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Canwest News Service
Of all the original crew members involved in the 1971 Amchitka voyage, it is Patrick Moore's name that remains the most likely to stir heated debate within environmental circles.
Active in the Don't Make A Wave Committee as an ecology grad student in the early stages of the Amchitka campaign, Moore would go on to serve as the president of the Greenpeace Foundation (later named Greenpeace Canada) and as a director of Greenpeace International.
But in 1986, Moore created his own waves by splitting with Greenpeace to set up a family fish-farming operation, eventually becoming the president of the B. C. Salmon Farmers Association.
He later aired views in support of nuclear power, the use of DDT and logging – to earn, in many minds, the title of the activist who sold out.
Despite the name-calling, Moore, now 62, remains unapologetic, believing his views to be based on sound science, sustainability and the reality of economics and societal needs.
"I wanted to get into what we should do instead and evolve our society to, where it's having less of an impact," he says. "I find it much more gratifying than being against three or four things every day."
Moore founded Greenspirit in 1999 to promote his views on sustainability. In 2002, he co-founded Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., a consulting company that provides governments and businesses with opinions on a range of sustainability and environmental issues. Moore says the purpose of Greenspirit is to develop an alternative environmental platform based on science and logic.
"In my view, today's environmentalism doesn't take into consideration the humans, and kind of sees them as pests," he says. "There is a lot of grey. It is not all black and white. You have to deal with these things in a methodical, well thought-out way, as opposed to having a zero tolerance."
colivier@theprovince.com
