Green war
Sir: Charles Clover's article 'Green thoughts for the blues' (4 February) con- tained inaccuracies about Greenpeace.
In the latest of a series of attacks on our work, Mr Clover states that Greenpeace `does not campaign about the big issues: carbon dioxide emissions, the Amazon, or ozone-depleting chemicals'. In fact, Greenpeace has been campaigning since- last year against carbon dioxide emissions in the UK and in many of the 22 countries where we have national officers. Green- peace has also had an international cam- paign against ozone-depleting chemicals for three years. We have not yet cam- paigned actively in the UK on this issue for precisely the reason mentioned in Mr Clover's article — Friends of the Earth have been running a very successful cam- paign against the use of CFCs in aerosols. We also campaign on the two areas identi- fied by Mr Clover as 'the worst kind of pollution' — radioactivity and hazardous chemicals.
The interest of British voters in environ- mental issues, reflected in the growing media coverage (notably in the Daily Mail), led, rather than followed, Mrs Thatcher's very welcome 'green' speech. Far from such conversions posing 'the greatest threat' to Greenpeace, our level of support is highest in countries where gov- ernments have long shared our concern about environmental issues.
Mr Clover could easily have improved the accuracy of his article by a simple telephone call, thereby avoiding any accusations of sloppy workmanship, which he is so keen to throw at Greenpeace.
Peter Melchett
Executive Director, Greenpeace UK, London Ni
Previous page
