Greenpeace - put your money where the whales are - commentary Paul Watson

[Annces]

The Japanese whaling season is almost half over. Both the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin and the Greenpeace ship Esperanza have been forced to leave the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary due to lack of fuel. This should merely be a logistical retreat - it should not be a declaration of surrender.

The Steve Irwin intends to return to Melbourne, refuel, re-provision, do some repairs on the main engine, take on some replacement crew, and return. This is a difficult decision simply because the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not have the resources to return but then again we normally operate with a debt and we would rather go deeper into debt than surrender. And with the Japanese fleet on the ropes, now is not the time to surrender. The chase must be resumed and the whalers must be hounded and further deterred from their illegal slaughter.

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza will not be returning. We would like them to return. We need as much opposition to the whalers as possible. There is strength in diversity of tactics and of strategy. Greenpeace has stated that their campaign for this year is over. In other words they have enough footage, photos and a storyline to fuel another multi-million dollar fund-raising drive for the rest of the year.

Now I know I may be sounding cynical here and perhaps I am but as a co-founder of Greenpeace I have to say that I am personally disgusted at this corporate, emotionless, exploitive annual ocean posing event that Greenpeace stages every year.

My message to them is simple. If you collect the money to save the whales then you should spend the money on saving the whales. And they do collect the money! That is an area that Greenpeace excels in. Tens of millions of pieces of direct mail appeals each year. Door to door and telephone solicitations. Online advertising, television ads, radio ads, magazine ads.


full article

http://www.seashepherd.org/editorials/editorial_080131_1.html



Paul Watson and Robert Hunter

[leftchick]

1. I agree

K&R!

[flvegan]

2. Greenpeace has a $100,000,000 per year budget, IIRC

Them not returning to protect the whales is suspicious.

[Annces]

3. It puzzles me

the kind of people who get into the environmental movement, and then have the corporate mind set. I suppose people want to live big no matter who they are.