Environmentalists then and now

By Gerry Warner
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Dec. 11, 2009
The Cam cartoon in Thursday’s Daily Townsman said it all. It showed Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Copenhagen Climate Conference sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on his head. Small wonder!
On Thursday, the Copenhagen Conference was only three days old but Canada already had the dubious distinction of winning three “Fossil of the Day” awards, and at the rate we’re going, we’re showing every sign of making it a clean sweep.
Keep in mind that Harper wasn’t even going to attend Copenhagen until U.S. President Barack Obama announced he was going, but clearly the P.M’s heart isn’t in it even if he does get the chance to bask in the glory of the likes of Obama and other world leaders.
Perhaps Harper himself is ashamed of Canada’s behaviour in the wake of the Kyoto Climate Conference where we set a target of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent, but instead let them increase by a whopping 26 per cent. No wonder in the eyes of the world we’re now seen as part of the problem instead of part of the solution although former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberal government must share part of the blame for this as well.
Then there’s the Alberta Tar Sands. Long thought of as Canada’s ticket to Energy Super Stardom, but now making us an environmental pariah and Public Enemy No. 1 as far as many in the rest of the world are concerned. Certainly this is more than a little unfair, because like it or not, we’re an oil culture and once that oil is wrestled out of the ground the entire world is eager to buy it including former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney who wants some to start another war.
Quite a change from President Obama, who made a positive initial impression at Copenhagen by nudging the Environmental Protection Agency to declare carbon dioxide a 'public danger.' The decision by the EPA means that carbon dioxide emissions could become regulated by the US government, including setting new emission standards for vehicles and possibly regulating other high-carbon industries such as utility companies.
Quite a contrast from the listless performance by Harper in the leadup to Copenhagen, which is ironic when you consider that Canada gave the world the most activist, flamboyant and charismatic environmental movement of all – Greenpeace.
Believe it or not, I am so old I can actually remember the birth of Greenpeace in Vancouver in the summer of 1971. I was a student at SFU, or “Berkley North” as it was known then. What I remember was going down to Second Beach In Stanley Park and seeing this big, old rusty barge out in the water and a bunch of people having a party on it. They also had a flag with a dolphin or some kind of sea creature on it, but it was too far away for me to see it properly.
I didn’t think much about it until I read a column in the Vancouver Sun by Bob Hunter, the co-founder of Greenpeace, who went on to one of the most brilliant and controversial careers the environmental world and the world of journalism has ever seen.
Here’s how Hunter described Vancouver in the 1960-1970’s: “The city with the biggest concentration of tree huggers, radicalized students, freeway-fighters, pot smokers, aging Trotskyites, nudists, Buddhists, union shit-disturbers, farmland savers, back-to-the-landers, condo-killers and animal rights activists.” (And that wasn’t all of them)
A student of Marshall McLuhan, Hunter coined the term “mind bomb,” by which he meant consciousness-changing stories or images that galvanize people into action: i.e. a bleeding harp seal on a Newfoundland ice floe or Bridget Bardot, cuddling an achingly, cute seal pup to her ample bosom seconds before it was to be bludgeoned to death by a sadistic sealer. Exploitation journalism it was that pushed every emotional button. Many people criticized it including yours truly. But one thing you couldn’t deny – it worked.
Hunter died in 2005 of cancer, and if he was alive today, you have to wonder how he would feel about Canada winning so many “Fossil of the Day” awards at Copenhagen. How would he feel? I wouldn’t presume to say but I’m sure he wouldn’t be proud.
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