Bad Cop; Good Cop

As we prefer that Junkk.com extols all that is positive and proactive, it is often this blog that gets used to excise the eye-twitching demons that often beset us. 

I am also aware that the %age of my blogs may drift into areas of a... critical nature.

And of these, more than a few do seem to get targeted at the activities of a certain organisation. Hence it is a rare and welcome opportunity to leap to their defence having read Why don't Greenpeace make things happen?

So here you go: Greenpeace do make lots of things happen. And, what's more, a lot of them have been, are and doubtless will be pretty spiffy.

However, as this blog does outline, they can drift off the path of wonderfulness on occasion, and by my reading of this one I'd have to say the correspondent has a point... or two. As he writes (jn case the link drops): 'The back-story is too complicated to go into here, but the question at the heart of this debate is whether developing world countries like India should become the 'dustbin of the world'.

How I get Greenpeace into this is  because they are 'cock-a-hoop that the Clemenceau (a big carrier packed with asbestos en route to an indian ship-breakers) has been stopped - largely thanks to the publicity campaign that they waged against it. They say that stopping the Clemenceau will force Western countries to face up to their responsibilities regarding waste.' Good point.

But... 'The workers of the Alang shipyards in Gujarat, who were depending on the Clemenceau contract for their livelihoods, are less sure. They'd rather feed their families than be sacrificed on the altar of Greenpeace's environmental principles..' Indeed, though there is the not insignificant caveat: '... even if that means the risk of cancer down the line.' Whoops, compromise time. But this has cropped up recently on our own fair shores with 'Ghost ships' from the US, and countless other fair-trade stuff which is great in, and on, principle, but avoids certain 'here-and-now' facts of life... or survival.

It's the conclusion that hit home, and I have to quote it here even though it inspired the title which I felt I had to clarify: "But then I guess penniless, illiterate villagers are low-emitters of carbon. And that's the problem with Greenpeace and much of environmentalism - it's all about STOPPING things happening." Of course its not, but by golly an awful lot certainly is. And it's causing a no small frustration all round, as I have blogged often before.

But as I'm being a good cop today, let's end where the writer does, on a positive note, well... plea: "If only all that campaigning energy  could be funnelled into making things happen - i.e balancing environmental concerns with those of people who need to feed their families." 

To which I say "Oh, yeah!". And that applies nearer to home, too.