Greenpeace Founder Sidesteps Degredation Issue

Victoria McDonald left Idaho in 1974 and moved to Alaska where she lived for 26 years. She’s been a public school teacher for 18 years, a commerical fisher (now retired) for 17 years and a mom of two grown men. She moved to Bellingham in 2001 and enjoys the liberal community here.

Dr. Paul Moore, one of the founding members of Greenpeace and the commission chair studying sustainable forestry in B.C., spoke at the Lakeway Inn on April 4. Moore is the author of “Green Spirit: Trees Are the Answer,” based on twenty years of research.

The audience (tree farmers, private land owners, development firms and associated industries) was enthusiastic about Dr. Moore’s premise that forests are a renewable resource, cheering when he slammed environmentalist obstruction of logging and their doom and gloom prophecies.

Although he does promote sustainable cutting, Moore also “believes in a system of parks and wilderness left standing for their own right,” adding that 10 percent of forests should be protected from all developments.

Dr. Moore’s introduction started with pictures of his political activism in the early 1970s. He protested hydrogen bombs set off in Amchitka, rode in a small inflatable skiff to protect whales from Russians’ factory ships and was arrested in Canada for defending seal pups.

These credentials speak loudly for a dedicated environmentalist but the audience kept quiet. They must have known that he would soon speak to their issue–that the forest industry is under assault. It was a slick turnover as Dr. Moore launched into the benefits of a forest, how trees protect numerous animals and plants and why tree farming is essential for providing sustainability for the six billion humans on the planet.

When Dr. Moore announced that no species had been eliminated because of commercial logging (to much clapping) but humans had eliminated many species due to hunting, clearing areas for agriculture and introducing exotics, he sidestepped the issue of environmental degradation. Clearing land might not be commercial logging but it certainly does eliminate forested land.

Dr. Moore then showed bucolic pictures of rolling farmland with trees sprinkled in the valleys. “Now this is what most of you consider beautiful,” he said, comparing it to a slide of a recent clearcut, stumps littering the hillside. “We need a new pair of eyes to get beyond the beauty or ugliness,” he continued. Moore assumed his photos of managed landscapes are beautiful, yet for those of us who love wilderness, pastoral scenes create serenity but do not inspire passion.

One slide of a spotted owl, which, according to Dr. Moore, can live just as successfully in second growth as old-growth timber, produced laughter. He questioned the information of the World Wildlife Fund and their predictions of species extinction, asserting the figures came from a computer model and not real life.

However, Dr Moore engaged in a bit of fanciful statistics of his own with the claim that there are as many forests as 100 years ago. This statement produced an enthusiastic response from the audience.

Dr. Moore defended clearcutting, comparing cut acreage to meadows that eventually transform into a forest. However, he neglected to include the time that it takes for a clearcut to transform into old-growth, which can take up to 250 years in the Pacific Northwest, and 350 in the Tongass National Forest of Alaska.

Natural disasters such as fires, floods, and volcanoes take out large amounts of forest, which do regrow, and so by extension, clearcuts will renew. The difference is that humans have eliminated most old-growth in the lower 48 and the fire suppression policy, which has resulted in huge disastrous fire, is a result of misguided human intervention

The question and answer period was short. Dr. Moore was asked about hydrogen power, which he felt was not technologically feasible. Since hydrogen is so corrosive, storage facilities or pipes must be glass lined. Transporting and storing hydrogen is difficult so, once again, how to provide cheap, non-polluting energy—or even how can humans limit their usage?

One man asked how tree farmers are to deal with the “dark side” (environmentalists) and I realized Dr. Moore could use his influence to bring the two sides to the table to develop solutions instead of creating the “Us vs. Them” scenario that stops the flow of ideas.

Moore supports genetic modification, with products such as genetically modified cotton that resists insects; therefore, pesticide usage is reduced. At the very end, without a direct question, Dr. Moore said that the fuss over farmed fish is ridiculous and that farmed fish are as viable as wild salmon.

With that statement, I realized that Dr. Moore has become a proponent of life as managed by humans–and judging by what we as a species have done, we have a lot to learn. §