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4 TIMES GREENPEACE SCREWED UP EVEN WORSE THAN IT DID IN PERU


THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS.

 

Gillian Branstetter

Internet Culture

Posted on Dec 15, 2014   Updated on May 29, 2021, 11:47 pm CDT

There’s an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and
last week, Greenpeace might smelled a little brimstone in Peru. According to the
New York Times, Greenpeace activists “entered [a] restricted area, trampling
ancient, undisturbed ground” in Peru’s famed Nazca lines, in order to erect a
giant sign advertising renewable energy. The Nazca Lines are massive glyphs of
creatures carved into the land itself by the ancient Nazca tribes, some
measuring over 400 feet long, and an aerial photo, taken with a drone, shows
that the message is placed right next to an ancient line drawing of a
hummingbird.



A sacred site of pre-Columbian heritage for Peru, the site was likely chosen by
Greenpeace due to the dangers erosion and heavy rains likely brought on by
climate change, as well as to coincide with UN climate talks happening in Lima.
The activists left footprints across the historic site, which is typically
off-limits to tourists and foot traffic due to the structures’ fragility. The
Peruvian government has promised to take legal action against Greenpeace for
desecrating the landmark.

While their their general message of preserving natural life, saving endangered
species, and fighting climate change are hard to disagree with, the group’s
tactics tiptoe over the line into eco-terrorism. This is just one of many
examples of Greenpeace doing more harm than good in the name of their cause.


1) GREENPEACE FIGHTS DDT, ACCIDENTALLY PROMOTES MALARIA.

Most would cite Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 book Silent Spring as kicking off
the modern environmentalist movement. The book, largely raging against the
harmful use of the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in industrial
farming, sparked a fresh look at the harm man-made chemicals can have on the
environment at large and caused the widespread banning of DDT among farmers.



By the new millennium, Greenpeace had taken up the anti-DDT banner and
successfully fought for the closing of the last major DDT factory in the world.
This is all well and good, except this event also phased out the most effective
and efficient weapon against malaria, one of the deadliest diseases in the
world. A very small amount of DDT is necessary to keep malaria-carrying
mosquitos at bay, and its use for this purpose was approved by green activists
the world over, including Greenpeace. In the name of saving the environment,
however, Greenpeace fought to decrease DDT production to miniscule levels.

The results have proven disastrous. When South Africa stopped using the
pesticide in 1996, malaria deaths increased by one thousand percent (South
Africa has since resumed DDT sprayings). Latin America saw an increase of 1.8
million malaria deaths in the 1980s and 1990s after dropping DDT.

While Greenpeace has said as recently as 2010 that they’ve always promoted the
use of DDT against malaria, their fight against DDT’s use in agriculture—and
their promotion of the Stockholm Convention, which encouraged countries to ban
it altogether—undoubtedly made the useful chemical harder to obtain, costing
millions of lives in the global South.


2) GREENPEACE DENIES POOR PEOPLE FOOD AND NOURISHMENT FOR NO REAL REASON.



Genetically modified foods are an odd source of controversy, mostly due to a
lack of scientific consensus on their supposed dangers. While many scientific
studies have found no ill effects of GMOs, the American Academy of Environmental
Medicine found that “it is biologically plausible for Genetically Modified Foods
to cause adverse health effects in humans.”

One of the benefits of GMOs, however, has been to supply cheap nutrients to
developing countries. Looking to fight against growing Vitamin A deficiencies,
researchers developed “Golden Rice”, an easy-to-grow grain heavy in
beta-carotenes which help the body produce and absorb the necessary nutrient.

Despite a lack of evidence showing any ill effects in humans, Greenpeace holds a
staunch position against Golden Rice. Greenpeace states that
“genetically-engineered rice is a technological fix that may generate new
problems,” though the group fails to provide much evidence to that point. They
also claim Golden Rice is being given to cultures that don’t want it, although
the only evidence of that claim available is a single 2013 protest in the
Philippines, an action rice farmers themselves refused to be a part of.



Much like the DDT/malaria controversy, Greenpeace is fighting against a modern
solution on simply a knee-jerk basis. Vitamin A deficiency kills hundreds of
thousands around the world, and Golden Rice is an affordable, healthy solution
to this growing problem.


3) IF THE FACTS DON’T FIT YOUR CASE, MAKE YOUR OWN FACTS.

The chemicals in many consumer electronics can wreak immense harm on the
environment. So-called “e-waste” is pumped into the air as TVs, cellphones, and
computers are incinerated at “recycling” plants across the world; the largest of
these is a Chinese plant that exposes its 150,000 employees to carcinogens every
day, while also doing little to prevent chemicals like lead and cadmium from
finding their way into the local groundwater.

Looking to fight this growing concern, Greenpeace released an official
ranking in 2006 that rated technology companies based on their environmental
friendliness. Soon after, however, tech journalists took the report to task for
relying too much on official information from the companies and containing
little to no factual research, with Ars Technica dubbing the report a “fraud.”



Among the targets for ire were Greenpeace’s claim that Apple, which ranked 11th
in eco-friendliness, used a harmful flame retardant called TBBPA in the
manufacturing of their Mac products. While the chemical is used in in Apple
computers, no study has found it harmful to humans or the environment, with the
E.U. Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks finding no real
downside to the use of TBPPA.

In fact, Apple fans—notoriously religious towards their corporate icon—were the
most incensed by Greenpeace’s false report, but their anger was short lived. An
official EPA report on the ecology of major tech companies ranked Apple at the
top of American electronics manufacturers.

Despite the about face, Greenpeace has done little to change their rankings
system for their reports, issuing 15 editions in total. While the use and
ill-moderated disposal of harmful chemicals used in electronics is a major
problem, Greenpeace manages to make itself the focus of this story by simply
bungling the facts, thereby diverting attention away from their original goal.


4) GREENPEACE IS SO BAD, THEY MAKE PEOPLE PREFER AN OIL COMPANY.



The clubbing of baby seals is a pretty hallmark enemy of environmentalism. In
fact, Norway just agreed this week to stop subsidizing their seal-hunting
industry to the tune of $1.6 million, or 80 percent of that country’s seal
hunting market.

For many indigenous peoples, however, seals are a traditional and vital part of
their diet. The seal hunts of Inuit populations in Greenland have become a
national tradition, highly praised at a time indigenous cultures are dwindling.
In 1977, however, Greenpeace successfully fought for a ban of the sealskin trade
the world over, angering many locals.

So when a dispute over a local natural gas well sprung up between Greenpeace and
Cairn Energy in 2010, the Inuits sided with the gas company. Wanting to drill
the newfound bounty, Cairn sent tankers and equipment to the area of Aasiaat,
Greenland. The found themselves against a blockade by Greenpeace’s own ship, the
Esperanza.

Despite relevant dangers to the environment, many locals told Al-Jazeera their
grudge against Greenpeace led them to trust the energy company over the
environmentalist group. Not great PR. Eventually, Cairn got to build their well
and, in 2013, Greenpeace joined the World Wildlife Fund in condoning the annual
seal hunt, as well as the trade of seal meat and furs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Like losing a public relations war to an oil company, the idea of Greenpeace
attempting to draw attention to the threats toward the Nazca Lines—only to cost
further damage to them—illustrates the irony of the group’s activism. Greenpeace
is the seminal example of why activists need to always question their methods
and realize their interests do not exist in a vacuum. The risks associated with
climate change, pollution, and endangered animals are very real and need any
response should have the finesse of experts and scientific research, not the
sloppy mishaps of protests gone awry.

If you find yourself paving the wrong road, maybe it’s time to finally head a
different direction.

Photo via alicepopkorn/Flickr (CC BY S.A.-2.0)

Read More
Share this article
 * 
 * 
 * 

*First Published: Dec 15, 2014, 11:30 am CST

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER

Gillian Branstetter is a reporter and essayist who specializes in the
intersection of technology, LGBTQ issues, and privacy. In April 2018, she joined
the National Center for Transgender Equality as a media relations manager.



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