Greenpeace angered by co-founder's conversion to biotech
By Paul Elias Associated Press
TORONTO - It's hard to avoid biblical references when discussing Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder who now gets paid by the biotech industry and other foes of the environmental organization.
"Patrick Moore is an eco Judas," said David Suzuki, who taught Moore genetics at the University of British Columbia and is one of Canada's best-known anti-biotech figures.
Moore, an avowed agnostic, would rather think of himself as the apostle Paul, who converted to Christianity after railing against it for most of his life.
"I was against three or four things every day of my life," Moore said of his epiphany during a speech this past week at the world's premier biotechnology conference, BIO 2002. "I decided I should be for something."
During 15 years with Greenpeace, Moore worked against whaling, nuclear testing and the clubbing of baby seals. He was on board the ship Rainbow Warrior the day it was blown up and sunk by the French.
In 1986, Moore departed, saying Greenpeace was embracing positions too extreme whilst straying from its roots into anti-globalization politics. Greenpeace said he left after losing a power struggle.
"I'm not saying we should go back to killing whales and setting off nuclear bombs," Moore said. "I stick by everything we did."
Moore says Greenpeace in the mid-1980s began groping for other issues to legitimize its existence after succeeding in getting its founding principles adopted by the mainstream.
