Patrick Moore (environmentalist)

Patrick Moore was a leading figure with Greenpeace Canada and subsequently with Greenpeace International between 1981 and 1986. In 1991 he established a consultancy business, biotechnology.

Moore describes himself as "chairman and chief scientist" of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd a PR company that "work with many leading organizations in forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture and plastics, developing solutions in the areas of natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change."

History

From 1984 he became involved in a family business, Quatsino Seafarms Ltd, farming salmon on Vancouver Island. Until 1991 he was President of the company and between 1986 and 1989 was President of British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association.

Following claims by the United Fishermans and Allied Workers Union about pollution by the industry generally, the Vancouver Sun reported “Moore called the union’s concerns ‘phoney’ saying that we are not causing pollution and there is no such thing as genetic pollution”.(1)

In 1990, PR consultant James Hoggan (who had worked for Western Forest Products) told a meeting of forest executives that the industry was wasting millions on ineffective PR. He said he and Patrick Moore had designed a “green audit” program to sell to industry.(2)

Subsequently, Moore and two others formed Greenspirit to help business and government ‘incorporate the environmental agenda”.(3)

In 1991 Moore was appointed as Director of the British Columbia Forest Alliance which was described by O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, as “a Burson-Marsteller created group, bankrolled by large timber companies”, which "is waging a PR war with environmentalists upset with the logging of rainforests in western Canada.”(4)

Burson Marstellar employee, Gary Ley, was the Executive Director of the BC Forest Alliance in 1991. Ley subsequently headed up the Vancouver office of National PR, which B-M had a stake in. National PR had the BC Forest Alliance account.

Burson Marstellar had worked for the Argentinian junta to “improve [its] international image” and boost investment. [Joyce Nelson, interview with Harold Burson (founder of Burson Marstellar) fall 1981, New York]. B-M’s work for the Argentinian government occurred at the time that 35,000 people were disappeared by death squads.

In July 1991 Moore was asked by a Canadian journalist about B-M’s work for the Argentinian junta. “Forest Alliance Director, Patrick Moore, argues that Burson Marsteller’s contract was with Argentina’s economic ministry and its non-political role was to encourage foreign investment”, Stephen Hume wrote. “It [B-M] has a record of truth in public relations as its bottom line,” Moore said, citing the company’s role in the Tylenol recall.

Moore went on to object to the juxtaposing the reality of state murder of political opponents with Burson Marsteller’s strategy for marketing the perception of Argentina’s stability. Besides, Moore argued, “people get killed everywhere”.(5)

In August 1993 Moore was part of the delegation that lobbied a US foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, against a decision to fund British Columbian environmental groups. Following the meeting, the Chair of the BC Forest Alliance, Jack Munro, told the Vancouver Sun “we are not opposed to them giving money to environmental groups. We are opposed to money filtering into protectionists like the people protesting the Clayquot”, he said.(6)

In January 1994, Moore claimed in an interview that while Greenpeace had acted within the law in all matters relating to the International Whaling Commission that they may have funded travel expenses for some delegates to the Commission. “This statement was in error”, Moore wrote in a retraction several days later. (7) Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI) of “Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly” Seal of Approval for the food and dairy industry. Monsanto, Dupont, Kraft/Phillip Morris, and the nuclear industry have funded the Hudson Institute.

In late January 2004 Moore was the key speaker at a 'teach-in" organised by Paul Driessen and hosted under the name of the Congress of Racial Equality on 'eco-imperialism' at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. The environmental movement I helped found has lost its objectivity, morality and humanity ... The pain and suffering it inflicts on families in developing countries can no longer be tolerated,” he said.

Moore on genetic engineering

On February 22, 2004, the German conservative magazine "WELT am Sonntag" ('World on Sunday') which is owned by the Axel-Springer media-group published an article by Patrick Moore. (As an example of the conservative pedigree of and its connections to conservative US circles The World on Sunday also publishes columns by Henry Kissinger).

In an opinion column, Moore approvingly referred to an essay by Peter Schwartz The Anti-Industrial Revolution published in GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).