returned to his seat, he was greeted with handshakes and backslaps from the folks who had paid his way: the Vinyl Institute." ^{[11] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_wired)}

Pro-GM

In Bed With the Wise Use Movement

Moore has taken up the cudgels on behalf of agri-business, arguing the case for GM crops. In January 2004 he was a panellist at a conference in New York on Eco-Imperialism. He said he was keen to expose the "pain and suffering" the environmental movement "inflicts on families in developing countries" - something which, he says, "can no longer be tolerated."

Other panelists were:

• Paul Driessen - Author of "Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death". A Senior Policy Advisor to the Centre for the Defence of Free Enterprise, the leading Wise Use and anti-environmental think tank.

• Prof CS Prakash, who runs the avidly pro-biotech website Agbioworld. "By orchestrating unfounded scare stories that biotech crops are unsafe or untested, they put huge road blocks on the development of plant genetic engineering that could bring economic prosperity to the rural poor in Uganda and Bangladesh."

• Roger Bate - Long-term climate sceptic. Ex-Institute of Economic Affairs and International Policy Network. Now Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

• Cyril Boynes and Niger Innis of CORE - The black American journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble have described CORE under Roy Innis as "a tin cup outstretched to every Hard Right political campaign or cause that finds it convenient - or a sick joke - to hire Black cheerleaders". ^{[12] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_gm)}

A Recent Conversion ... Not Quite

This is not the only collaboration between Moore and Prakash: "Greenpeace Founder Supports Biotechnology" ran the headline on the AgBioworld press release in 2001 about Patrick Moore's support for AgBioWorld's "Declaration in Support of Agricultural Biotechnology."

The press release went on to say that despite many years of involvement with the organisation, "Recently... he broke with Greenpeace, accusing it of abandoning science and following agendas that have little to do with saving the Earth." ^{[13] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_prakash)} Seeing that Moore had left Greenpeace in 1986, most people would probably think that fifteen years is not that "recent".

An Expert Witness?

The biotech industry flew Patrick Moore to appear as one of its expert witnesses in front of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in New Zealand.

When asked why he opposed the campaign of concern over GM crops, Moore has replied: "I believe we are entering an era now where pagan beliefs and junk science are influencing public policy. GM foods and forestry are both good examples where policy is being influenced by arguments that have no basis in fact or logic." ^{[14] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_ag)}

To some, Moore's pro-GM stance could be seen not so much as a recent road-to-Damascus conversion away from "pagan beliefs" and "junk science", but more a career trajectory over the last two decades that has been industry-symathetic, and often industry-funded.

The latest issue where this has happened is nuclear power.

Pro-Nuclear

Spin Doctor for the "Clean and Safe" Public Relations Campaign

Along with former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Patrick Moore launched a new nuclear public relations campaign in the US in May 2006 called the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition ^{[15] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_clean)}. The Coalition was organised and funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute, with help from the public relations firm, Hill and Knowlton that has a $8 million account with the nuclear industry. ^{[16] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_cr)}

According to Environment News Services: "Nuclear power advocates are hoping that Moore and Whitman can sell the American public on the benefits of nuclear power and help spark the resurgence of an industry that has not constructed a new plant in some 30 years". ^{[17] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_ens)}

An editorial in the Colombia Journalism Review noted the benefit to the nuclear industry of having Moore and Whitman front their PR exercise, as in subsequent media articles Moore was often quoted as a "founder of Greenpeace" or an "environmentalist," but not as a paid consultant to the nuclear industry: "Life is complicated. So are front people for industry causes — or any cause, in a world of increasingly sophisticated p.r. We have no position on nuclear power. We just find it maddening that Hill & Knowlton ... should have such an easy time working the press".^{[18] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_cr)}

In an article together, Moore and Whitman argued the coalition will "help raise awareness of the benefits of clean and safe nuclear energy and continue to build support for nuclear energy as a component of a comprehensive plan to meet America's future electricity needs". ^{[19] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_IHT)}

The name of the coalition is no co-incidence, nor was the language used in the article, such as clean, cheap and safe. It reflects a world-wide public relartnos push by the nuclear industry to portray itself as "clean" and "safe".

Another Recent Conversion? ... Not Quite

Because of Moore’s earlier connections with Greenpeace, despite the fact that he left the organisation some twenty years ago, the new colaition was seen by some as a sign of the growing acceptance of nuclear power by the green movement. The New York Times called it “the latest sign that nuclear power is getting a more welcome reception from some environmentalists”. To back-up their argument, The Times also quoted well-known nuclear supporter James Lovelock, whom Moore calls his hero. What The Times failed to point out is that Lovelock has been a supporter of nuclear power for twenty years.

Nuclear is a Criminal Act

There is no doubting that Moore has undertaken a spectatular U-turn on nuclear power though. Back in 1976 he wrote for the Greenpeace Report:

“Nuclear powerplants are, next to nuclear warheads themselves, 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 the planet". Moore said he wrote those words in order to bring to the public the “true understanding of the nuclear power issue".

He described nuclear power plants as "slow atomic bombs" and warned that radioactive waste was an "insoluble problem".

But Don't Trust Nuclear Spin Doctors...

In the report, Moore also took issue with Nuclear's spin doctors: "It should be remembered that there are employed in the nuclear industry some very high-powered public relations organizations. One can no more trust them to tell the truth about nuclear power than about which brand of toothpaste will result in this apparently insoluble problem".

The report ended with the statement; “The time to stop this crime against ourselves and countless future generations is now.” ^{[20] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_watson)}

Five years later, in 1981 he said of Greenpeace's priorities: "The nuclear issue is going to be the major one in the next 10 years, right from the issue of nuclear testing, to the issue of waste dumping to the issue of uranium mining -- all down the line it's going to be necessary for people to become more aware and educated". ^{[21] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_upi)}

Ehmm... I'm Now A Nuclear Spin Doctor

Moore testified in 2006 about his changing views: "A lot has changed in the 35 years since then, and my views have changed along with these new circumstances ... As a co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition along with Gov. Christy Todd Whitman, I make it known often that I strongly believe the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because now—more than ever before—nuclear energy is the electricity source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: potentially harmful climate change." ^{[22] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_test)}

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) says Moore: “changed his views as he took a longer look at how the threat of global warming might best be countered, and whether the anti-nuclear folklore had any real substance”. ^{[23] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_wna)}

But by agreeing to launch a nuclear PR campaign Moore had become a nuclear spin doctor, the very person he had so vehemently warned people not to trust all those years earlier.

The Nuke Conference Circuit

Since 2005, Moore has been listed as a speaker who "Makes the Case for Nuclear" for the Global Speakers Agency, listing his fee as anything from $10,000 to $25,000. ^{[24] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_gsa)} Moore was also a speaker at the Nuclear Industry Association / British Nuclear Energy Society, "Energy Choices 2006" Conference in December 2006, in London. ^{[25] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_nia)}. Since 2006, Moore has also been the Honorary Chair of the Canadian branch of Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy

Kyoto "A Waste of Time and Money"

A year earlier, Moore had attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal. "Expanding nuclear energy is one way that we can actually [reduce] reliance on fossil fuels in a big way," said Moore, who also praised the United States for refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, calling the treaty "a colossal waste of time and money." ^{[26] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Patrick_Moore#endnote_kyoto)}

External Links

Harvey Wasserman, The Sham of Nuclear Power and Patrick Moore,Columbus Free Press (http://www.freepress.org/columns.php?strFunc=display&strID=1502&strYear=2007&strAuthor=7), February 28, 2007. Wasserman is a senior advisor to Greenpeace USA, and author of "Solartopia: Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030," (available at www.solartopia.org). This article was written with research help from past and current Greenpeace associates.

Diane Farsetta, Moore Spin: Or, How Reporters Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Front Groups, PR Watch (http://www.prwatch.org/node/5833), March 14, 2007. Diane Farsetta is the Center for Media and Democracy's senior researcher.

References

1. ^ For example, in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on 30 June 2002, Jeanne Merrill, the True Food Network coordinator for Greenpeace in San Francisco said: "Despite what the headline or Moore says, he is not a Greenpeace founder (the founders are Irving Stowe, Jim Bohlen and Paul Cote)".
2. ^ Drake Bennett, "Eco-Traitor" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/moore.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=), Wired, Issue 12.03, March 2004
3. ^ Patrick Moore, quoted here (http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/20060322/20060322_13.html)
4. ^ Patrick Moore, "Do I hear Jackboots?" (http://www.greenspirit.com/printable.cfm?msid=26) Greenspirit Website
5. ^ Jim Green, "Green Business, Greenwash" (http://www.geocities.com/JIMGREEN3/greencooption.html), Green Left Weekly, Number 364, June 9, 1999
6. ^ See for example "Patrick Moore is a Big Fat Liar"  (http://www.fanweb.org/patrick-moore/)
7. ^ Drake Bennett, "Eco-Traitor" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/moore.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=), Wired, Issue 12.03, March 2004
8. ^ Patrick Moore Profile on GM Watch (http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=89)
9. ^ See for example "Patrick Moore is a Big Fat Liar"  (http://www.fanweb.org/patrick-moore/)
10. ^ New York Post,"Eco-Scientists Deny Amazon's In Danger" (http://web.pitas.com/leonews/may_2000.html), May 31, 2000
11. ^ Drake Bennett, "Eco-Traitor" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/moore.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=), Wired, Issue 12.03, March 2004
12. ^ For More Information See here (http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2591)
13. ^ Agbioworld, Founder Supports Biotechnology - Moore Criticizes Colleagues for Opposing Golden Rice (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/pr/moore.htmlGreenpeace), March 6, 2001
14. ^ Michael Bond, "Dr. Truth", New Scientist, December 25, 1999. reprinted here (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/articles/biotech-art/moore.html)
15. ^ Clean and Safe Energy Coalition Website (http://www.cleansafeenergy.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx)
16. ^Columbia Journalism Review, "False Fronts - Why to Look Behind the Label" (http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/4/editorial.asp), Editorial, May / June, 2006
17. ^ J.R. Pegg, "U.S. Nuclear Industry Fires Up Public Relations Campaign" (http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2006/2006-04-24-10.asp), Environment News Service, Washington DC, April 24, 2006
18. ^Columbia Journalism Review, "False Fronts - Why to Look Behind the Label" (http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/4/editorial.asp), Editorial, May / June, 2006
19. ^ Christine Todd Whitman and Patrick Moore, "Nuclear Power will Drive the Future", The Boston Globe, Reprinted in the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/15/opinion/edwhitman.php) on May 15, 2006
20. Paul Watson, "Dr. Strangewhore, The Strange Transformation of Dr. Patrick Moore" (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00348.htm), Scoop, April 27, 2006.
21. ^ Deb Van Der Gracht, “Greenpeace -- An Environmental Crusade ‘Peaceful Direct Action’”, United Press International, November 20, 1981
22. ^ Patrick Moore,Testimony for the Record, Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, Appropriations Committee, U.S. House of Representatives (http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=4&catid=978), Washington, September 13, 2006
23. ^ World Nuclear Association,"Widening Acceptance of Nuclear Power" (http://www.world-nuclear.org/news/nl_may-jun2006.htm), Newsletter, May - June, 2006
24. ^ Global Speakers Agency, "Patrick Moore Makes the Case for Nuclear Energy" (http://www.globalspeakers.com/whatsnew.asp?i_newsid=577), August 23, 2005.
25. ^ Nuclear Industry Association, Energy Choices 2006 (http://www.niauk.org/Energy_Choices_06.shtml)
26. ^ Marc Morano, "Nuclear Energy Debate Turns Radioactive at Climate Conference" (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5C%5CCulture%5C%5Carchive%5C%5C200512%5C%5CCUL20051208b.html), CNSNews.com, December 08, 2005