Greenpeace Responds

Part 2 of a 2-Part Post, written by Bruce Cox, Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada.  Read Part 1

What gets lost in the flame wars on the comment boards of the Globe and Mail or the Calgary Herald is the reason we leave our warm homes to climb upgraders and smokestacks in freezing, wet weather:

We're there on behalf of our three million supporters around the world. We're fearful that tar sands development is out of control, and that unbridled expansion is indicative of a provincial and federal government that have thrown in the towel on curtailing global warming and are prepared to thumb their noses at the best available science, domestic public opinion and international law.

This concern is rarely fleshed out in the posts reacting to our actions.  More often the negative comments reflect knee-jerk reactions ranging from basic hate mail to mere contrariness with life. While many of the comments posted to these boards are the ranting of the dispossessed and the spin of lurking industry and government flaks, some of the charges and themes are indeed concerns held by honest folk and are therefore in need of addressing:

Here are a few comments I see popping up that I would like to address:

You're trying to take away our livelihoods.

The conflict is not between workers and Greenpeace, or between jobs and environmentalism.  It is about what kind of a future we want for our children. Do we saddle them with climate chaos, un-breathable air and poisoned water?  What kind of an economy do we build for them?  We need long-term jobs that are sustainable and in sync with our environment – that is the only real job security we can have in today’s global economy.  We've shown [PDF] that Alberta could thrive as a renewable energy superpower, with green jobs that don’t devastate our environment and are part of the solution to global warming and not the problem.

Canada's economy is healthy because of the tar sands and you want to endanger it by shutting them down.

It is true that Canada’s economy, largely viewed as having survived the last economic downturn better than most, is increasingly reliant on oil revenues. This is actually probably the biggest threat to our economy - we're increasingly putting all of our eggs into one basket; and that basket, the tar sands, has some major faults. As superpowers like the USA build a clean energy infrastructure and begin to recognize the benefits of renewable energy and as the global community intensifies their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, tar sands oil will increasingly become a global pariah.

You endanger the safety of workers and activists to prove your point.

Safety is paramount in all our actions for workers and activists alike. We take great measures to meet applicable health and safety regulations in the workplace, to provide appropriate safety equipment, mitigate against violence and to ensure that no worker is ever threatened of placed in harm’s way. If we can’t assure that, we don’t proceed.

The Canadian Tar Sands are not a significant contributor to worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Why aren’t you going after the real culprits, the US and China? In a word, we are. Our colleagues in our US and China offices are campaigning hard to get their leaders to come to the table to work out a climate deal in Copenhagen. But make no mistake: Canada is a major part of the global warming problem and the tar sands are a major contributor to Canada’s emissions. Canada is the 8th largest emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in the world and the tar sands are the fastest growing source of GHG emissions in Canada. During a period where Canada is legally bound to reduce its GHG emissions by 6 per cent below 1990 levels, we have increased them by 26 per cent and Alberta and Saskatchewan has by 43 per cent and 72 per cent respectively. Rather than shirking our responsibilities under the screen of finger pointing we need to get our own house in order. If every leader chooses to point fingers come Copenhagen and no climate leader steps forward, we are dooming our children to an unspeakable future.

Greenpeace activists are tourists from other countries telling Albertans how to exploit their resources.

This is the government line from the premier of Alberta himself. Duly focus tested, he dredges up historic grievances that divide our country in order to diminish our actions.  But global warming is changing not just our climate but also our culture and our worldview. No longer do we have the luxury of our “backyard” extending to a provincial boundary or a national border. Greenhouse gas emissions impact on cyclones in Manila, drought in the Australian outback and flooding in Bangladesh.

Greenpeace contributes to global warming by driving/flying to the action.

Yes, life does create a carbon footprint. And that is why Greenpeace is reducing  its own footprint. Our offices are increasingly energy efficient, we purchase offsets and we have moved to renewable energy sources like geothermal in our headquarters. We are not asking anything of industry and government we are not willing to do ourselves. Nor do we expect life to come to a halt and to live in caves.

Stopping whining, talk about the solutions not the problems.

Greenpeace is about solutions. To simply expose a problem without a corresponding solution would be the most cynical and depressing thing we could do. But the fact is, our solutions work doesn’t get a lot of publicity. For example, many of the news agencies that complain about our actions failed to report on our Energy [R}evolution report this spring: a comprehensive alternative energy program for Canada that would see us reduce GHGs by 80% by 2050 without tar sands, coal or nuclear saving consumers some $20 billion in the process. No front-page news there in the Calgary Herald. Did you know Greenpeace invented Greenfreeze? It's a natural refrigerant that is both ozone AND climate friendly and helped Greenpeace win a United Nations award for our work on ozone protection.  Today, there are 300 million natural refrigerant units in use worldwide. Solutions don’t sell newspapers but it won’t stop us from campaigning to implement them.

Peaceful civil disobedience is a time-honored tool that has brought about massive change in our history. The creation of the world’s largest democracy, an end to apartheid, and the civil rights movement as well as smaller yet fundamental victories like the protection of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest or an end to dumping nuclear waste in our oceans. But it is just one tool of many that Greenpeace will utilize in our efforts to stop global warming, get the toughest agreement possible in Copenhagen and stop the tar sands. Stay tuned.

If you have any questions or comments I haven’t addressed, please post them in the comments and I’ll respond. And if you want to take action now, call your MP and ask them what their party is doing to stop the tar sands. Ask them if they’ve signed on to the KYOTOplus plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  And the next time you see a misinformed comment after a news story, feel free to jump into the conversation.