Patrick Moore – Cofounder of Greenpeace

Patrick Moore – Cofounder of Greenpeace

After more than 15 years of co-founding and heading up Greenpeace, Patrick Moore switched sides and views. Instead of the radical environmental activism that Greenpeace encompasses, Moore now focuses on how we can benefit humans while remaining as environmentally safe as possible.

Patrick Moore was born in 1947 and raised in Winter Harbour, British Columbia, a fishing and logging village on the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island often referred to as the Pacific rainforest. His father was a logger and the past president of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association, while his mother came from a family of fishermen. At the age of fourteen, Moore was sent to boarding school in Vancouver. Later, at the University of British Columbia he studied life sciences. Throughout his time at UBC, Moore discovered his love for ecology, because it gave him an understanding of the rainforest he lived in as a child (Moore, “Environmentalism” 1).

In 1971, Moore started Greenpeace out of his hometown. The group was originally called the ‘Don’t Make a Wave Committee’ (Bate, par. 2). The committee went to Alaska to protest against US nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands. They set out on an old fishing boat from the Vancouver harbor to disrupt the tests, but were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and arrested. Despite the arrest, the mission ended up being successful. President Nixon cancelled the remaining nuclear tests (Moore, “Environmentalism” 3).

During his 15 years with Greenpeace, Moore was the scientific spokesperson. He served for nine years as president for Greenpeace Canada, and seven years as director for Greenpeace International Borders, par. 3). The organization campaign...

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...y and improve health (Moore “Battle” par. 10-11).

Moore currently lives in Vancouver and still works with the B.C. logging industry, writing articles, performing speeches, and appearing on television for them.

Works Cited

Bate, Roger. “Moore Wisdom Needed.” Economic Affairs 24.2 (June 2004): 72.

Borders, Max. “The Reformers: Patrick Moore.” .

“Greenpeace.” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2005 .

Moore, Patrick. “Battle for Biotech Progress.” The American Enterprise (March 2004). 3 April 2006 .

---. “Environmentalist for the Twenty-first Century.” IPA Review 52.3 (September 2000): pages 3-8. 3 April 2006 .