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TRUE GREEN REPORT

GREENPEACE AT VIOLENT WTO MEETINGS

by Judi McLeodJanuary 28 - February 14 2000

Although Greenpeace professes policies of non-violence, their members were in Seattle to protest World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings. Violence played a major role in the protests, which saw looting, burning and more than 500 arrested. Police had to employ tear gas and pepper spray to maintain public safety and the National Guard had to be called in.

Greenpeace Canada's Toxic Campaigner Morag Simpson was spotted by journalists toasting the end of the WTO meetings with a bottle of wine.

Here at home, Simpson has a seat on the Environmental Committee, whose members sit in the board room for meetings of the Olympic T.O.Bidco, the Olympic bid team, headed up by CEO John Bitove, and the recipient of both public and government funding. Simpson's counterpart, Greenpeace Australia activist Dr. Daryl Luscombe has told Toronto Olympic bid members that the Sydney Games prove an environmentally sustainable future is possible and that Toronto should consider the same positive spinoffs when it submits its Olympic bid.

What Bitove and Toronto Olympic bid members would make of their toxic campaigner celebrating the end of WTO meetings with a bottle of wine is unknown.

Greenpeace has been strangely silent about its participation in the WTO protests.

News Brussels reports that the board of Greenpeace USA resigned over irreconcilable disagreements between board members on how to improve the organization’s policies--upon their return from WTO meetings.

"Departing chairman Dr. Michael McCally told the Environmental News Network that amajority of the nine person board decided stepping down would best serve the long term interests of Greenpeace USA. "It simply reached the point that we weren't attending to our responsibilities," McCally said. The board was split over two governance issues. One was the relationship between the board and the executive director, and how much involvement the board should have in decisions like staff appointments. The other concerned the relationship between the board and the "voting membership," an appointed group of longtime Greenpeace staff and former staff that elects the board and can dismiss individual board members-or the entire board.

That happened two years ago, in what McCally terms "heroic restructuring methods". In 1997, the entire board of the American chapter was dissolved in response to declining membership and donations, and several unmet budgets.

Greenpeace USA also decreased its national staff by 75 per cent, ended its longtime grassroots practice of campaigning door to door, and fired its executive director. The group is now financially stable, meeting its budget goals and has a stable membership of about 300,000. McCally says the board simply decided to give Greenpeace USA a clean slate to recreate its governance. "Greenpeace is delightfully willing to live with ambiguity," McCally said. "The work goes forward." He added, "The environment still needs a lot of protection, and our issues are still very much in play, politically--Seattle being a prime example for sure," referring to the WTO meetings which ended in Seattle earlier this month.

INDIVIDUALS CALLED BIGGEST THREAT TO OCEANS

Most people don't realize that when it comes to ocean pollution, the biggest culprit is individuals, not industry, according to a recently released national poll.

While Americans believe the ocean is seriously threatened with lasting damage caused by human activities, they greatly underestimate their role in harming the ocean, the poll found. The majority of survey participants blamed industry as the leading cause of ocean pollution when in reality most ocean pollution is caused by contaminated run-off from yards, parking lots and roads.

In fact, street runoff and individual dumping into municipal storm drains is responsible for 15 times more oil reaching the ocean that the Exxon Valdez dumped in 1989, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The infamous grounding resulted in 35,000 tons of oil being released into Alaska's Prince William Sound.

The poll was conducted on behalf of the Ocean Project, a consortium of museums, aquariums and zoos across the country. The study represents one of the first comprehensive national efforts to measure the public’s connections, values, attitudes and knowledge relating to the oceans.

"Our mission is to inspire conservation of the oceans," said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "The survey results will help us be more effective in achieving that goal because we now have a much better picture of what people know and what they don't know about the oceans. We clearly have a lot of work ahead of us. Fortunately, it appears that people are receptive to an ocean conservation message."

Survey results suggest that educating people about how and why the oceans are important to human survival is not enough to inspire individual responsibility and action. In fact, the survey reveals that people's existing concern for the ocean has little to do with specificknowledge about why oceans are essential for human survival.

Only 40 per cent of poll takers were aware of the fact that more plant and animal life is found in the oceans than on land. The good news is that approximately one in three Americans has visited an aquarium, zoo, or museum in the past 12 months, presenting these institutions with a unique opportunity to channel the public’s love for the ocean into a sense of individual responsibility.

To bridge the knowledge gap, the Ocean Project is launching a campaign to educate the public about the importance of oceans and the need to protect them.

The project is currently planning for the development of major programs and exhibits at aquariums, zoos and museums, educational films and materials for teachers and more.

The poll was conducted by Belden, Russonello & Stewart, a national research firm; 1,500 American adults were polled by telephone between July 24 and Aug. 8.

The Ocean Project was formerly known as the Ocean Awareness Campaign.

-Environmental News Network

JESUS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

From the in vogue classroom theory "don't-teach-school-children-how-to-think-but-what-to-think department: Antonio Peck, described by his Mom as a happy-go-lucky seven-year-old, was told last year by his teacher and principal that his save-the-environment poster, featuring a picture of Jesus, was not acceptable since it favoured one religion over others.

It was back to the drawing board for Antonio, who instead created another poster depicting people picking up garbage with a Jesus-like figure off to the side. Politically correct school officials at Catherine McNamara Elementary School in Baldinwinsville, N.Y., however, rejected Antonio’s second poster as well.

Last year, Antonio and his classmates were assigned to design a poster on how to save the environment. Antonio's first poster depicted Jesus praying next to the slogan: "The only way to save our world!"

School officials decided to display the second poster at a school art show--but folded it so the Jesus-like figure was not visible, embarrassing the boy when he spotted it.

Antonio's Mom Jo Anne Peck, is suing her son's school and school district, accusing them of violating her boy's constitutional rights.

School authorities are arguing that the image was not relevant to the class project.

Perhaps the Peck family lawyer should argue that it was Jesus, afterall, who created the environment.

THE DEBUT OF THE FRANKENFORREST

Genetic engineering has claimed another victim.

First came 'frankenfoods', the raging activist staged battle against genetically modified foods. Now it's 'frankenforests'.

Underground environmental activists have claimed responsibility for the recent destruction and damage of more than 3,500 trees at research facilities in British Columbia.

Two activist groups calling themselves Reclaim the Genes and Genetix Goblins sent anonymous news releases saying they destroyed the trees and seedlings because they oppose genetic engineering.

Reclaim the Genes boasted how it destroyed 500 trees at Silvagen Inc.'s research facility at the University of British Columbia on Oct. 27, while Genetix Goblins took responsibility for cutting down about 3,000 trees at Western Forest Products' forestry centre near Victoria on Halloween.

Both groups tried to justify their attacks by saying they were intended to halt the spread of genetically modified "Frankenforests".

Problem is none of the Silvagen trees destroyed was genetically mutated. The company only clones the seeds of existing trees.

Damage to the two facilities has been estimated at about $250,000 each.The Silvagen Inc. facility is a gene bank for some of the best trees in our coastal forests, and its work is dedicated to preserving the genetic diversity of B.C. forests.

While the true identity of the activists has not been found, Western Forest Products has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for destroying and damaging the trees.

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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