Slashdot Mirror


Greenpeace Admits Targeting Apple Grabs Headlines

An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo published this morning allegations by the bromine industry claiming that Greenpeace's report on the iPhone was inaccurate and alarmist. They got an official rebuttal to the bromine industry by Greenpeace, but the most interesting part is their acknowledgment that their targeting of Apple, even while they have similar reports on every manufacturer, is a deliberate attempt to grab headlines. While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it."

394 comments

  1. Time for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    a good old fashioned hippie ass whoopin'

    1. Re:Time for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      How is flamebait ?

      1. It is Simpson's joke
      2. Greenpeace is an organizaton without ethics. So that why we French blow them up. BOOM! Sink there ship and say goodbye smelly hippie! Into New Zealand ocean water you go!!! Hahaha.

  2. Life Meets Art by Hoskald · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    See the novel State of Fear...it's not too far off it seems...

    --
    For the sake of Peace, the Sword.
    1. Re:Life Meets Art by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      yeah, first they selectively target companies to protest for using dangerous chemicals based on the publicity it will get them, then they.... kill people?

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    2. Re:Life Meets Art by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well they first release a series of "green" soylent products.

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    3. Re:Life Meets Art by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Informative

      "See the novel State of Fear...it's not too far off it seems..."

      An anti-science fiction writer advising the US senate on climate science, what could possibly go wrong?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:Life Meets Art by budgenator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Michael Crichton M.D. certanly isn't anti-science, a gad-fly maybe, his writing does prod the "climatologists" to a higher standard than they had been acustomed to; at any account he's certainly more qualified than Al Gore is.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    5. Re:Life Meets Art by aurispector · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I love the "dangerous" characterization of bromine. Bromine is no more dangerous than hydrogen. If you rapidly combine hydrogen with oxygen you get a big boom! Dangerous!!
      Ban hydrogen and hydrogen compounds forever!!!

      People never seem to have a clue about how the things in their everyday life are produced. Generally they seem to expect that the only byproduct of production should be butterflys and rose water. Unfortunately these people are also allowed to vote.

      --
      I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
    6. Re:Life Meets Art by ajs318 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ah, but Bromine is in Group VIIb, one down from Chlorine. Therefore it must be evil!

      Watch out Iodine, you're next!

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    7. Re:Life Meets Art by jimstapleton · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, bromine is a neurotoxin. Typically, compounds with bromine in them will be a lot more harmful to human health than those with hydrogen, and not just due to explosions. It tends to be more corrosive than hydrogen as well.

      You want something similarly dangerous that is common, you'd be better off picking oxygen, but even that isn't as bad.

      --
      34486853790
      Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
    8. Re:Life Meets Art by tbannist · · Score: 1

      Indeed, we must ban dihydrogen monoxide! It's the most dangerous of all of the hydrogen compounds!

      Heck, those hypocrits at Greenpeace use DHMO every day. When will they learn?

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    9. Re:Life Meets Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BZZZT! You FAIL it! Take two steps backward!

      Sure, bromine has some properties that need to be respected. That doesn't mean that it's more or less dangerous than any other element, just that you need to take it's properties into account prior to handling. You can find a way to kill youself with any element on the chart - some are easier than others.

      The point is that virtually nothing can be manufactured without some perceived negative consequence. My favorite example is electric power generation. Coal fired power plants emit the majority of greenhouse gasses, particulates and heavy metals into the atmosphere and are arguably the worlds biggest man made contributer to global warming. Nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gasses, particulate or heavy metals into the atmosphere. Furthermore when the fuel is spent, all the toxic stuff is contained in one place and can be stored and monitored. No economically feasible alternatives yet exist, but the greens refuse to admit that it's better than coal.

    10. Re:Life Meets Art by jimstapleton · · Score: 1

      I won't argue against your point about, power - I agree, but there are a lot more dangerous bromine compounds than hydrogen compounds.

      But there are also worse chemicals than bromine (radon anyone?)

      So, maybe I jumped the gun a bit, as I dont know what the alternatives in the manufacturing process are, but in the post regarding Hydrogen vs. Bromine, I'd rather rule-of-thumb it and take a hydrogen based substance over a bromine based substance if there was no time for serious study, and bromine does tend to be more dangerous.

      Yes, anything can be dangerous, but this isn't a true/false or 1/0 option, it's a gradient.

      --
      34486853790
      Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
    11. Re:Life Meets Art by geekoid · · Score: 1

      HAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahha,,
      Higher standard? there standard in scien has always been high.
      He is nothing but a science fiction writer with predisposed view. He twists facts to meet those pre-disposed views.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    12. Re:Life Meets Art by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Andromeda strain plot summary - science gone mad.
      Jurasic park plot summary - science gone mad.
      State of fear plot summary - science gone mad.
      Notice a pattern? If you want an insight into what scientific skepticisim is all about read either Carl Sagan or James Randi.

      "he's certainly more qualified than Al Gore is"
      Neither are "qualified" - an MD is not a science degree, particularly so when MC was at school. So let's take a look at what they do rather than what they say they are doing?
      Michael Crichton M.D - Replaced other people's research with his own (admirable) fiction and tried to convince the senate it was science.

      Al Gore - Presented the IPCC reports in his own (admirable) documentary format.

      Here is a quote from the wikipedia entry for MC: "Peter Doran, author of the paper in the January 2002 issue of Nature which reported the finding referred to above, that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece in the July 27, 2006 New York Times in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear".[14] Crichton himself states in the book that though he uses a number of studies to support his stance, the authors of these studies do not necessarily agree with his interpretations."

      By going to the senate and proffesing to be an expert on climate and disputing the science without any back-up what-so-ever I belive that MC is practising the same "political meddling" that he accuses others of doing both in real life and his books.
      Phycologists call this behaviour "projection", but most people call it hypocricy and hubris. Despite this personality flaw (or maybe because of it) he writes a damn good story.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    13. Re:Life Meets Art by aurispector · · Score: 1

      Yup, it's a gradient. If bromine has "dangerous" properties, you can account for them. If it's the best substance to accomplish a given task AND the consequences of it's properties can be handled there is no reason not to use it. Note that the term "best" includes an analysis of it's ability to meet a specific manufacturing requirement AND it's "safety".

      --
      I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
  3. the media is lazy by User+956 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They got an official rebuttal to the bromine industry by Greenpeace, but the most interesting part is their acknowledgment that their targeting of Apple, even while they have similar reports on every manufacturers, is a deliberate attempt to grab headlines.

    Well, that's the double-edged sword of having the "hot" product in any market. I'm sure if they had done a similar report on the XBOX 360, the media would have been all over it in a similar manner.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:the media is lazy by Capsaicin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, that's the double-edged sword of having the "hot" product in any market

      Sure, that's the Nike woosh has become an icon for the NoBrand movement, even though all the other major sportsgoods manufacturers indulge in the same practices blamed on Nike.

      The submitters moral indignation is a bit hard to stomach. How can it be "logical" and "not surprising" while at the same time being "cavalier" and even "hypocritical." What's hypocritical about stating the obvious truth? They are only being frank and declaring the truth that they are a pro-environmental publicity company.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    2. Re:the media is lazy by User+956 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I think the key thing here is that Greenpeace has an end goal of getting attention. Once they get attention, then their goal is to say their message.

      However, they have to get attention, and so they do stuff like this, which is not necessarily targeting Apple because they have a vendetta against apple, but targeting Apple because they know the media is lazy and sensationalist, and will carry any story that will sell newspapers and commercial airtime.

      --
      The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    3. Re:the media is lazy by MicktheMech · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To be fair, Nike was one of the pioneers in the Japan-South Korea-China factory moves. That said, I agree with you.

    4. Re:the media is lazy by timeOday · · Score: 5, Funny

      I just hate to see such a humble, unassuming company as Apple, content to attend modestly to their own private matters, dragged out into public scrutiny. This kind of thing can ruin a quiet little family company like Apple Computer.

    5. Re:the media is lazy by saskboy · · Score: 1

      "while they have similar reports on every manufacturers, is a deliberate attempt to grab headlines [CC]. While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.""

      I'm not shocked. Half of the people who heard the first story are going to think it's true, and this follow up is just spin. Another quarter will miss this update entirely. And so more than half of those afflicted with this wrong information will think GREENPEACE when they see an iPhone. Brilliant, but sinister.

      --
      Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
    6. Re:the media is lazy by j79zlr · · Score: 1

      Idiotic modding of the OP as insightful aside, you might want to save some money and make a purchase.

      --
      I'm not not licking toads.
    7. Re:the media is lazy by Mazin07 · · Score: 1

      --------* <---The joke

            O
          ==|== <---You
            |
          / \

    8. Re:the media is lazy by dwater · · Score: 1

      I think the insightfulness was implied by the sarcasm, with which it was dripping. Well, I hope that's why it was marked 'insightful'.

      --
      Max.
    9. Re:the media is lazy by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      I think it should have modded funny. Either a moderator is an Apple fanboi and didn't get the joke or they modded it insightful because 'insightful' carries more karma than 'funny'.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    10. Re:the media is lazy by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This kind of thing can ruin a quiet little family company like Apple Computer.

      Sarcasm aside, it can indeed hurt their stock price, causing problems for its millions of owners (through mutual funds in 401Ks, etc). And just because they're not a small ma-and-pop store, why do they deserve to be libeled by those cretins? Apple isn't being punished for wrongdoing. Apple's being punished for being well-liked. That's not fair or justifiable in any society I'd care to be a part of.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    11. Re:the media is lazy by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, I think Greenpeace learned this behavior from John Dvorak. Whenever his page hits for the month are too low, he just posts an 'Apple sucks' article to get them back up. And yes, he actually admitted to doing this as well.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    12. Re:the media is lazy by Rei · · Score: 2, Interesting

      To me, it's this article that comes across as blatant smear. First off, there's the picture of a stereotypical "dirty hippie playing guitar" at the top. What does it have to do with the article? Absolutely nothing except to poke fun at Greenpeace. That'd be as though I was responding to the Anti-Defamation League and started out with a cartoon of a "dirty jew". Can we for once agree to discuss an environmental group without resorting to mean-spirited playground humor?

      Then they go on to wow at the statement "While it might not make as many headlines as the iPhone it doesn't mean that we are not focusing on all manufacturers." In fact, they made the whole article centered around this one sentence. Someone please explain to me what is wrong with this sentence. They say they're *going after everyone*, even if it *doesn't* make headlines. What on Earth is wrong with this? It is just the *opposite* of what they're claiming it is.

      Apple or anyone else can hardly be considered guilty of anything if the laws don't tell them that what they are doing is harmful for the environment.

      Yeah, tell that to the tobacco companies, the companies that hid asbestos dangers from their workers, etc.

      And then, they waive off all of *their* responsibility with:

      Until then, we believe Greenpeace should be clearer on their claims unless they want an industry group to easily, and successfully, cast doubts over their reports.

      Yeah, you're right. Greenpeace writes a detailed report based on sound scientific methodology, an industry hit group tries to spin it (that's what they do; it's their thing), and you pick it up and try to give the industry spin as good of a run as possible. Even though it was an unfounded rebuttal, it's *Greenpeace*'s fault for not being so clear that the industry won't spin it. Great approach there.

      Gizmodo has lost all respect from me.

      Lest anyone forget what this is all about, BFRs are bioaccumulative persistant organic pollutants, many of which are poisonous, especially to aquatic organisms, but some also to mammals. Some are mutagenic and nephrotoxic. Most are little studied for health; however, concentrations in the environment and in humans are rapidly increasing, and this has raised a great deal of concern. While it's a whole class of chemicals, and certainly not all will ultimately prove be equally bad, they don't have a good track record so far. Here's an article on our current state of knowledge on the subject. Here's an excerpt concerning the most widely used BFR:

      The majority of adverse effects of TBBPA have been found in vitro. TBBPA is toxic to primary hepatocytes, most likely by destroying mitochondria (Boecker et al. 2001). This may not be surprising because its halogenated phenolic properties would suggest that it could uncouple oxidative phosphorylation. TBBPA exposure results in membrane dysfunction in isolated liver cells and inhibits the activity of a key mixed-function oxidase, cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) (Boecker et al. 2001). TBBPA is also highly immunotoxic in culture, which is demonstrated by its ability to specifically inhibit the expression of CD25 at concentrations as low as 3 M (Pullen et al. 2003). The expression of CD25 is essential for proliferation of activated T cells and is commonly used as a marker for T-cell activation. TBBPA's potent inhibition of this protein may have a profound effect on an organism's immunomediated defense against bacteria, viruses, and possibly cancer. This major BFR is also neurotoxic in cerebellar granule cells and rat brain synaptosomes, where it inhibits dopamine and generates free radicals (Mariussen and Fonnum 2002; Reistad et al. 2002).

      Some of the most recent concerns regarding the potential for adverse effects of TBBPA focus on the possibility that TBBPA may act as an endocrine disruptor. The structural similarity of TBBPA to bisphenol A, a known weak environmental estrogen, has s

      --
      Son, a woman is a lot like a refrigerator. They're six feet tall, 300 pounds... they make ice... umm...
    13. Re:the media is lazy by metrometro · · Score: 1

      OK, same point I made, only in 90% less words and funny. I retire.

    14. Re:the media is lazy by arminw · · Score: 1

      ......declaring the truth that they are a pro-environmental publicity company.......

      And a largely irrelevant publicity seeker who should be ignored by everybody, especially the community here on /. They and their ilk would like nothing better than to empty this planet of people and turn it over to (insert just about anything OTHER than a human being). Why can we not wisely use ALL the resources on Earth rather than abstaining from using any of them at all?

      --
      All theory is gray
    15. Re:the media is lazy by Thyrteen · · Score: 1

      Not so true.. As big as Apple has grown, it's kind of interesting how true to their own goals they've kind of stayed. I think they hold much more integrity than most pc / electronic manufacturers. After all, one of the company founders is still the CEO.

    16. Re:the media is lazy by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      And a largely irrelevant publicity seeker who should be ignored by everybody

      And a largely irrlevant publicity seeker will be ignored, but we're talking about Greenpeace Inc. here.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    17. Re:the media is lazy by Thyrteen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I wish I didn't post higher up in this thread, I would have modded you. I felt the exact same way with this article, and in greenpeace's reply, they even did say they did further tests into some elements than gizmodo had mentioned. I kind of felt bad the way that gizmodo displayed such arrogance.

    18. Re:the media is lazy by arminw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      .....but we're talking about Greenpeace......

      having nothing in common with either anything green, other than the color of money, nor peace

      --
      All theory is gray
    19. Re:the media is lazy by vought · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      And so more than half of those afflicted with this wrong information will think GREENPEACE when they see an iPhone. Brilliant, but sinister.

      As I child, I idealized Greenpeace. They were saving the whales, for goodness' sake.

      About five years ago, I woke up.

      Greenpeace is now a blackmail organization. This crap with Apple - they pull the same thing with many other respected companies, and have sullied the name of an organization that used to be truly, vehemently, for the good of the earth.

      Now it's just a marketing organization for a bunch of radical trustafarians out to make a name for themselves.

    20. Re:the media is lazy by metrometro · · Score: 1

      Apple will only be punished if their customers care about whether "Think Different" is a lie. They're not being punished for being popular: they've been rewarded by being popular. Greenpeace is asking their customers to decide whether they deserve it. Strong brands have higher expectations and higher prices: the value add. Otherwise, Mp3 players etc would be commodities.

    21. Re:the media is lazy by FooGoo · · Score: 3, Funny

      I believe that dirty hippy playing the guitar is Mr. Jobs

      --
      People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
    22. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First off, there's the picture of a stereotypical "dirty hippie playing guitar" at the top.

      Don't you recognize him? It's Steve Jobs.

    23. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      First off, there's the picture of a stereotypical "dirty hippie playing guitar" at the top. What does it have to do with the article? Absolutely nothing except to poke fun at Greenpeace.

      Err.... I've seen Greenpeace members. Try again.

      Gizmodo has lost all respect from me.

      Greenpeace won't get any respect from me until they start advocating for nuclear power. Until then, I'll still think of them as dirty hippies playing guitars.

    24. Re:the media is lazy by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Informative

      First off, there's the picture of a stereotypical "dirty hippie playing guitar" at the top. What does it have to do with the article? Absolutely nothing except to poke fun at Greenpeace. That'd be as though I was responding to the Anti-Defamation League and started out with a cartoon of a "dirty jew".

      I guess you didn't notice, but that "dirty hippie" had been photoshopped with Steve Jobs' face, along with the words "It's not easy... being green...", and a green apple on the ground in front of him. The reference is Steve Jobs' "A Greener Apple" statement from some months back.

      I won't deny, however, that Gizmondo has no love for Greenpeace, yet I do think in this case they have a point. Apple has stated that they will eliminate all PVCs and BFRs from their products sometime in 2008, which puts them above average among computer and mobile phone makers:

      Dell: BFRs already eliminated, PVCs By 2009
      Nokia: PVCs already eliminated, no date for complete elimination of BFRs
      Toshiba: By 2009
      Lenovo: PVC By 2009, no date for complete elimination of BFRs
      Sony: Sometime in 2010
      HP: No date for complete elimination of either
      Motorola: No date for complete elimination of either

      So it seems ridiculous for Greenpeace to keep singling Apple out for PVC/BFR elimination instead of, say, HP or Motorola. Well, except for the fact that (a) any headline with "Apple" in it gets tons of media attention right now, and (b) there are so many pro- and anti-Apple fanboys that any new controversy will whip both sides into a frenzy.

      Kudos to Greenpeace for social engineering, shame on them for demagoguery.

      (Oh, and you can't argue that Greenpeace doesn't single out Apple. Try going to greenpeace.org/sony, greenpeace.org/hp or greenpeace.org/motorola. Didn't think so.)

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    25. Re:the media is lazy by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah, I think the key thing here is that Greenpeace has an end goal of getting attention. Once they get attention, then their goal is to say their message.

      Then they have an end goal of saying their message. Or maybe of saying their message to a large enough, attentive group of people.

      I'm not even sure that's their end goal, that's just what I can derive from your claim. If I were forming such a group, I'd have an end goal of actually making the world change, of protecting the environment and helping it to flourish... Not merely of "raising awareness" or some other bullshit that has a declaration of defeat right there in the goal.

      After all, if I could solve pollution, say, why would I want to raise awareness about it? And if my goal is only to raise awareness, doesn't that mean that if a few hundred million people tell me to fuck off and die in a fire, I've attained my goal?

      But maybe that's the fundamental flaw here -- maybe Greenpeace has really forgotten what their goal is, and has settled merely for raising awareness. Or maybe they've added "by any means necessary" -- or both.

      However, they have to get attention, and so they do stuff like this

      I know that conventional wisdom is "no news is bad news". But I don't think that applies here -- stories like this might be better than no one knowing what the word "environmentalist" means, but in the long run, far worse than taking some extra time and money and doing it right.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    26. Re:the media is lazy by iainl · · Score: 1

      Put it this way: in their recent league table of electronics companies, they placed HP - the world's largest PC manufacturer and responsible for far more stuff being built than Apple - well below Jobs' company.

      And yet they quite clearly focussed on Apple, in order to chase headlines. They're guilty as charged, even if you don't like the tone of the article.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
    27. Re:the media is lazy by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      that they are a pro-environmental publicity company.

      Not hardly. Greenpeace is a blackmail racket, and their main line of business is getting companies to pay them to fuck off and shut up.

      They have a secondary line of business, which is to suck up the contributions that would otherwise go to genuine environmental advocacy organizations, like the Nature Conservancy or the Audubon Society.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    28. Re:the media is lazy by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Greenpeace has an end goal of getting attention.

      No, the attention is the means to the end. The end they seek is getting money they didn't earn.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    29. Re:the media is lazy by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      [...]not necessarily targeting Apple because they have a vendetta against apple[...]

      I do think, however, that the public humiliation they received from Apple the last time they did a story about them might have been a factor.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    30. Re:the media is lazy by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, the attention is the means to the end. The end they seek is getting money they didn't earn. They have been doing this for decades, the only difference is that they have seem to have moved their focus from small (whale and seal hunting) nations to extorting high profile corporations with a vulnerable public image. I suppose there is no money to be made any more from pictures of cute seal pups splattered with fake blood and pictures of whales being butchered for food. I am generally sympathetic to the cause of environmentalism but I won't waste any time on listening to the likes of Greenpeace. I normally don't waste much time on fanatical fringe groups like Sea Shepherd either but they do deserve a bit of credit since they seem to share my low opinion of Greenpeace. I don't like Sea Shepherd's methods but at least the are actually doing something and not just caching in like Greenpeace.
      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    31. Re:the media is lazy by sbeener · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Another odd note... From Greenpeace's rebuttal:

      The other inaccuracies:

      1. Electronics Industry Analyst Group Dismisses Greenpeace Claims on iPhone?

      This is inaccurate. BSEF is the international organisation of the bromine chemical industry. The title of the article would more accurately be: "Chemical Industry Group Dismisses Greenpeace Claims on iPhone."

      and Gizmodo's response below that

      Editor's note: actually, the "analyst" was corrected and replaced to "group" when this was pointed out this morning...

      They go on to state how wonderful they are for disclosing errors. Except they only changed part of the text - 'analyst' to 'group'. They appear to have overlooked that Greenpeace's correction was 'Electronics Industry analyst' to 'Chemical Industry group' - a much, much larger difference.

      I'm with you; Gizmodo looks bad on this one.

    32. Re:the media is lazy by approx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      .. and using that money to get us to stop killing the planet we live on.

      --
      There, behind you! A public health care system .. run for your life!
    33. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, FFS, STFU. We get it. Nasty chemically stuff.

      I just want my bloody iPhone.

    34. Re:the media is lazy by argiedot · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, the problem isn't that Greenpeace went after Apple on false ideas, the problem is they went only after Apple.

    35. Re:the media is lazy by shilly · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, the end is slowing or stopping environmental degradation. They don't want the money merely for the sake of it. If you want to be rich, you don't work for Greenpeace, you work for Exxon.

    36. Re:the media is lazy by jellomizer · · Score: 1, Troll

      Well Apple tries to be responsible environmentally. Targeting them actually hurts Greenpeace case. It makes them look out of touch on what is happening. Targeting a large company who is popular and being cavalier about the environment is one thing. But apple actually tries to make their products Green after the first busting from greenpeace, is counter productive because it makes them seem like they will whine and moan no matter what... If they are going to whine and moan then you might as well do it the most affordable way right. The problem with activist groups is when they win, they don't know to stop. They build up all this hate and anger and fight the bad guy when the bad guy converts they still have all this hate and anger towards them and still fight them.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    37. Re:the media is lazy by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, the problem isn't that Greenpeace went after Apple on false ideas, the problem is they went only after Apple.

      That's only really a problem if you think that unfair attacks on Apple's public image are more important than the environment. I propose we take a poll on the issue and use everyone who agrees with the preceding statement for biofuel. We've confirmed that the iPhone blends - now it's time to try the iUsers.

      And please, don't get all upset just because I'm "thinking different" about solutions to the energy crisis.

    38. Re:the media is lazy by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      If somebody invented a cheap, clean, abundant, renewable energy source tomorrow, Greenpeace would be siding with the fossil fuel industry to get it buried. It's clear from the way Greenpeace behave that don't care about protecting the environment; all they care about is making people feel guilty and increasing their membership.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    39. Re:the media is lazy by Wellspring · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's the price of fame. Winners get sniped at all the time. The smart kid gets picked on. The rich, successful, high-GPA athlete at the elite university gets turned into a Duke Lacrosse player. The super-rich, powerful and/or famous get hounded by reporters and paparazzi to report their slightest missteps and humiliations. That's human nature.

      Lobbyist groups like Greenpeace are made up of people who, while mostly they genuinely believe in their cause, are normal people who have careers and lives to think about. They want to build the organization so they can have people reporting to them in their department, a higher salary, and prestige in their field. They want to feel powerful. So of course they'll do unfair but publicity-grabbing showboats. It even serves their cause. More attention to Greenpeace drives funding, personnel and other organizational improvements that help them pursue their cause. More power = more attention from the press, having credibility with powerful political and business leaders, and more public awareness.

      This isn't unique to Greenpeace. A great many organizations are Outrage Machines. They're the ones that decry Harry Potter, Teletubbies, the Republicans, gun companies, KFC, the Democrats, Domino's Pizza, Coors Beer, Warren Buffet, etc etc. What bothers people I think isn't the hypocrisy-- it's when Greenpeace actually comes out and admits to it. But it's behind all kinds of causes, including many that you and I believe very strongly in.

      Is it ethical? Well, that's a good question. I don't have a good answer to that one, or rules that would apply more than situationally. Most lobbyists are either True Believers or very very cynical-- and I'm not sure which is worse.

    40. Re:the media is lazy by falcon5768 · · Score: 1

      not likely. Greenpeace spends more on their own people than actually goes to environmental concerns. You should really check out the criticism of Greenpeace... they are hardly as green as they claim.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    41. Re:the media is lazy by mcvos · · Score: 1

      What bothers people I think isn't the hypocrisy-- it's when Greenpeace actually comes out and admits to it. But it's behind all kinds of causes, including many that you and I believe very strongly in.

      Exactly. Almost every organisation loves headlines, whether it is for commercial or ideological purposes. Greenpeace admitting this isn't hypocrisy at all, it's the exact opposite. The people who do the same yet complain about Greenpeace doing it (like, oh, the submitter), they are the hypocrites.

      People can call Greenpeace an attention whore all they like, but it's no different from the money whoring of publicly owned corporations. It's Greenpeace's job to grab attention, to grab headlines, to bring environmental issues to the attention of the public. And they're doing a good job of it. If you don't like it, then don't give them money. It's that simple.

    42. Re:the media is lazy by mcvos · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, the attention is the means to the end. The end they seek is getting money they didn't earn.

      They do earn the money they get, exactly because they do their job (bringing environmental issues to attention) so well. That's why people who care about these issues give them that money in the first place. And Greenpeace is about the only NGO that can stand up to multinational corporations, so while smaller NGOs might be nicer and friendlier and more accurate and effective on a small scale, if you want to accomplish something on a large scale, you simply need something like Greenpeace.

    43. Re:the media is lazy by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      But apple actually tries to make their products Green after the first busting from greenpeace

      Correction: Apple was "green" before the first tantrum. Their sole reaction to Greenpeace's childish outburst was to publicize exactly how green they were even before GP got involved.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    44. Re:the media is lazy by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      John Dvorak is bad for the environment?!!!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    45. Re:the media is lazy by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      but do they actually help? look at what has happened to nuclear power which is probably our best short to medium term for transfering base load power off cheap but pollouting coal. Renewables work to a point but storage is a major issue and the more unpredicable renewables you add to a grid the harder it gets to add more. The one renweable that is an exception to this is dam based hydro but that also upsets the eco-nuts.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    46. Re:the media is lazy by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Can we for once agree to discuss an environmental group without resorting to mean-spirited playground humor?

      Said groups can encourage this by doing so themselves.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    47. Re:the media is lazy by gad_zuki! · · Score: 1

      They're not being "frank and honest." They purposely used a bad methodology of figuring out the composition of the iphone to create an alarmist report so guys like you can believe it and donate more money to them. If you read TFA you would know this.

      Yes, they are being purposly disingenuous.

      Personally, Greenpeace and PETA are on my list of unethical extremist organizations that are successful only because our media is so terrible it almost never corrects them.

    48. Re:the media is lazy by jcr · · Score: 1

      they do their job (bringing environmental issues to attention) so well.

      The hell they do. They discredit environmentalism in general, the same way that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have discredited the civil rights movment: by crying wolf and practicing extortion.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    49. Re:the media is lazy by BobGregg · · Score: 1

      >>People can call Greenpeace an attention whore all they like,
      >>but it's no different from the money whoring of publicly owned corporations.

      Actually, it is different. Greenpeace is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S. Public corporations are owned by stockholders, and exist to serve the stockholders. When they money-whore, it's for their private interests - no great surprise. But 501(c)(3) organizations are given their tax exemptions by the government because they are supposed to serve specific charitable or educational functions - not mere self-promotion. Charities get in trouble all the time for spending too much effort and money on fund-raising and self-promotion instead of on the issue or niche they're supposed to be involved in.

      There have been many questions raised over the last ten years about whether Greenpeace's money-raising activities have gone outside the bounds set by the 501(c)(3) guidelines. Admitting publicly, "Sure, we deliberately make stuff up to promote ourselves" probably doesn't help that.

    50. Re:the media is lazy by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Yes but right after that you saw smaller and tigher packaging (to reduce fuel consumption) for their products. All Aluminium and Glass iMacs which are more recycleable materials. Also they reduced the heavy metal they used in their designs too. After the first time Apple tried to make themselfs more Green. But now GreenPeace is trying to make it self seem big and tough vs. actually looking out for the environment.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    51. Re:the media is lazy by strings42 · · Score: 1

      I'm just wondering if you would be coming to the defense of Microsoft had Greenpeace leveled the same allegations against them ...


      ... thought not.

      So the problem apparently is that they're goring your sacred cow, not somebody else's. Don't know if that actually qualifies as "unfair" ... more like a cost of being a leader in the market.

      Baiting aside, I do think that the criticism may be somewhat more relevant when leveled at Apple than at competitors, because Apple has always cultivated that valley, consumer-friendly persona. If I'm part of Greenpiece (and I am not), I'm probably interested in hitting the target that will make the most media impact. That's the purpose of a lobbying group, after all, to get media and public attention for their causes.

      Just business as usual for everyone involved, in my opinion.

    52. Re:the media is lazy by mcvos · · Score: 1

      They discredit environmentalism in general, the same way that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have discredited the civil rights movment: by crying wolf and practicing extortion.

      They do? Perhaps the US branch of Greenpeace is clumsy (possibly even corrupt?) that way, but in Netherland (the country with by far the highest percentage of Greenpeace sympathisers), it has a reasonably good reputation. But over here, it's not whaling and seal clubbing that are their biggest issues, but energy and Big Oil and stuff like that. The invest in solar power, and shame big oil companies into doing what's right. Well, usually. Their misjudgement in the Shell Brent Spar thing did damage them, but not permanently, as far as I can tell.

    53. Re:the media is lazy by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm just wondering if you would be coming to the defense of Microsoft had Greenpeace leveled the same allegations against them

      Yep. There are plenty of reasons to dislike any given large company, but Greenpeace hasn't raised any legitimate ones.

      So the problem apparently is that they're goring your sacred cow

      I'm typing this from a Dell running Gutsy Gibbon. I don't even own an iPod. Sorry, but it's probably a bit harder to write me off as a Mac fanboy than you seem to wish.

      Baiting aside, I do think that the criticism may be somewhat more relevant when leveled at Apple than at competitors, because Apple has always cultivated that valley, consumer-friendly persona.

      Relevant, perhaps, but still a lie. In this one specific case, Apple's already ahead of almost all of their competitors and they're still improving. It's like Greenpeace decided to pick on Prius drivers for less-than-perfect fuel economy while ignoring SUVs.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    54. Re:the media is lazy by Absimiliard · · Score: 1

      All I know is Greenpeace is a terrorist organization.

      I "know" this because back in the day when I was in the US Navy they blew some other people's ships up and I had to stand watch watching a Greenpeace ship in the port we had pulled into to be sure they didn't send any small craft near our ship.

      Is it possible I was misinformed by a government hostile to Greenpeace? Is it possible they've changed, assuming I wasn't misinformed? Sure, anything's possible. But I'd rather focus my charity dollars on groups I don't have moral doubts about.

      -absi

    55. Re:the media is lazy by Rei · · Score: 1

      I guess you didn't notice, but that "dirty hippie" had been photoshopped with Steve Jobs' face, along with the words "It's not easy... being green...", and a green apple on the ground in front of him. The reference is Steve Jobs' "A Greener Apple" statement from some months back.

      And the use of a "dirty hippie" at all is justified... how? It's not non-productive third-grade-level insults... how?

      --
      Son, a woman is a lot like a refrigerator. They're six feet tall, 300 pounds... they make ice... umm...
    56. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Yeah, I think the key thing here is that Greenpeace has an end goal of getting attention."

      Their goal may be getting attention, but their end goal is getting donations.

      Greenpeace is just another corporation, but their only product is FUD.

    57. Re:the media is lazy by Darth+Eggbert · · Score: 1

      That's the price of fame. Winners get sniped at all the time. The smart kid gets picked on. The rich, successful, high-GPA athlete at the elite university gets turned into a Duke Lacrosse player. You do realize that they were completely innocent, right? The DA even got booted from the bar because of malfeasance.
      --
      Fear the power of NTie!
    58. Re:the media is lazy by mcvos · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S. Public corporations are owned by stockholders, and exist to serve the stockholders. When they money-whore, it's for their private interests - no great surprise. But 501(c)(3) organizations are given their tax exemptions by the government because they are supposed to serve specific charitable or educational functions - not mere self-promotion. Charities get in trouble all the time for spending too much effort and money on fund-raising and self-promotion instead of on the issue or niche they're supposed to be involved in.

      But Greenpeace isn't promoting itself here, it's drawing attention to an environmental issue. Perhaps manipulating public attention this way doesn't rate as highly on the charity scale as going to Africa to help starving children, but drawing attention to the misbehaviour of large companies can (and often does) change the behaviour of those companies and hopefully makes the world a slightly better place.

      There have been many questions raised over the last ten years about whether Greenpeace's money-raising activities have gone outside the bounds set by the 501(c)(3) guidelines. Admitting publicly, "Sure, we deliberately make stuff up to promote ourselves" probably doesn't help that.

      But that is not what they said. They said that they're well aware that their criticism of Apple will catch more headlines than similar criticism of lesser known manufacturers, but they also point out that that criticism is as well founded as it can reasonably be. Whether they're actually correct is another matter, ofcourse. Greenpeace has been known to be wrong before, but as far as I can tell, it's not part of their standard policy. Also, they're not promoting themselves, but urging manufacturers to use less or no toxic chemicals. This isn't fundraising, this is shaming companies into doing what is right, and that is part of Greenpeace's standard policy.

    59. Re:the media is lazy by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Actually, the movement in packaging and materials that you're pointing to has been underway for some time. The PowerBook G4 moved to titanium from plastic. The G5 moved away from plastic cases to aluminum, and the Mac Pro follows. The Cinema Displays moved from plastic enclosures to aluminum. The packaging for iPod, Mac Mini, PowerBook G4, MacBook / MacBook Pro, etc has always been much smaller than competing products, bordering on ridiculously small.

      All of these products launched before the first Greenpeace chest-thumping.

      You see them making changes after, I see them continuing a trend started well before.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    60. Re:the media is lazy by davester666 · · Score: 1

      > John Dvorak is bad for the environment?!!!

      YES! Albeit, less so now that he posts to the internet instead of print...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    61. Re:the media is lazy by argiedot · · Score: 1

      My mistake. I'm not on the Apple side here. I meant to say that the story claims that the problem is Greenpeace going after Apple and making that out to me. Also, ha ha :D

    62. Re:the media is lazy by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm typing this from a Dell running Gutsy Gibbon.

      That's a little improbable. Dell generally doesn't do well in the consumer market, and their products are usually frowned upon by the computer literate; their main sales are corporate, and the few consumer sales they manage are generally via corporate discount programs. And while many Dells run GNU/Linux, the vast majority of these are servers, not desktops; they certainly aren't running Ubuntu.

      I don't know of anyone outside of the Mac community who immediately think of Dell when they're trying to name a PC brand. They're unlikely to come across a Dell in a retail outlet (it was big news when one of the major Office* chains announced a contract to sell the things - generally you'll not find anything outside of Lenovo/IBM, Gateway, HP, and a few like Toshiba and Sony bringing up the rear, in actual brick-and-mortar stores.)

      You picked the most unlikely brand/OS combination, something designed to look as un-Mac like as possible, but only from the point of view of a Mac zealot. It's slightly possible it's true, in that you might have ordered through a corporate discount program and put Ubuntu on it yourself, but then, why? Why would you, a Slashdotter, have willingly purchased some of the most over-priced, uninteresting, ugly hardware in the industry? The chances are at least 100:1 against.

      I believe the chances are more than 99% that you made up that combination to further the pretense that you're not a Mac user, when, in fact, you are.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    63. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FAIL.

      (he was being sarcastic)

    64. Re:the media is lazy by xappax · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace and PETA are on my list of unethical extremist organizations,

      While it's good that you refuse to "believe the hype", it's concerning when people are excessively enthusiastic about disbelieving hype that's not in line with what they want to believe, and oddly silent about the hype that conforms to their attitudes and beliefs.

      It's absolutely fair and responsible to call Greenpeace out for dishonest/unethical behavior, but calling only Greenpeace out specifically carries with it a questionable implication: that the argument on the other side is genuine and trustworthy.

      I think it's important to remember that all massive bureaucratic, money-seeking institutions behave like this. Neither Apple nor Greenpeace is an exception, but it's possible that Greenpeace may sometimes make some valid and important points in spite of its institutional nature. Those points should be dealt with rationally, as opposed to discarded outright simply because of who said them.

    65. Re:the media is lazy by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      That's a little improbable.

      Thanks for making my morning. :-)

      But alas, yeah, it's the truth. Here I sit at work pecking away next to a boring black PC case hooked to a boring black monitor with boring black speakers. At least I have my beige Model M keyboard to break up the monotony (which is something you probably don't hear often (although you definitely hear the keyboard itself)).

      I'd take a picture of me holding a "HI SQUIGGLESLASH" Sharpie sign, but I haven't gotten Bluetooth working yet. Actually, that fact alone should give me some Linux cred.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    66. Re:the media is lazy by shantipole · · Score: 1

      Bob Hunter, one of the founders of Greenpeace called this tactic setting off "mind bombs."
      The goal is to get people talking about the bigger issue by attacking a high profile target and the iPhone is about as high profile as you can get.

    67. Re:the media is lazy by lpevey · · Score: 1

      I think it would have been more hypocritical for them not to have admitted that they were picking on Apple. Of course they picked their target so as to get the widest possible audience for their message. Anyone trying to raise public awareness about anything would do that.

    68. Re:the media is lazy by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 1

      No, the attention is the means to the end. The end they seek is getting money they didn't earn.

      You have made this allegation several times in this thread. Please see here for the sources of Greenpeace's funding.

    69. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The submitters moral indignation is a bit hard to stomach. How can it be "logical" and "not surprising" while at the same time being "cavalier" and even "hypocritical.""

      You're kidding right? You must not handle complexity well. Then again, this is /.

      Logic has to do with the reasoning why it's done. Logic has crap to do surprise or attitudes.

      Not surprising has to do with the trend that such attention-grabbing entities employ; maybe disingenuous would be a better word here, as corporations as well as groups like the ACLU have employed these tactics more and more.

      Cavaliar has to do with how they passed it off in their explanation; a lack of honor in intentions, and actually corresponds well with the "not surprising," disingenuous attitude.

      Hypocritical, in turn, goes well with the previous two.

      iow, it may be logical to try this, because it does grab headlines, but it lacks honor, inventiveness, and frankly ends up pissing people off and pushes them off message. See the NY Times MoveOn.org General Petreus ad for an example.

      "What's hypocritical about stating the obvious truth?"

      Again, the hypocrisy isn't just the tactic, but mainly focused on looking at big companies instead of all purveyors of such bad environmental practices.

      There are multitudes of other such hypocrisies, such as going after minorities harder for breaking the same laws as whites, granting exceptions to police officers for beating people, etc. Yes, it happens, it's a tactic, but it's hypocritical because it isn't right. (And why we have such things as the 14th amendment, due process, etc.)

      "They are only being frank and declaring the truth that they are a pro-environmental publicity company"

      Funny. Greenpeace is supposed to be pro-environment, PERIOD. And even your own description is inaccurate--they're a SELECTIVE pro-environmental publicity company.

      iow, if you're a small fry company dumping stuff, you can get away with it. Just like in current society, if you're a kid who gets killed or you kill a cop, there's a manhunt and you're declared evil. But if you kill your husband by shooting him in the back, lie, you get out of jail in under 2 years. There's certainly logic to describe these events or processes, but that doesn't mean they aren't full of hypocrisy when the central issue (environment, human life) is fully considered.

    70. Re:the media is lazy by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Ok, the mere mention of a Model M makes the story believable. I'm sorry I ever doubted your story ;-)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    71. Re:the media is lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they blew some other people's ships up

      I think you are confused. One of their ships was blown up by the French secret service.

      Greenpeace doesn't go around blowing anything up. Permanent property damage is against their company charter. They do stiff like putting themselves in the line of fire between whalers and their prey, or going into areas the Russians want to use to test nukes (which is how Greenpeace originated), and lot of symbolic stuff like hoisting banners. This is the group which broke tossed out a member who threw a sealer's club into the sea (the guy in question, Paul Watson went on to found a radical group instead).

      The worst thing GP would have done is to attach a banner to your vessel. Scary stuff!

      Is it possible I was misinformed by a government hostile to Greenpeace?

      You are misinformed. But whether you were misinformed by anyone, whether the government or otherwise, is not for me to say.

    72. Re:the media is lazy by Lord+Flipper · · Score: 1

      Sarcasm aside, it can indeed hurt their stock price, causing problems for its millions of owners

      Yes, well, misplaced concerns aside, Apple stock hit 52-week highs every day since the Greenpeace 'problem'. Next.

    73. Re:the media is lazy by epine · · Score: 1

      Sarcasm aside, it can indeed hurt their stock price, causing problems for its millions of owners (through mutual funds in 401Ks, etc). If the stock price goes down because some shareholders sell off their shares as a result of a Greenpeace press release, then that's what the remaining shareholders deserve for purchasing shares in a company whose departing shareholders were complete idiots.

      The underlying value of the company (as opposed to the daily price ripple) is not damaged unless the negative PR convinces consumers not to buy Apple's products. There are many concerned organizations out there that would be happy to see the consumeristic lifestyle taken down a peg or two. It strikes me that the people opposed to this lifestyle are in no way beholden to the shareholders of the companies that exist to promote this lifestyle.

      If the negative PR is unlawful, Apple can sue. As far as I'm aware, there is no law which states that if I claim company A sells a destructive product, and company B sells the same destructive product, that I'm obliged to dish out my criticism in precise proportions to their relative market caps.

      Apple's being punished for being well-liked. Of course, you're right. Let's go back to the classroom model where everyone decided to hate the same fat girl (or pock-faced sniveller), whom we all targetted because we all hated her, therefore she deserved it.

      That's not fair or justifiable in any society I'd care to be a part of. No, Apple is actually being targetted because the company aims to position itself as the world's most powerful brand communicating the value system of silky-smooth candy-lickable instant gratification.

      That's entirely fair and justifiable in any society I'd care to be a part of. I believe the world would be a far better place with less cool and more critical thinking.
    74. Re:the media is lazy by HanzoSpam · · Score: 1

      Can we for once agree to discuss an environmental group without resorting to mean-spirited playground humor?

      No.

      --

      Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
  4. hit them where it hurts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple needs hit them where it hurts, the wallet.

    1. Re:hit them where it hurts by jours · · Score: 3, Funny

      > Apple needs hit them where it hurts, the wallet.

      We're talking about Greenpeace here. Hitting them where it hurts means pulling Phish from iTunes.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
  5. Why? by HBI · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Greenpeace has been pulling stunts like this for publicity since the 1980s, why should it surprise you that they are alarmist and seeking headlines by bashing one company in particular?

    Regardless if you agree with their goals or not, they left credibility behind a long time ago.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:Why? by FiniteElementalist · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Doesn't surprise me in the least.

      Greenpeace is one of those "environmental" organizations that uses the issue of the environment as a trojan horse for other social or political causes. The positions of the political environmentalists is often regardless of or sometimes even contrary to real environmental problems or their solutions.

      I'm not excluding rational environmentalism from the discourse, I'm just of the opinion that Greenpeace has very little of it.

    2. Re:Why? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Well, it must not have worked very well for Greenpeace, I never heard of it before this.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    3. Re:Why? by Nephilium · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The problem is that rational environmentalism has seemingly fallen to the wayside to be replaced by anti-globalization activists (who use the technology they decry in order to organize) and luddites who want to get rid of all technology after period X (where X equals their idea of the human ideal).

      Nephilium

    4. Re:Why? by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 1

      Um.. No.

      Greenpeace is about the environment - you can argue about the effectiveness of their actions but to say its a cover for something else is tinfoil-hat-esque.

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    5. Re:Why? by timmarhy · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace stopped being about the environment a long long time ago. All they ever do is target large corperations and blame them for the world's ill's. They have this staggering anti business bias, you'd have to have your head up your ass not to see it.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    6. Re:Why? by Reaperducer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Regardless if you agree with their goals or not, they left credibility behind a long time ago.
      No kidding. On Michigan Avenue and State Street in Chicago Greenpeace deploys brainwashed high school kids begging for money in the streets like common vagrants. It doesn't cast their "movement" in the best light.

      How about Greenpeace gives back to average hard working Joes the money its little stock-panicing publicity stunts suck out of retirement accounts?
      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
    7. Re:Why? by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 1

      This might seem like a huge cognitive jump but large corporations usually cause large amounts of pollution. This is bad for the environment hence greenpeace is involved.

      As for the "Anti-business bias" - they are an activist group for god's sake not a centrist party! Their aim is not to balance economies but to raise awareness of a single issue - the environment and nothing else!

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    8. Re:Why? by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      you just confirmed everything i said - they are nothing but a anti corperate group without any sense of responsibility.

      If they really gave a shit about the environment they would be trying to HELP big business develop cleaner ways to deliever their products. Instead they do nothing but go on the attack, achieving zero gain for the environment.

      it's also very telling that they ignore any issue that doesn't involve big business.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    9. Re:Why? by largesnike · · Score: 1

      ummm do you also communicate with the Andromedans?

      --
      "Laugh while you can a-monkey boy!" - Dr Emilio Lizardo
    10. Re:Why? by humina · · Score: 1

      The problem is that rational environmentalism has seemingly fallen to the wayside to be replaced by anti-globalization activists (who use the technology they decry in order to organize) and luddites who want to get rid of all technology after period X (where X equals their idea of the human ideal). I think you are generalizing based on a small sample size. I know quite a few environmentalists who fall in neither of your two camps.
      --
      check out the best blog ever:
      http://oehlberg.com
    11. Re:Why? by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      Ugh, we have Greenpeace people handing out things on the side of the street here, and I treat them with the same disdain I treat the scientologists doing the same just a bit further down the street. Brainwashed is brainwashed, whether it's intergalactic alien overlords or saving the whales...

    12. Re:Why? by largesnike · · Score: 1

      it's also very telling that they ignore any issue that doesn't involve big business. Which is complete bullshit, of course. They've spent a lot of resources on anti-whaling and the Australian contingent pretty much blocked the Gordon-franklin Dam from going ahead in Tasmania. Both environmental causes, where the enemies are governments, not businesses. But let's ignore facts and get on with the ranting!
      --
      "Laugh while you can a-monkey boy!" - Dr Emilio Lizardo
    13. Re:Why? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

      So far as I'm concerned, if you give money to Greenpeace you might as well write a check to PETA. Neither of them have any real value to the movements of which they are supposedly a part, given that they are part money-grubber and part fruitcake.

      Responsible environmentalism involves accepting a few facts: one, people want and need finished goods and other products. Two, industry produces those things. Three, industry is not going to go away no matter how "ungreen" it may be. The only hope of achieving a global industrial base that can be maintained indefinitely is through improved processes and superior technology. That requires continuous and substantial investment from both the government and private sectors.

      Public bitching may "raise awareness", and I suppose that's a good thing, but it doesn't do squat in terms of real improvement. The people who will do that are the research scientists and engineers that build our production lines and recycling systems. If you want them to have the opportunity, you have to work with business leaders and convince them to make the investment. That means showing them how an environmentally-sound approach can be economically viable, because their assumption will most likely be that it isn't. And you know what? There are plenty of real environmentalists who do just that ... but they aren't the ones who care about headlines and tax-deductible donations. They're also the ones that I tend to respect more.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    14. Re:Why? by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You'll probably never hand out anything in your life. Because you'll probably never believe in any cause enough to get out and do anything about it. Instead you'll just sit there selfishly sucking down all the resources you can, and complaining about people who take action to try to better their world. And you'll manage to maintain an unjustified feeling of superiority about the whole thing. Enjoy your small mind.

    15. Re:Why? by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 1

      I think you misunderstand the role of activist organisations. They stir up the media so as to put pressure on companies and governments to do more for the environment.

      Your claim that greenpeace does nothing to help businesses develop cleaner technology is outright wrong - The greenpeace think-tank does just that with the aim to cause as least disruption to normal practices.

      Check out their wikipedia page to get a full grasp of what they do.

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    16. Re:Why? by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Do you? or do you actually 'just' know environmentally-minded regular people?

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    17. Re:Why? by humina · · Score: 1
      You speak of greenpeace with platitudes that reflect your personal impression of the organization. There is no proof presented and your ability to get modded interesting for basically stating that you don't like greenpeace is unfortunately far too indicative of slashdot modding.

      Greenpeace is one of those "environmental" organizations that uses the issue of the environment as a trojan horse for other social or political causes. How does greenpeace push other social or political causes? Are they a secret communist or fascist orginization that will some day see the spread of their hidden ideology by use of environmental protests. I think your tinfoil hat needs adjusting.
      --
      check out the best blog ever:
      http://oehlberg.com
    18. Re:Why? by coredog64 · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace needs to take a page out of the Ralph Nader playbook and sell Apple short ahead of making these accusations. Then they
      won't need to have high school kids begging for money.

    19. Re:Why? by saforrest · · Score: 1

      The problem is that rational environmentalism has seemingly fallen to the wayside to be replaced by anti-globalization activists (who use the technology they decry in order to organize) and luddites who want to get rid of all technology after period X (where X equals their idea of the human ideal).

      Wow, those are some very broad strokes! Try a thinner paintbrush; the lines will come out a lot cleaner.

    20. Re:Why? by mr_josh · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, the most popular opinion is often the one which is screamed the loudest. Just so happens that Greenpeace has a pretty good set of lungs (read: PR machine.)

    21. Re:Why? by mosb1000 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      You don't have to be a tin foil hatter to see that green peace does not promote polices that will lead to an improved human condition. For one thing, they routinely target the electronics industry, probably the cleanest industry around. Not only do electronics make our lives better by organizing information and promoting communication, but they make industry itself more efficient. But it is targeted by green peace because that's where the money is, and it's easy to promote fear when new technology is involved.

      Another good example is GMOs. Green-peace is always decrying pesticides, but then the come out against GMOs. WTF? The whole point of GMOs is that you won't have to use pesticides anymore!!!! If green peace cares about the environment, they should be all for GMOs, right? Please don't reply to this post with some nonsense about round-up ready corn, it's still better than the alternative.

      Probably the best example is nuclear power. Nuclear power does not emit pollution into the environment, period. That's good, right? But no, green peace is completely against it. What the hell is going on?!?

      This supposedly environmentalist organization is always coming out against new technologies that will improve environmental quality. I'll tell you what, either they don't know anything about the environment, or they are not an environmentalist organization. I'm not going to speculate what their motives and intentions are, but either way they're a menace to society.

    22. Re:Why? by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But let's ignore facts and get on with the ranting!

      I can see that you've taken the lead in that.

      Can you point to Greenpeace taking any of the communist governments to task for their appalling environmental record? How about any peep of protest when Saddam Hussein ordered the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields?

      Just like PETA and Scientology, Greenpeace exists to 1) make money, and 2) to make more money.

      They only target big corporations, because corporations will usually pay them to fuck off. Governments won't do that, and occasionally a government will even go so far as to sink a boat. I notice that we haven't heard much about Greenpeace mixing it up with the French in the last couple of decades.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    23. Re:Why? by adminstring · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I sincerely hope that you are trolling and do not seriously believe that:

      (1) the mishandling of lead, solvents, beryllium, and other substances used in the manufacture of electronic devices is not a serious environmental problem which has led to death, disease, and birth defects in this country and others,

      (2) genetically modifying crops so that they can survive massive doses of herbicides (such as Roundup) which eventually run off into our waterways cannot possibly cause serious environmental problems in downstream ecosystems, and

      (3) Thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste from reactors which will be deadly for longer than our lifetimes do not in fact exist.

      Either way, I'm impressed by the extremity of your statements.

      --
      My truck is like a series of tubes.
    24. Re:Why? by mwlewis · · Score: 1

      The only hope of achieving a global industrial base that can be maintained indefinitely is through improved processes and superior technology. That requires continuous and substantial investment from both the government and private sectors.
      Your second sentence dances around the other thing required beyond the processes and technology: customers wealthy enough to be willing and able to pay for it.
      --
      JOIN US FOR PONG!
    25. Re:Why? by cliffski · · Score: 1

      I think you are getting this way wrong. Lets say Greenpeace taregt 5 companies:
      NobdyTech
      TinyComp
      NowhereTech
      Apple!
      ZeroTech

      Which press release do you think the newspaper magazines print?
      You are assuming that the fact that claims against 'look at us we are perfect and innocent' apple becomes the headline is greenpeaces fault, whereas in fact its probably just as likely to be editorial, and done so because people want tor ead about companies they have heard of.
      Blame the editors, blame the readers, or blame apple, but blaming greenpeace for releasing information about a public company just seems petty.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    26. Re:Why? by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      I think you have no grasp of the direction green peace has taken, and will continue to refuse to admit it.

      Do you really expect the greenpeace wiki sway anyone? i mean get real. I googled for greenpeace think tank and i came up with nothing, so they can't exactly be pumping out the idea's can they.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    27. Re:Why? by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      Thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste from reactors which will be deadly for longer than our lifetimes do not in fact exist.
      Repeat after me, if nuclear waste is "hot"(ie emitting lots of ionizing radiation) it won't stay that way for far longer than our lifetimes (approx. 76 yrs). If it did we would use such material for fuel in a nuclear reactor, not just dump it out. Now, the stuff with half lives listed in thousands of years doesn't produce much radiation so get over yourself, and try not to think about the carbon 14 slowly decaying inside your body.

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
    28. Re:Why? by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      The electronics industry has learnt as it went along. Electronic control systems tend to be more accurate than the mechanical systems they replaced. For example, a central heating boiler with fully-sequenced electronic ignition uses about half as much gas as one with a pilot burner.

      Simple solution to the GMO issues would be international laws making living organisms unpatentable, and mandating that any "intellectual property" inherent in DNA belongs non-transferrably to the organism in which it occurs. This would prevent misuse of GM technology to force farmers to buy new seed each year rather than replanting seed from one year's crop the next year, or to create pesticide-resistant crops rather than pest-resistant crops; because as long as one company somewhere was selling pest-resistant, reseedable crop seeds with no way legally to block them, neither terminating nor pesticide-requiring crop seeds could ever be economically viable.

      Nuclear waste wouldn't be an issue if reactors were designed primarily to generate power for civilian purposes, rather than weapons-grade radioactive material with power generation as merely a useful by-product. A reactor designed along "civilians-first" lines would consume the fuel as completely as possible, leaving mostly lead and materials with half-lives so long they could be mistaken at first glance for stable. Remember, a long half-life means "not very radioactive". It's the stuff with a short half-life you need to steer clear of (but not for so long).

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    29. Re:Why? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Right wing "pro life" advocates who seem to have no problem supporting a war in which innocent people are dieing every day spring to mind.

      No to derail the conversation too much, but you make it sound like the pro-war movement want the US military to just go to a country and shoot people for no reason. The general belief of the pro-war movement is that US involvement in Iraq is the lesser of two evils-- that is, by using our military as a stabilizing force *fewer* innocent people are dying than if we left and let the country degrade into civil war (which is a near-certainty, considering how weak the central government is.)

      Pro-war and anti-war factions both want the same result: fewer people to be killed. They just disagree on which people (Americans vs. Iraqis) and how to best accomplish it.

    30. Re:Why? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      Can you point to Greenpeace taking any of the communist governments to task for their appalling environmental record?
      YES. In fact, just google for 'china' and 'greenpeace', and your overarching thesis (that Greenpeace ignores governmental misdeeds) is proven false.

      How about any peep of protest when Saddam Hussein ordered the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields?
      I was surprised to find anything on teh Int3rw3bz regarding what Greenpeace was doing in 1991. But it turns out that they did in fact consider the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields serious enough to warrant amending the Geneva Convention to turn such acts into war crimes. source

      The eBay ad underneath? "Looking for Civil War War Crimes? Find exactly what you want today. www.eBay.com"

      Also, Greenpeace scientists were in Kuwait in the months after its liberation, monitoring the air quality.

      Is that the "any peep" you were looking for? Are you so blinded by your hatred of Greenpeace, that you would automatically assume that they'd ignore one of the biggest environmental disasters of the 20th century, simply because Saddam Hussein wasn't a prime target for extortion?

      The fact is, every one of the issues they're tackling right now requires the cooperation of government and the private sector. According to their recent press releases, they've gone after non-corporate entities including Democratic Congresscritter Dingell, the Brazilian government, the World Bank, the Bush Administration, and pretty much every NIMBY bastard standing in the way of the Cape Wind Project.

      Remind me, what was your point?
      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

    31. Re:Why? by jcr · · Score: 1

      Are you so blinded by your hatred of Greenpeace, that you would automatically assume that they'd ignore one of the biggest environmental disasters of the 20th century, simply because Saddam Hussein wasn't a prime target for extortion?

      I went to their web site, and searched for "kuwait oil fire", and got nada. Seems like greenpeace doesn't think they did anything significant about that disaster. Proabably because they didn't.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    32. Re:Why? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      This is an awful line of reasoning.

      It's one thing to point out that the long-lived stuff isn't particularly hot, and that the hot stuff isn't particularly long-lived. You're saying something orders of magnitude more stupid: that nuclear material is useful for as long as it's unsafe, and safe once it's no longer useful. I don't think you'll find much to back you up on this.

      Once the waste of the nuclear industry is so low-level that fifty pounds of the stuff wouldn't make a good dirty bomb, maybe you'll have a leg to stand on.

      Plus, you're arrogant if you think that only serious thinkers such as yourself grasp the concept of "background radiation levels". If you're going to go after unavoidable sources of radiation, you could at least use Potassium-40 in your scaremongering (which gives us about 40 times as big a dose of radiation as carbon-14).

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

    33. Re:Why? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      1) Would you please define "rational environmentalism"?

      2) When have "anti-globalism activists" ever decried the Internet, the SMS text messaging protocol, etc.?

      3) I'm certain that I'm much better informed about what modern environmentalist groups are actually saying than you are, and I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever heard someone claim that all technologies after [INSERT YEAR HERE] should be abandoned. Prove me wrong.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

    34. Re:Why? by Asic+Eng · · Score: 1
      I don't follow your logic. Your complaint is that (in your perception) Greenpeace is not making as many appeals to evil dictatorships as they do to democratic governments. Let's assume that's true for the sake of the argument. Why would you think that's a valid complaint? It would appear that democratic governments by definition can be influenced by the will of the people and are therefore more susceptible to moral appeals. If the political leaders themselves are not - at least the population is, and the leaders have to cave to public opinion at least some of the time. Evil dictatorships by definition are not moral, hence moral appeals to them would appear to be rather unlikely to have an effect. Similarly per definition as dictatorships the opinion of the population is less relevant to them.

      So your complaint would be essentially, that Greenpeace is not engaging in something which has not the remotest chance of success. Now does Greenpeace claim to be a fair judge of everyone's environmental record - or does it claim to be a group of environmental activists who want to change things according to their own agenda? If it was the first, then you'd have a point. I don't think that applies, though.

    35. Re:Why? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I give you two specific links that demonstrate Greenpeace's involvement, and this is your response? Because a magic search string failed to uncover documentation of an event that likely preceded their website by at least half a decade, that they must not have been involved in it?

      Shoddy. The institutional memory of the Internet as a whole is about five years. Lots of things happened in the early nineties that aren't easily googlable.

      Your evidence of their disinterest is slim at best. But let me ask you, what would you need to see, in order to change your mind? Obviously, the involvement I demonstrated isn't enough for you. If Greenpeace activists had flooded Kuwait and chained themselves to the oil wells, do you think they could have prevented it? Or would the Iraqi army have simply lit the wells anyways? What pressure could Greenpeace have put on Hussein, to make the situation any better?

      For that matter, what pressure could they have put on the U.S., or Kuwait? The U.S. was already doing everything in its power to get the oil fires under control. If you think that Greenpeace's reaction was somehow inadequate, tell us what they should have done.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

    36. Re:Why? by mcvos · · Score: 1

      Can you point to Greenpeace taking any of the communist governments to task for their appalling environmental record? How about any peep of protest when Saddam Hussein ordered the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields?

      I'm afraid Greenpeace membership is very low in communist countries, and the opinion of the western public (which is basically the only weapon in Greenpeace's arsenal) has a negligible effect on those governments. Besides, that opinion was never very high in the first place. I also doubt Saddam would have cared very much about Greenpeace's opinion, and if he cared so much about the opinion of Europeans and Americans, I think history would have looked quite a bit different from how it currently does.

      They only target big corporations, because corporations will usually pay them to fuck off.

      Unfortunately for those corporations, Greenpeace doesn't take their money.

      Governments won't do that, and occasionally a government will even go so far as to sink a boat. I notice that we haven't heard much about Greenpeace mixing it up with the French in the last couple of decades.

      Then you haven't been paying attention. Greenpeace most certainly did protest against Chirac's nuclear tests.

    37. Re:Why? by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      "the mishandling of lead, solvents, beryllium, and other substances used in the manufacture of electronic devices is not a serious environmental problem which has led to death, disease, and birth defects in this country and others,"

      Okay, most microelectronics facilities are zero discharge, meaning that they do not discharge industrial wastewater. They generate almost no air pollution. Even if they dumped everything, they make small components, so the environmental impact would be insignificant compared to, say, a textile mill or a concrete batch plant. My claim was not that there is no environmental impact, but you need to face the reality that you do more environmental damage when you flush your toilet than when you buy an iPhone.

      "genetically modifying crops so that they can survive massive doses of herbicides (such as Roundup) which eventually run off into our waterways cannot possibly cause serious environmental problems in downstream ecosystems, and"

      Well, normally, they use selective herbicides which tend to be persistent and toxic to humans. Roundup is not toxic to humans, and is not persistent in the environment (it is also inexpensive). So, yeah, round-up ready is good for the environment. Plus, use of round-up ready means that less land has to be cultivated to produce the same amount of food, so it reduces the environmental footprint over organic farming. P.S. the major source of sown stream pollution in conventional farming is fertilizer, not herbicides or pesticides. But GMOs can help with nitrogen fixing as well, and a lot or research is being done in that area.

      "Thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste from reactors which will be deadly for longer than our lifetimes do not in fact exist."

      High level nuclear waste is comprised of trans-uranics that actually produce a low level of radiation, but are long lived. These materials are useful as nuclear fuel, and should be reused, but green-peace does not advocate fuel reprocessing. No matter what you say, thousands of tons of radioactive waste buried in the earth is better than billions of tons of pollution vented directly in the atmosphere. Less environmental damage is better, I don't know why that is so hard to understand.

    38. Re:Why? by adminstring · · Score: 1

      Electronics can of course be used in many ways to help solve environmental problems, but that is a separate issue from the environmental problems caused by their production and disposal. Unfortunately, since lately both of these processes have tended to happen more in China, US citizens are much less able to influence their environmental impact than if it all happened here. The fact that the worst electronic-related pollution occurs in someone else's back yard leads many Americans to assume that electronics are a lot less harmful to the environment than they are. Even so, pollution from high-tech manufacturing has given Silicon Valley the greatest concentration of Superfund sites in the nation.

      The only entities with enough cash and willpower to get international laws passed are multinational corporations. They make more money on "terminator" crops than on naturally-reproducing ones, and they make more money on patentable crops than on public-domain crops. Therefore, I don't anticipate GMO's being reigned in by international laws any time soon.

      It's important to understand that the point of arrangements like the WTO is to take sovereignty away from national governments and put questions of what gets produced where, by whom, and with what environmental impact solely in the hands of multinational corporations (which they call "the free market" although it does not resemble at all the free market described by Adam Smith.) Posters in previous threads have complained that Greenpeace works against globalization; I assume that the reason Greenpeace does this is because once the world is "globalized," or in the hands of the multinationals, there is no possibility for democratic action to improve environmental conditions at the national level because a "globalized" world leaves no real power at the national level. And while I trust the US government about as far as I can throw it, I trust multinational corporations even less. The Federal government is a necessary evil which we need as a countervailing force, and to whatever extent we can remove corporate influence and increase citizen influence over the government, it will be a more effective countervailing force.

      There are of course much cleaner designs for nuclear reactors on the drawing boards, which could produce a small fraction of the waste of the current 1970s-era plants. There are also some great renewable energy ideas out there languishing for lack of funds. If we took the 200 billion we're spending in our unsuccessful attempt to colonize Iraq and spent it instead on developing high-efficiency solar systems, I bet we'd make some serious progress (and probably considerably fewer people would be killed or injured.) That 200 billion would equal 13 times the amount spent on solar research by the Federal government since the 1950s. Dominating and draining the world's oil supplies is a simple and wrong solution to meeting our energy needs. We need to work smarter than that.

      --
      My truck is like a series of tubes.
    39. Re:Why? by adminstring · · Score: 1

      I don't think that the environmental impact of me flushing my toilet is quite as great as the production of an iphone. TFA refers to a Greenpeace article in which certain hazardous substances, which other cellphone manufacturers have stopped using, were found in the iPhone. My latest turd, on the other hand, is comprised entirely of recycled Twizzlers, which contain none of these hazardous substances. The 1.6 gallons of water used by the toilet ends up getting re-used to irrigate a nearby park.

      There are a number of studies which find that Roundup is both persistent in the environment and toxic to humans. The EPA calls it "extremely persistent under typical application conditions" and epidemiological studies have linked it to miscarriages, premature birth, and lymphoma. A number of these studies are summarized in a Journal of Pesticide Reform article reprinted here. I'd prefer to see us grow crops less densely on more land using fewer poisons, and stop exporting so much subsidized food that we're destroying the third world's ability to feed itself through local agriculture.

      I agree that next-generation nuclear electricity generation could be much cleaner than using fossil fuels. As long as we're getting all the electricity we can from renewable resources like solar and wind, there's no reason to let nuclear's past keep us from giving it a shot in the future. Greenpeace are being fuddy-duddies on this issue and should open their minds to the possibility that the right kind of nuclear power can be better than the oil power it could replace.

      --
      My truck is like a series of tubes.
    40. Re:Why? by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      It's one thing to point out that the long-lived stuff isn't particularly hot, and that the hot stuff isn't particularly long-lived.
      Hmmm, let me see in my own post, "Repeat after me, if nuclear waste is "hot"(ie emitting lots of ionizing radiation) it won't stay that way for far longer than our lifetimes (approx. 76 yrs)." Ok, check. You're saying something orders of magnitude more stupid: that nuclear material is useful for as long as it's unsafe, and safe once it's no longer useful. I don't think you'll find much to back you up on this.
      Hold on a minute, did you buy one of those mats with conclusions written on them that you could jump on? My statement after the quoted statement was more along the lines of highly radioactive waste has other uses besides fuel thus it isn't just thrown out. As for arrogance, well Mr. Pot, I have a Mr. Kettle for you on line two he would like to tell you something. And I wasn't scaremongering, I was scaremocking, that's were I mock the irrational fears of the RADIATION will kill you and everyone you love if it had the chance crowd. Strangely fitting given the orginal topic was Greenpeace admits to mediawhoring, since nothing sells papers like fear, the more irrational the better.

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
    41. Re:Why? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I can't find anything you've said that gives me a moment's comfort. Just because there exists a class of substances whose radiation emissions are high enough to be useful, we don't actually have to be worried about storing nuclear waste over the long haul?

      The stuff bears the name "high level *WASTE*" for a reason: nobody has a use for it. According to Wikipedia, the worldwide production of this waste is about 12,000 tons a year. As yet, we have no long-term solution for storing all that waste. Yucca mountain is controversial, since it may not be as geologically inert as once believed, and it will fill up quickly. Plus it will have to be guarded for thousands of years in order to keep dirty bomb materials out of the hands of malcontents.

      Nuclear waste is a serious concern, one we haven't come close to solving. If you think that industry can repurpose all that spent fuel, you're wrong. If that's not what you're arguing, then your reasoning is flawed. If some material could be repurposed (a tricky task, given the need to keep such material out of the wrong hands), the rest still presents some thorny storage problems.

      All the preceding ignores the problem of intermediate-level nuclear waste, which doesn't emit useful amounts of radiation, but is still very dangerous if it contaminates your surroundings. There's lots of the stuff, from a wide variety of sources (not just the nuclear energy industry). The nukes-first crowd also ignores the non-radioactive but still lethal tailings that are left over when uranium is mined.

      To be brief, you seem to have this facile idea that, if a substance has a long half-life, then it doesn't have significant health risks. Plutonium-239 has a half life of 24,100 years, but I doubt you'd willingly keep a ball of the stuff in your apartment. These substances often have health effects that arise from their chemical properties; uranium will destroy your kidneys long before it gives you cancer.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  6. Hypocritical of Slashdot? by filterban · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some might argue that Slashdot is just as guilty as Greenpeace of using Apple's success to grab headlines / make money.

    Personally, I don't really care, because we're all in it to make or raise money. PETA says and does offensive things to grab headlines, the WWE does, and 90% of the articles on CNN and even Digg are sensationalist headlines designed to get you to "click through".

    Who cares?

    --
    rm -rf /
    1. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 1

      The WWE does

      Yup. I remember Vince McMahon lampooning Miracle Whip for its high fat content.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    2. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by Nazlfrag · · Score: 1

      ...the WWE does...

      In the red corner, weighing in at 32 pounds, he's the green machine, the beatnik who wont quit, the artist of alarmist, it's the Vegan Warrior!

      And in the blue corner, weighing in at 400 pounds, it's the executive with a directive, when he's not pollutin' he's retributin', Mac the Litigator!

      LET'S GET RRREADY TO RRRRRRRUUUMBLE!!

    3. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Informative

      Some might argue that Slashdot is just as guilty as Greenpeace of using Apple's success to grab headlines / make money.
      It's this blog that's trying to grab headlines by slamming Greenpeace. I kept reading and reading the GreenPeace response looking for the outrageous part, and all I saw was them standing by their analysis of the iPhone and concern over bromine.

      Finally, in the last sentence of the article, I read "While it might not make as many headlines as the iPhone it doesn't mean that we are not focusing on all manufacturers to remove toxic chemicals from their products."

      THAT'S IT!??

      Come off it. Apple is the poster child for high-tech consumerism right now, and has invested heavily to reach that status - so they get the brunt of the criticism as well. BFD.

    4. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by sco08y · · Score: 1

      Some might argue that Slashdot is just as guilty as Greenpeace of using Apple's success to grab headlines / make money.

      But /. at least tries to be honest about it, and the editors seem sincerely interested in Apple and their customers. That lacks the element of rank hypocrisy that Greenpeace's actions have.

    5. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by EveLibertine · · Score: 1

      A lot of people care. A lot of people care about the issues that these organizations purport to promote, only to find illogical misrepresentation of the facts.
      For most of these people, there is enough wrongdoing on the parts of various businesses and industries for these organizations to not have to make up fake issues.

      I know the nature of the actions here don't seem surprising, and even make a lot of sense if you look at it from a perspective of pure promotional marketing or something. But it is unnecessary to trade credibility for all of it, and that's the issue that is getting people riled up. If you assume that these organizations just want to sell pamphlets then these actions make sense, but if you assume that they're trying to affect change then it is all very counterintuitive.

    6. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by porcupine8 · · Score: 1
      I think it's a bit more insidious when groups like Greenpeace and PeTA (both of whom use this as their usual MO) do it than when entertainment companies do it - maybe even worse than when news sites do it. When GP and PeTA spout nonsense and slather it all over billboards and in flyers they hand out in elementary schools, they are doing it a) under the guise of a nonprofit corporation, paying no taxes on what is essentially a giant publicity/fundraising scam and b) claiming to represent those who care about (the environment, animals). B leads to people thinking that all people who care about X, or at least all who go out and do something about it actively, are as crazy as these groups. This prevents many levelheaded people who would agree with the broader movements from getting involved, because they don't realize that the majority of people involved are sane and do NOT support either of these organizations.

      Basically, they manage to do more harm than good for the causes they claim to support, while getting a huge tax write-off for all of it. Yes, news companies pull the wool over people's eyes when they get sensationalistic, but at least they generally don't have any kind of protected status while they do it.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    7. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      I do. When truth can be dismissed because of some greater good chances are that in the end nothing good can come of it. The simple truth is that Greenpeace is now better than Fox News.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    8. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by EveLibertine · · Score: 1

      Apple also isn't as green as they'd like you to believe, but they definitely should fall short of grabbing the attention of GreenPeace.

    9. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh come on. Greenpeace is the worst of the cynical capitalists. Only their members think it's about the environment. The power structure is all about power and money, and the environment is just a nice excuse.

    10. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      He he. Comparing PETA and the WWE. I like it.

    11. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by thelamecamel · · Score: 1
      There was at least one unreasonable paragraph in there:

      Despite current EU regulations being the most stringent in the world, these regulations do not cover all kinds of hazardous chemicals, including all BFRs. It is surely reasonable to expect that an industry which prides itself on innovation should be well ahead of the curve on issues as fundamental as the use of hazardous substances.
      1) Even dihydrogen-monoxide is toxic in large enough quantities. Everything is hazardous to some extent, and we just have to live with it - is it better to focus on eliminating hazardous chemicals instead of, say, decreasing power consumption? Depends on how hazardous the chemicals are.

      2) Cutting edge industries traditionally are environmentally unfriendly - first you get the damn thing to work, then you get it to work cleanly, efficiently, and cheaply.

    12. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In this case, that's it with regards to this story. Gizmodo's spin on that line to get this attention is quite hypocritical.

      But when GP bitched about the MacBook, they complained about a relatively benign substance when they let other makers off for using more toxic substances. They praised Dell & HP for promising to get rid of a certain substance from new computers at a certain date while ignoring that Apple had already stopped using it.

      The type of compounds that they complain about that are sealed inside the iPhone are still legal to use in baby bottles, chew toys and new car interiors.

    13. Re:Hypocritical of Slashdot? by cliffski · · Score: 1

      well said. how many times does a slashdot headline take aim at Microsoft or the RIAA, even when the topic in hand applies to tons of companies. Slashdot is very selective who it targets, based on its own preconceptions. That's like the majority of journalism sadly, and amazingly, this is not greenpeaces fault.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
  7. In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...water is wet.

  8. links by yali · · Score: 4, Informative

    Links without slashdotted anonymizer (really, if you think Gizmodo is tracking you maybe you shouldn't be on the Web) here and here.

  9. Greenpeace is despicable these days. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Greenpeace is such an extreme organization these days that its founder up and quit since the organization deviated from their original goals.

    1. Re:Greenpeace is despicable these days. by Nephilium · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That happens to other organizations as well... look at MADD.

      Nephilium

  10. What's this with anonymouse? by Omnifarious · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why are the URLs hidden behind anonymouse? If I want to browse anonymously, I'm going to use Tor, I don't need some stupid anonymizing site that pops up little boxes over what I'm looking at.

    The real url to the store is this: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/electronics-industry-analyst-group-dismisses-greenpeace-claims-on-iphone-313411.php. I suspect the submitter of doing this one purpose.

    1. Re:What's this with anonymouse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are the URLs hidden behind anonymouse?
      Because the post is submitted by an anonymous coward.

  11. Anonymouse? by CamoCoatJoe · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Why are the links going through anonymouse? Did the poster want to /. two sites at once?

    --
    This is not a signature.
  12. Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier

    Yes, if you troll Apple fanboys, it's much more ethical to take a leaf out of Slashdot's book and simply pretend otherwise :).

  13. even Digg? by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Funny

    no. the top five photographs of all time is the absolute truth about those pictures. the top five reasons to vote for Ron Paul are real, reasonable reasons. the funniest clip of colbert ever on youtube, is well, the funniest ever. that's not offensive or sensationalist - it's the honest to Dawkins truth.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  14. not surprising by squarefish · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to work on factory trawlers in Alaska and although we fished species that travel in very clean schools, attacking that particular part of the industry brought them the most attention, even though most of their information was incorrect.
    I will say that I witnessed procedures and practices that bothered me and probably affected the overall industry in the end. However, the crap Green Peace used was totally fabricated and didn't have any basis in truth.
    I quit fishing in 98', started using macs in 02' and now the fuckers are attacking something I like and profit from again. I didn't know 10 years ago that I would be working in IT with macs, but I feel like the fuckers are following me.
    What's even more ironic is that all the tree-hugging hippies I have known over the years, even those from Green Peace, have been Apple users!

    --
    Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
    1. Re:not surprising by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      What's even more ironic is that all the tree-hugging hippies I have known over the years, even those from Green Peace, have been Apple users!


      That's what immediately struck me about this fiasco as well, but given their tactics it seems to make some degree of sense. Groups like Greenpeace often want to set themselves apart from other movements/environmentalists/leftists in general, and this is a good way in which they can do that. Of course, I think it's pretty stupid, but this seems to be how they operate...

      Beyond that, I think the publicity that they get from attacking Apple was too high of a motivator for this to dissuade them. Visibility seems to be their main tactic to spread their message, and while it may not get them practical results in each instance (especially in your previous encounter!), they hope that it will send a ripple through the rest of the industry and possibly change some policies. Personally, I think this is a stupid method (take a look through some of the other comments to see how many seething trolls they've spawned), but one that has been none-the-less effective at the corporate level, as suprising as that may sound. Companies are likely to make changes if they feel it will earn them some good PR, so Greenpeace tries to motivate them to do so, seemingly by any means necessary.
      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    2. Re:not surprising by jamesh · · Score: 1

      What's even more ironic is that all the tree-hugging hippies I have known over the years, even those from Green Peace, have been Apple users!

      An Australian radio station interviewed Al Gore while he was over here promoting his movie, and tried to make a big deal out of the fact that his movie was like a big advertisement for Apple, which seemed a bit hypocritical given recent environmental news, and also that he was on the board of directors. He brushed this off and responded that he was simply using the best computer available.

      Pwned.
    3. Re:not surprising by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, sure, if you say so. Whatever.

    4. Re:not surprising by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      Groups like Greenpeace often want to set themselves apart from other movements/environmentalists/leftists in general
      That's why they are so into composting toilets ..... they can't even bear to take a dump like a normal person.
      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  15. Re:Apple users alienate by stewbacca · · Score: 1

    LOL, another insecure posting about imaginary superiority complexes. Please tell me how I am so superior just because I have a nice computer that costs a little extra? Here's a hint: I don't care what you think about my computer, so therefore, I have no superiority copmlex.

  16. Re:Apple users alienate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Greenpeace is about as credible as PETA these days, using alarmist extremism to get attention because so very few people support them anymore. The best thing to do is simply ignore their ravings as the delusions of lunatics.

  17. hypocrisy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    *disclaimer for the countless trolls reading this thread and posting such intelligent things as "hippie ass-whoopin" etc...*
    I'm a leftist, sharing many of the ideals of groups like Greenpeace, PETA, etc.. *and* I do not agree that the tactics of groups like PETA, Greenpeace, etc.. are the most rightous or effective means of furthering their goals.
    *end disclaimer*

    but seriously... how exactly is it hypocritical? PETA, Greenpeace, etc.. all make very clear that they are motivated to attract attention to their cause by going after high-profile targets. They've been pulling ridiculous publicity stunts for years and years. It would be hypocritical of them if they said they *did not* engage in such behavoir. It doesn't mean they have a lack of concern for their cause in general, it's just that this is their method of supporting it.

    That said, if anyone can show me exactly where Greenpeace stated or even implied that they would not selectively target companies for maximum publicity, I will retract my previous statement.

    --
    "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:hypocrisy? by Nephilium · · Score: 1

      but seriously... how exactly is it hypocritical? PETA, Greenpeace, etc.. all make very clear that they are motivated to attract attention to their cause by going after high-profile targets. They've been pulling ridiculous publicity stunts for years and years. It would be hypocritical of them if they said they *did not* engage in such behavoir. It doesn't mean they have a lack of concern for their cause in general, it's just that this is their method of supporting it.

      Hypocritical would be high ranking members of PETA using products derived from animal research to survive, and putting down animals in their shelters while protesting shelters that do the same thing.

      Oh wait... they do that...

      Nephilium

    2. Re:hypocrisy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      besides the point that your post is rather off topic (the question was not whether or not they were, in general, hypocritical)... I'm curious: when has PETA protested euthanasia at shelters? I've heard of some no-kill shelters doing this (which is a load of horse-shit. No-kill shelters *reject* animals, which means we have to euthanise all the animals that they don't want to), but I hadn't heard of PETA protesting the practice as a whole (as you've noted, they've sponsored it). As a shelter volunteer, I'm very concerned about this. Could you provide a reference?

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    3. Re:hypocrisy? by RalphBNumbers · · Score: 1

      Ok, first things first: you don't seem to know the meaning of the word hypocrisy. They are hypocrites because they do something that they condemn in others, not because they do something they claim they don't or won't (that would make them liars, but not necessarily hypocrites).

      In this case Greenpeace are hypocrites because they are profiting at the expense of the environment. (By attacking companies based on how much publicity (and therefore donation money) they can gain, rather than how much pollution said company is responsible for relative to it's peers, Greenpeace not only lets heavier polluters go relatively unchallenged, they also send a message to all companies that their wrath cannot be abated by a better environmental policy, giving companies even less reason to bother cleaning up their act.)

      I suppose they might also be hypocrites because they are indulging in the type of media manipulation that I suspect they have complained about their targets using in the past, but that is clearly secondary to the "profiting at the expense of the environment" thing imho.

      --
      "The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
    4. Re:hypocrisy? by Nephilium · · Score: 1

      One example would be Jerry Greenwalt, the link goes to an interview with him I was able to dig up.

      Nephilium

    5. Re:hypocrisy? by sco08y · · Score: 1

      but seriously... how exactly is it hypocritical?

      Alright, most people use hypocritical when they mean "holding a double standard." The standard example is of Sen Craig who attacked gays while secretly soliciting sex from men in bathrooms.

      But the simple meaning of it is when you say something without believing it, which is pretty clear in this case. They're bringing these charges without caring in the slightest whether or not they're true.

      And this isn't just hypocrisy. It's also short-sightedness: they're sacrificing their long term credibility and that of an entire movement for some short term publicity.

      That said, if anyone can show me exactly where Greenpeace stated or even implied that they would not selectively target companies for maximum publicity, I will retract my previous statement.

      That's ridiculous. So I can't trust the NRA to wrongly harass someone and make me look like a fool for pledging to them just because they didn't explicitly say they aren't publicity whores?

      It's implied that any organization has certain principles, Greenpeace states there's and they even have a mission statement on the Canuck site. Publicity whoring will generally destroy your credibility, thus it is implicit in the fact that they have a mission that they are not going to behave like imbeciles.

      Reasonable people might disagree as to what constitutes publicity whoring, but Greenpeace is an example of an organization that has clearly crossed that line a long time ago. PETA is even worse... they're self-parodying.

    6. Re:hypocrisy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      Ok, first things first: you don't seem to know the meaning of the word hypocrisy. They are hypocrites because they do something that they condemn in others, not because they do something they claim they don't or won't (that would make them liars, but not necessarily hypocrites).


      Hypocrite: a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

      That is, were Greenpeace to espouse that they were above such actions, they would be hypocrites. Another example would, yes, be if they pointed these flaws out in others, thus implying that they have such virtues. I understand how you could have interpreted what I said to mean "lying" without my intended interpretation, as I was a bit vague, but both of these interpretations were covered by what I said. You should really be more comfortable with a definition yourself before you charge others with illiteracy. It's very... what's that word again?

      In this case Greenpeace are hypocrites because they are profiting at the expense of the environment. (By attacking companies based on how much publicity (and therefore donation money) they can gain, rather than how much pollution said company is responsible for relative to it's peers, Greenpeace not only lets heavier polluters go relatively unchallenged, they also send a message to all companies that their wrath cannot be abated by a better environmental policy, giving companies even less reason to bother cleaning up their act.)

      • I don't buy your argument that this is "at the expense of the environment". If the environment suffers because of an absense of highly effective, pro-active effort, then your post just hurt the environment. That's silly. Greenpeace is niether the sole entity for environmental action, therefore a lack of action on their part does not imply damage to the environment. Give us normal activists some credit! :)
      • given that they use whatever money they receieve to fund their initiatives, what exactly do you mean by profit? I'm guessing you mean "squander" or "embezzle". Money is power, thats why *every* political action group seeks it. If this made them hypocrites, then every political action group is hypocritical.
      • you're leaving out the most important part of what I've already said: their plan is to raise awareness through these stunts, not (just) money. They think it's doing good. I think that's debatable, but it *is* their stated intention.

      I suppose they might also be hypocrites because they are indulging in the type of media manipulation that I suspect they have complained about their targets using in the past, but that is clearly secondary to the "profiting at the expense of the environment" thing imho.


      This is specifically what I was looking for, although it doesn't mean your previous argument wasn't "off topic", I just don't agree with your conclusions.

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    7. Re:hypocrisy? by ikkonoishi · · Score: 1

      Well yeah. I mean if you want to point at them for being hypocritical you would really be wanting to make waves about how they were killing all those animals, and dumping them in the garbage a while back.

      Captcha = Abortive
      I swear those things are context sensitive.

    8. Re:hypocrisy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      Alright, most people use hypocritical when they mean "holding a double standard." The standard example is of Sen Craig who attacked gays while secretly soliciting sex from men in bathrooms.

      But the simple meaning of it is when you say something without believing it, which is pretty clear in this case. They're bringing these charges without caring in the slightest whether or not they're true.


      I'm not sure they feel that way about it. Hell, I'm not even sure they're wrong. I'll need a slightly more independant source than "the bromide industry" to convince me of that.

      And this isn't just hypocrisy. It's also short-sightedness: they're sacrificing their long term credibility and that of an entire movement for some short term publicity.

      I would wholeheartedly agree with this point, were the premise true. I agree with the "short-sightedness" charge, however, either way.

      That's ridiculous. So I can't trust the NRA to wrongly harass someone and make me look like a fool for pledging to them just because they didn't explicitly say they aren't publicity whores?


      You're taking me too literally, and as someone has already pointed out, that wasn't the most well crafted statement :) I wanted someone to point out to me how their tactic of going after apple was hypocritical. If they didn't care about the facts of the matter, then that's another way this could by hypocritical (that I honestly wasn't thinking of when I posted), but regardless It's not clear to me that they don't believe in their campaign against apple, just that they're forward about the visibility of apple being a motivating factor. That, in and of itself, does not make this hypocritical.

      Reasonable people might disagree as to what constitutes publicity whoring, but Greenpeace is an example of an organization that has clearly crossed that line a long time ago. PETA is even worse... they're self-parodying.


      I whole-heartedly agree. Publicity-whoring is not hypocritical in and of itself, hwoever. It's just, IMHO, stupid.
      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    9. Re:hypocrisy? by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      "when has PETA protested euthanasia at shelters?"

      are you fucking kidding me? If they ever come to the shelter you volunteer at your opinion of PETA will change in a microsecond. These people will vandalise your car, abuse your family and stakeout your house all in the name of their superior moral code.

      and yes - greenpeace is EXACTLY the same types of assholes.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    10. Re:hypocrisy? by RalphBNumbers · · Score: 1

      * I don't buy your argument that this is "at the expense of the environment". If the environment suffers because of an absense of highly effective, pro-active effort, then your post just hurt the environment. That's silly. Greenpeace is niether the sole entity for environmental action, therefore a lack of action on their part does not imply damage to the environment. Give us normal activists some credit! :)
      * given that they use whatever money they receieve to fund their initiatives, what exactly do you mean by profit? I'm guessing you mean "squander" or "embezzle". Money is power, thats why *every* political action group seeks it. If this made them hypocrites, then every political action group is hypocritical.
      * you're leaving out the most important part of what I've already said: their plan is to raise awareness through these stunts, not (just) money. They think it's doing good. I think that's debatable, but it *is* their stated intention.
      • I am not a non-profit organization supported by donations given with the understanding that they will be used to help the environment, Greenpeace is. Some actions which I could take with negligible impact on the environment would be strongly negative if taken by Greenpeace because of the resources earmarked for the environment which they instead would spend for other purposes. But, in any case, they are not simply misusing resources or failing to apply their efforts where they might be appropriate; they are actively undermining their own potential to influence industry by attacking highly popular companies rather than highly polluting companies (thus, as I said, eliminating the pressure to improve environmental policies to avoid media attacks by eliminating the causal relationship between pollution output and media attacks).
      • Seeking money is not inherently hypocritical (unless you've been demanding your friends and neighbors take vows of poverty). Seeking money at the expense of the environment, when your group focuses on condemning people who seek money at the expense of the environment, is hypocritical.
      • People seeking money, power, and fame often believe that they would use them better than those who have them now. I care less about that confidence in their own righteousness than I do about their actual actions and the consequences thereof.
      --
      "The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
    11. Re:hypocrisy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 1

      I understand the angle you're going for, but I still wouldn't quite call it hypocrisy. First, I still don't quite buy the "at the expense of the environment" argument. Money going to Greenpeace is not earmarked for the environment, per se; it's given specifically to Greenpeace. Greenpeace is not a government funded organization. Those who donate to Greenpeace do so because they support their efforts. That is, they donate because they believe that's the proper way to achieve their goals. It's difficult to say that, were Greenpeace not accepting their money, that they would then turn to a different organization, or that this other organization would make better use of the money. If you think they suck at achieving their goals, that's their problem. I happen to think that PBS does a better job of entertaining/informing the public than my local public access channel does, but I don't think my local public access channel is hypocritical for accepting money that could have gone to PBS. I just think they're crappier at what they do.

      Further, to compare what Greenpeace is doing with that of an organization "seeking to profit at the expense of the environment" is highly disingenuous. You are attempting to compare them with companies who do active harm to the environment, not this 3rd-degree "maybe they're somehow leaching funds from groups who may or may not be more effective than they are" kind of argument. Seriously, there's plenty of reasons to have beef with Greenpeace (no pun intended), even plenty of ways to call them hypocritical... this one's just a bit of a stretch.

      All that said, I imagine we're going to have to agree to disagree, though it doesn't really matter as this is all mostly an issue of semantics anyway.

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    12. Re:hypocrisy? by SomeGuyTyping · · Score: 1

      Yes, we expect these groups to do what they do to grab attention. However, we expect them to use their attention to tell the truth about something, not just create hype. Once people find out that they lied or stretched the facts, no amount of publicity/attention will help their message because people ignore them expecting more of the same.

      --
      My posts are definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
  18. Why surprised? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Greenpeace is full of hypocrites. They run their organization on fossil fuels then protest the fossil fuel industry. They take money to not protest against companies. They are just a variation on the protection racket

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    1. Re:Why surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Greenpeace & fossil fuels? Not bad... but I've always been amused by the vegetarians and the PETA people (students in both cases) that I've seen wearing leather jackets. I'm sure Greenpeace people do too, I just don't know that I've run across any of them.

    2. Re:Why surprised? by twilight30 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Totally. They're the worst kinds of selfish cunts.

      When I used to work for a solar module manufacturing firm in Italy, I would have to represent the firm with others at trade conferences and talk about the benefits -- and costs -- of the product. Most people were great.

      However, with Greenpeace, I would get accosted outside of their booths simply because I would be wearing a suit. I was selling out the environmental movement. And I'd have to listen to this shit from a coddled undergraduate who'd never done a damn thing in his life aside from marching around in a piazza every once in a while.

      And that's not even talking about the other criticisms of Greenpeace...

      --
      ========================================
      Death will come, and will have your eyes
      -- Pavese
    3. Re:Why surprised? by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

      Your post is ludicrous.

      First off, I'm not going to even try explaining to you how impossible it is to escape the use of fossil fuels in western society. So to "protest fossil fuels" (this statement itself is pretty vague but I'll use your phrase) while using fossil fuels is not hypocritical; it's called doing your best given the situation that you are in. Also, without any citation for your claim that Greenpeace takes money not to protest, I'm calling that pretty clear FUD.

      Second, I have only had direct contact with Greenpeace twice: once about 10 years ago a guy came door-to-door soliciting for donations to help Greenpeace educate people about preservation efforts in the Sierra Nevadas (I was living in CA at the time), and once I was stopped by a guy here in New Zealand soliciting for donations to fund a boat that was going out to try protest the Japanese whaling ships that hunt in south pacific waters. In both cases I agreed with the issue so I gave some money.

      These are people who are spending their own time and money to try to improve the world around them. What exactly are YOU doing besides making baseless accusations, citing no established literature to support your position, on Slashdot? Why should I give a rat's ass about your opinion when I weight it against the opinion of people who actually back up their beliefs with action?

    4. Re:Why surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every time Greenpeace is mentioned a bunch of nutjobs come out of the woodworks yelling "but they are hypocrites because they use fossil fuels" or some similar nonsense, like the only acceptable way to help the environment would be to live naked in the woods eating nothing but berries.

    5. Re:Why surprised? by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

      Greenpeace is full of hypocrites. They run their organization on fossil fuels then protest the fossil fuel industry.
      WTF is wrong with being a hypocrite? It doesn't mean they're wrong, it doesn't mean you shouldn't follow their advice. This is a good example of when hypocrisy is not a bad thing. They figure it's much more important to use fossil fuels and divert the money into making sure others minimise their usage as well.

      They take money to not protest against companies. They are just a variation on the protection racket
      I call bullshit. Greenpeace is run by lefties, many of whom hold a grudge against capitalist society. Say what you want about their goals and their rationality, but they certainly aren't corrupt.
      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    6. Re:Why surprised? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      Hypocrisy is always wrong.

      But, I guess it is OK in your mind to say "Do as I say, not as I do."

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  19. Don't see what's so objectionable about PR-savvy by graymocker · · Score: 1, Troll

    Why is activism directed at the most high-profile target wrong? One of the big activist-buzzphrases is "consciousness-raising," after all. If you believed that the chemicals in a certain class of consumer products is harmful to the environment, it makes perfect sense to go after the market leader and cultural icon in that class of consumer products. That Greenpeace has decided focus attention on Apple as the optimal strategy for achieving their political goals does not imply that they find similar manufacturing practices of other companies unobjectionable. It's simply that they make more political progress when they direct all their available resources to this particular subject.

  20. Unfortunate trend of our times... by shri · · Score: 1

    >> quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical

    With media outlets like Drudgereport looking for punch headlines.

    With news being read on Google and Digg (more links = top stories).

    "Bloggers" turning into the fourth estate...

    With the leader of the free world going "You're either with us or against us".

    All that matters is .. get the headlines, get your 300 mentions in the viral media and move on.

    Mission accomplished I'd say.

  21. Yup by alexborges · · Score: 5, Informative

    Greenpeace has a very long story for even TAKING MONEY to attack someone. Id go as far as to say that, for example, they promoted the idea of dolphin killing tuna fishers everywhere else but the US. They were paid off by american tuna fishers who dont kill dolphins NEAR THE STATES, but they happily do so with dolphin from the philipines.

    They also promoted the idea that a harbor project for the large (largest in the world, actually) salt mine down under in Baja was a risk to the gray whales, so that the harbor project was stopped. The pier was projected so big, that a damned whale coud pass under it from ANY possition.... SIDEWAYS. That time they were paid by competing Australian salt miners.

    I, for one, have never ever believed anything coming out of greanpeace. They are nothing but a rent-a-hoolingan shop.

    --
    NO SIG
    1. Re:Yup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm from Australia and I don't believe we have any salt mines. Unless they've started mining Lake Eyre. Perhaps you mean Austria? Lotsa salt mines there.

    2. Re:Yup by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

      I'm from Australia and I don't believe we have any salt mines. Unless they've started mining Lake Eyre. Perhaps you mean Austria? Lotsa salt mines there.

      No wonder Arnold doesn't sound like Crocodile Dundee

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  22. Well DUH! by Stumbles · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.

    Why do you think the original founder of Greenpeace QUIT?

    --
    My karma is not a Chameleon.
    1. Re:Well DUH! by rossz · · Score: 1

      That would have been about the same time I stopped donating money to Greenpeace. I was a card-carrying member of Greenpeace. Then they were taken over by the lunatic fringe and I tore up my card and tossed it in the bin (I should have tossed it into the gutter just to spite them).

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
  23. Riding the hype by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I don't think it correct to say that Greenpeace specifically targets Apple because they are Apple.

    What Greenpeace does is to ride the hype wave and nobody but Apple has recently released any majorly hyped, or hype-worthy, electronic products.

    Greenpeace rides the hype wave in other areas too (ie. not just electronics). This is a very effective way of operating since it relies on the fact that people are already tuned in to the subject and Greenpeace can tack on an environmental angle with far less resources.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Riding the hype by ucblockhead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Effective, that is, until people figure out that you are bending the truth to promote your "message", at which point your reputation as alarmists damages the very issue that you are trying to promote.

      --
      The cake is a pie
    2. Re:Riding the hype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's probably fine with them, since the issue they actively work towards is not what they state publicly (protection of the environment), but something else entirely (social engineering to convince people to live their lives in a way its members aren't afraid of). They'll also oppose environmentally friendly technologies if the use of said technologies will allow us to "save" the environment without forcing people to make a lifestyle change.

    3. Re:Riding the hype by peteforsyth · · Score: 1

      How is this "bending the truth?" Latching onto a product or idea that is "hot" in public discourse is a natural thing to do. It sounds to me like everything they said about the iPhone is true -- I don't think anybody is contesting that -- but that other products have the same problem.

      Latching onto a popular product is effective media relations. There's no deception involved in that.

      Furthermore, if the iPhone is the leader in driving product innovation, it should most definitely be the subject of scrutiny. If everybody else is trying to catch up with the iPhone, they will likely have to cut the same environmental corners Apple did, if they hope to be successful.

      Being a leader comes with responsibility. No less true in consumer electronics than anywhere else.

    4. Re:Riding the hype by number11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      until people figure out that you are bending the truth to promote your "message"

      And how did Greenpeace "bend the truth"? Apparently (the OP does not contain a link to the original story) Greenpeace claims iPhones contain brominated compounds and PVC. As near as I can tell from the (industry) articles, neither Apple nor the industry disputes that. The defense is 1) everybody does it, 2) the compounds are approved by government agencies so they're ok, 3) there are no alternative materials, and 4) (which seems at odds with #1-3) Apple is in the process of stopping using those compounds. That these industry claims may (or may not) be true does not mean that Greenpeace's claim that the iPhone contains bromine compounds is "bending the truth".

      Greenpeace has clearly picked the target that they will get the most media attention from (if they'd targeted Kyocera, who would have paid any attention?) but they didn't say everybody else (except Apple) was fine.

      BTW, why are the links in the OP anonymized? I value my tinfoil hat as much as the next guy, but why in the world would even Little Dick Cheney or Mad King George care if I'm reading an article in Gizmodo? Is Gizmodo the new terrorist chic?

    5. Re:Riding the hype by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Looks to me as though the GP report made an incorrect assumption wrt to bromide and the bromide industry analyst (err, I mean group) shot down that specific assumption whilst leaving the rest of the report intact. I think it is only fair to allow GP to respond to their critics rather than accuse them of deliberate misinformation based on the response from the affected industry's lobby group.

      At the end of the day "truth" is for politicians and preachers, GP is a lobby group funded by individuals as opposed to industry. It's their job to grab headlines just like it's the job of the "bromide industry group" to hose down bad publicity.

      The economy/environment are two faces of the same life support system, the real question here is why is it so hard to determine what impact a particular device may (or may not) have on the environment over it's entire life-cycle.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    6. Re:Riding the hype by vought · · Score: 1

      nobody but Apple has recently released any majorly hyped, or hype-worthy, electronic products.

      I wonder what the total weight of bromides, pthalenes, etc. in RAZRs is?

      Give me a break. There are cell phone manufacturers with highly-hyped products out there. The difference is that a lot of young, hip people (Greenpeace's main demographic) buy Apple products.

      Greenpeace is better at reading demographics than they are at saving anything. As I said above, I used to admire them, but have come to regard them as little more than priveledged trustafarians with an axe to grind.

    7. Re:Riding the hype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you think the environmental movement has been largely ignored for the past 25 years? (Until recently)

    8. Re:Riding the hype by iampiti · · Score: 1

      Effective, that is, until people figure out that you are bending the truth to promote your "message", at which point your reputation as alarmists damages the very issue that you are trying to promote.

      I agree completely, and the same thing happens to many people when they get on a crusade to solve some problem: be it women's issues, global warming or whatever. Some people try to bend or exagerate the truth to make the problem seems worse. And you know what, nobody likes to be lied, even more, nobody likes to be lied about the magnitude of a problem and later be asked help to solve it.

    9. Re:Riding the hype by thsths · · Score: 1

      > I think it is only fair to allow GP to respond to their critics rather than accuse them of deliberate misinformation based on the response from the affected industry's lobby group.

      Fair maybe, but you are being very optimistic. GP has been caught so many times basically inventing an analysis that suits there goals, that their credibility is pretty low to start with. You might even get the feeling that they get it wrong on purpose...

    10. Re:Riding the hype by mcvos · · Score: 1

      They'll also oppose environmentally friendly technologies if the use of said technologies will allow us to "save" the environment without forcing people to make a lifestyle change.

      This is simply not true. Some 10 years ago, Greenpeace has even modified a car, simply to show that it is possible to make cars more environmentally friendly than they currently are. Back then I was horrified to see anti-pollution group Greenpeace promote something as polluting as a car, but it shows they accept current lifestyles, they just want those lifestyles to pollute less.

  24. comma attack by cicatrix1 · · Score: 1

    While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.

    Yes, that, is, very, weird. ,

    --

    I know more than you drink.
  25. No surprise here by davmoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Greenpeace is to the environment and public safety as Pat Robertson is to Christianity.

    I love animals and believe we need to clean up the earth and all that, but every time I hear about Greenpeace and one of their stunts, I want to go kill a baby seal and wear its fur. Just like every time PETA does some of their bullshit I go eat lunch at KFC.

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
    1. Re:No surprise here by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "Greenpeace is to the environment and public safety as Pat Robertson is to Christianity."

      An accurate representation of maintstream leadership appealing to the simple majority...

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    2. Re:No surprise here by phidipides · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Greenpeace is to the environment and public safety as Pat Robertson is to Christianity.

      This is a hugely important insight. Groups that are on the extreme in the environmental movement such as Greenpeace have unfortunately come to be the image that the general public thinks of when they think of environmentalism, despite the fact that many environmental groups are much more moderate; just one example (among many) is the Nature Conservancy, which makes a point of partnering with hunters, fisherman, loggers, ranchers and other groups that are typically viewed as "enemies" by the more extreme elements in the environmental movement.

      Unfortunately the habit of stereotyping a group by its most extreme elements is common today. When people think of Republicans they think of Dick Cheney and John Boehner, not the Governator or John Warner; when they think of Democrats they think of Ted Kennedy or Nancy Pelosi, not Jim Webb or Joe Biden.

      Extremist make it much easier to discredit an entire movement, but just because a group like Greenpeace is making a huge racket about Apple as a publicity stunt (and that's what this is) doesn't mean that groups arguing for clean air, clean water, and open space are all fringe whackos. The same applies to politics, business, etc - despite the occasional extremist, on the whole the world contains much more of a nuanced mix than most people acknowledge, and taking the time to look past the fringe and towards the center can go a long way towards helping us all find some common ground.

    3. Re:No surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously!!! This is the best idea in the world: start a loose association of occasional KFC aficionados, and every time they act up with their publicity stunts, we all go eat. With a website this would catch on quite rapidly... killababyseal.com would be cool :-)

    4. Re:No surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems to me like you are one of those people who sit on their asses saying "I agree on principle, but.." and then come up with a dozen excuses for not changing the way they live. So the reason you are annoyed by Greenpeace and PETA is because they are indeed trying to annoy useless do-nothings like you.

    5. Re:No surprise here by Ddalex · · Score: 1

      IMHO Greenpeace is just a bunch of media whores that only seek to attract funding for their "green concern". I'm not a troll, and I agree we must be friendlier to our environment, but for God's sake, go plant a tree, don't go make a bunch of losers chain themselves to nuclear waste trains.

      If they were in fact nature-friendly activists they claim to be, they would've seen (and I'm sure they know) that the nuclear energy is much more clean then oil energy, and promote it, but they're exploiting that on the mentioning of the N word everyone goes ballistic, while nobody cares (yet) about another oil refinery being build. The only one message they want to send is "give us more donations so we can fight the polluters, and while we're at it, buy a ship or two to go swim with the dolphins".

      Now, mod me into oblivion, and then go out and plant a tree - that will ensure you paid your oxygen debt for the rest of your life.

      --
      Carefully crafted sig.
    6. Re:No surprise here by sheldon · · Score: 1

      On the other hand...

      "Extremism" moves the debate. The more extreme the position, the more reasonable the people not quite that extreme appear.

      This has been the secret behind Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and such for years. Their "extremism" is an act. It's calculated. It's designed to push the boundaries of reasonable debate.

      The "left" used to have people on that side back in the 1960s. Not so much any more. There are a few crackpots out there, but nobody in the mainstream.

    7. Re:No surprise here by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1
      When you hear about Operation Rescue blockading an abortion clinic and harassing the people trying to get in and out, do you make a donation to Planned Parenthood?

      When Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, did you donate to the Venezuela Solidarity campaign?

      Doubtful. But every time PETA crosses whatever bright line exists inside your head, you feel the need to make a chicken suffer for it? Talk about misplaced aggression.

      From KFCCruelty.com, a PETA-operated website:

      KFC suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can't even walk, and often break their wings and legs. At slaughter, the birds' throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water--often while they are still conscious. It would be illegal for KFC to abuse dogs, cats, pigs, or cows in these ways.

      KFC's own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so. Many advisors have now resigned in frustration.
      You're willing to support behavior like that, simply because you don't like the behavior of the messenger? Ask yourself why that is.
      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  26. Greanpeace is an attention whore... by taskiss · · Score: 0

    BUT, when Al Gore does it, he gets a Nobel Peace Prize.

    Slashdotters are a funny community.

    --
    - real hackers don't have sigs -
    1. Re:Greanpeace is an attention whore... by cicatrix1 · · Score: 1

      Wait, we get to vote on the nobel peace prize? Sweet. It doesn't even matter that the two situations are really not at all the same, either.

      --

      I know more than you drink.
  27. Greenpeace is not an environmental organization by Spasmodeus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like any political organization that has been in place for too long, its purpose is no longer to accomplish the goals it was founded for, but to simply perpetuate its own existence and increase its power base.

    "Environmental extremism arose in the mid-1980s. It arose because the majority of people accepted all of the reasonable points in the environmental agenda, and the only way to remain adversarial and confrontational and anti-everything was to adopt even more extreme positions - eventually abandoning all science and logic altogether."

    ~ Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace.

    1. Re:Greenpeace is not an environmental organization by jamesh · · Score: 1

      I was approached by a Greenpeace rep at a shopping center a few months ago, and they failed to convince me that their cause was a worthy one. I think the particular angle they were going on about was to try and prevent the building of any nuclear power plants in Australia (I may be misremembering though). Whatever the issue was, it was something I knew enough about to know that they were putting one hell of a lot of spin on it to try and further their cause.

      The other thing that annoys me about them is when they claim to be conducting a peaceful protest. If you deliberately try and obstruct someone (eg putting yourself between a harpoon and a whale) then you are _not_ holding a peaceful protest, no matter how much you moan and carry on about nearly getting harpooned yourself. By all means protest if there is a cause you feel strongly about, but don't pretend you are taking the 'non-violent resistance' approach when you aren't.

      I heard a radio interview with a previous member (and possibly founder?) of greenpeace who left the organisation fairly early on because they were becoming too impotent. The organisation that he then started (mainly focused I think on anti-whaling) makes no claims that their protests are non-violent, and they way he described their antics they obviously were focusing more on vigilante justice than protesting. I think I have a little more respect for that...

    2. Re:Greenpeace is not an environmental organization by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't think Patrick Moore is a monster by any stretch of the imagination. But the fact that he's a disaffected former member of Greenpeace, who now makes his living doing environmental consulting for the very industries that Greenpeace demonizes, should be given due consideration by anyone who thinks he's merely an objective historian of the movement.

      Going by the material available about his activities, it's very difficult to tell whether Moore is improving the environmental impact of the companies he advises, or merely providing a nice coat of greenwash for them.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  28. Greenpeace... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Craziness second only to PETA.

    Do you have a puppy you take for walks or play ball with? Or a kitty who likes to chase string? Everyone knows that its fun to love and play with our animal friends.
    But how would you feel if someone took away your kitty or puppy, stomped on their head, and ripped their skin off their bodies?

    Nothing like a little ultra-extremism.

    1. Re:Greenpeace... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Craziness second only to PETA.
      No that would be EarthFirst

      But it IS very amusing to watch all the Slashdotters WET themselves over this Apple story.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:Greenpeace... by Nephilium · · Score: 1

      Or the ALF...

      Nephilium

  29. Not just about headlines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All of you with an ideological bone to pick are frothing at the mouth out of pure ignorance. Not only is it *not* hypocritical to go after high-profile targets, thus extending the reach and efficacy of your message - but it's downright good strategy to go after a target that's more likely to fold and thereby become an industry leader in the values and policies you advocate. In fact, this approach is *standard*. Groups across the ideological spectrum follow this playbook, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

    You can certainly criticize Greenpeace for the particulars of this campaign, but criticizing them as "hypocritical" for going after the highest-profile target most likely to achieve success for their campaign? Cry me a river.

    1. Re:Not just about headlines by famebait · · Score: 1

      Damn right. Wish I had mod-points.

      There may well be lots of things to criticise about Greenpeace, but the 'shocked' tone of the blog story is just pathetic. If the accusations are fabricated, fine, take them dowen for that. But the author seems to imply that it would be wrong and hypocritical to go after Apple even if they were true. WTF?

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    2. Re:Not just about headlines by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      That's not the problem, though it is opportunistic. Just because "everyone" does it doesn't mean there aren't problems with it. It encourages ignoring more significant problems in order to get greater attention - it's probably good for expanding your donor base, but it's bad if you actually want to fulfill the stated goal of the organization. At this point, organizations do a lot more to try to stay alive than they actually do to try to fill their stated goals. They'll present facts out of context in order to scare some money out of people.

      Greenpeace castigated Apple for using small amounts of substances that are still legal to use even in baby toys and new car interiors, which use those substances in greater quantities. They have praised Apple's competitors for promising to get rid of stuff at a certain date when Apple beats those competitors at getting rid of those compounds and only say so *after* it's been eliminated. Actual action is better than promise of such action.

    3. Re:Not just about headlines by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I think that one of the reasons they go after Apple is precisely because they believe Apple's customer base is more environmentally conscious than, say, your average Dell or Lenovo buyer. Hence, calling for Apple to improve, even if they're already doing a good job by the standards of other electronics manufacturers, is more likely to result in pressure from Apple's customers.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  30. Greenpeace is in it for the money by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    The alarmist headline grabbing fear mongering publicity stunts are just to make money. On a credibility scale they are right up there with Rent A Mob and Rent A Crowd.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    1. Re:Greenpeace is in it for the money by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      You're absolutely right!

      Wait... sorry, my bad. I thought you were talking about Slashdot and Gizmondo.

      I read the Greenpeace response as "we go after everybody, not just high-profile targets that grab headlines," which Gizmondo spun into the exact opposite, and Slashdot uncritically swallowed.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  31. Seriously... by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 1

    When will Greenpeace STFU? They pull this shit in attempt to make themselves look legitimate, but just makes them look more crazy, and less something people want to have anything to do with. I'm all for saving the whales, and whatever other tree hugger crap they are for, but seriously. Be civili, or GO AWAY!!!

    1. Re:Seriously... by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      Your love of civil and considered dialogue and your deep concern for the environment are clearly demonstrated by this post. I tip my hat to you, sir!

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  32. Greenpeace are bastards just like everyone else by Theovon · · Score: 1

    This wouldn't be the first time someone who ostensibly was out to "do the right thing" resorted to blatantly unethical tactics. The fact is that most people can't understand the difference between some learned set of rules they call "morality" from the more general concept of right and wrong called "ethics." This is why fundies have no problems killing abortion doctors or terrorists killing thousands of innocents. Their moral high-ground is the only definition of right and wrong to them, and that gives them license to do anything the hell they want in the name of their morality. It's been this way throughout all of human history, and it's unlikely to change. People get it in their minds that anything counter to what they believe is evil and should be eradicated.

  33. say it isn't so! by phrostie · · Score: 1

    Green Peace alarmist!!!!!

    no, it just can't be!!

    they are like anyone else, they spin shit for their own agenda.

  34. Re:Seriously man, are you a pussy? by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I suppose this is what I get for addressing trolls specifically, huh.

    BTW, when calling another a pussy, it helps not to have the name "coward".

    --
    "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
  35. News flash: Advocacy groups use marketing! by Infonaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Greenpeace is an advocacy group. It uses the same marketing techniques as politicians, for-profit companies, and everyone else. They go for the big target. I think they're being honest in admitting it.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  36. I Have No Issue With Their Process by Justifiable_Delusion · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As we citizens have chosen to ignore what our responsibility to the planet is, it has come to groups like GreenPeace to push us and remember. We have chosen to grasp the philosophy of if I am the only one to do it, it won't hurt anyone. That obviously is a foolish logic.

    I am quite happy that they take angles like this. And I am quite happy that people react. And I am quite happy that they attack the high profile targets. Thats their job.

    Good work GreenPeace. Keep it up.

    --
    Mad, adj : Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence. Ambrose Bierce - The Deveil's Dictionsary
  37. Duh! by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

    I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.
    Glad you could wake up. The coffee pot is over there. If you take the last cup, start another batch.

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  38. Totally works too! by saikou · · Score: 4, Funny

    Admitting targeting Apple to grab headlines grabs headlines too :)

    Now, how long until this recursion dies with out of memory error...

    1. Re:Totally works too! by barocco · · Score: 1

      by making your point you secured several bytes of the stack too :)

  39. Lying to advance the cause? WTF? by goldspider · · Score: 1

    It amazes me that anyone takes these alarmist groups seriously. It's clear that they outright lie to raise publicity; at least they're admitting it now.

    How then, I must ask, do they feel this sort of practice helps their cause?? Does credibility and trust mean nothing to them? Aren't they the least bit concerned that their lying will cause people to start doubting the worthiness of their efforts?

    I realize that a lot of people value rhetoric and good intentions over accuracy and truth. But with such tactics, how can any reasonable person consider the likes of Greenpeace anything other than a fringe element whose care first and foremost about drawing attention to themselves.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
  40. Can't serve two masters by BlueParrot · · Score: 1

    I consider myself an environmentalist, and this is one of the reasons I have a serious problem with a number of organisations similar to greenpeace. A number of technologies that can do a lot to help the environment, have been irrationally opposed, or hung out, not because of any rational considerations, but for these organisations to make themselves look important. The most notable example is Nuclear power, but there are plenty of others. Over in Sweden the environmentalists are heavily opposing carbon capture and storage ( arguing that it is "just an excuse to continue using certain [evil] technologies". ) despite it being pretty much the only technology we know of that could end the emissions from our steel industry. Electric heating has been shot down as "inefficient" despite being orders of magnitude cleaner than oil and gas (Sweden's electricity production is very clean ).

    Seriously, the more I hear about these organisation the more it becomes obvious that they are oblivious to the real issues involved and just want to make themselves look important. In my eyes greenpeace has about as much credibility when it comes to environmental issues as the bush administration. Now just to make things perfectly clear, I think the Bush administration is a bunch of dishonest, selfish and corrupt bastards, and I wouldn't trust a thing they say when it comes to environmental policy, same goes for greenpeace.

    1. Re:Can't serve two masters by cdrguru · · Score: 1

      Your Swedish friends are right. The only way to sustainable resource use is to just use less. If that takes cutting back on steel production, so be it. Steel comes from iron ore, which today comes from mining iron ore which came from iron and steel recycled by the planet. We're using more iron and steel than the planet can recycle for our use. Therefore, we need to either get iron ore from somewhere else or reduce the amount we're using.

      No other way - those are the alternatives.

    2. Re:Can't serve two masters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And thus we end up at what I would like to call "principle dead-end" - if we can't do it perfect right now, then by golly we should never have started and must immediately give up on trying it ever again.

      One could argue that we could recycle iron and steel instead of ripping it out of the ground, destroying the local ecology in a far-off land and then transport it using oil from the past.

      Of course, recycling stuff takes a lot more energy than getting it pre-concentrated from the ground, which means that we will need to *increase* our energy expenditure if we aim to keep up consuming the current amounts, which does lead to the assumption that we need to use less.

      Unfortunately, humans are not currently conditioned (nor, I would argue, biologically programmed) into a mindset where we choose abstinence over a quick techno-fix.
      Most (if not all) of the current societies whose members visit ./ are not going to reduce their energy expenditure, simply due to the problem of individual incentive - what does it matter if I take public transit to work if others will not stop travelling to work using one car each?

      Most people consider their current sociological and technological level as normal, and having service levels dropped is seen as bad even if that is needed to reduce energy expenditures. Luxuries become commodities, and commodities becomes necessities with time.

      The easiest way to reduce our current wasteful use of carbohydrates is NOT to reduce the amount of energy we use, but to replace carbohydrate use with other energy carriers. Unfortunately, oil and coal are not seen as carriers but also energy producers (even though they only contain energy from long ago).
      As long as they are seen as "free energy" comparing it to energy production and storage of other things are doomed to fail - even solar energy (which uses the sun, and thus does not hold as much problems in the production part itself) is hard put to beat the ease of use with burning some coal (portable without major infrastructure effort, no need to store it etc).

      In the meantime, while we improve ways of gathering solar power for the low but constant power needs of society, we will need vast amounts of power from time to time (melting aluminium and most other metal ores, for one).
      For those other needs, nuclear power is probably going to end up as the winner (first fission, then fusion). Unfortunately, since "nuclear" makes people turn into scared rabbits - unlike the word "fission" - it is unlikely that we will see widespread adoption of nuclear power until coal and oil become too expensive for that, MUCH more expensive than today.
      Even so, I must also assume that we will not start building nuclear power plants until we've discovered that should have done so a few years before. Thus, people will become even more disenchanted with nuclear power since it's "so expensive" (but they don't want to skimp on security) and takes so long time.
      But they don't want it built near *their* backyard - no siree, little Johnny needs to grow up radiation-free with his iPod shoved firmly in his ears - and we don't want no stinkin' radiation mobile phone masts built near us, either, but damn TeleComCo for having such lousy reception in my neighbourhood!

      Sorry for the rant.
      What I am trying to say is that "Power generation (and distribution) is Serious Business" but people treat it like it's a popularity contest and overreact when their pet energy producing thingy is not getting the funding or attention it warrants... while ignoring information on all the other contestants.
      People seem to like being treated by sheep, but hate being reminded of it. When we're not being sheep, we seem to be a stampeding herd of baboons, throwing poo everywhere. It's rather depressing, but seem to be self-reinforcing in our current society, what with our young being indoctrinated into being nihilistic / apathic sheep.

    3. Re:Can't serve two masters by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      resistive electric heating is very inefficiant, heat pumps are nice but expensive.

      Also when considering the clenliness of electricity you have to look at the clenliness of the extra generation that would be brought online to satisfy extra electricity demand not the average clenliness of electricity generation.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  41. Re:Apple users alienate by Khaed · · Score: 1

    I saw how long you UID is, so I looked at your posting history.

    Don't you have better things to do that troll /. bitching about Apple?

    --- Someone who has never owned an Apple product

  42. greenpeace - useless since the 80's by timmarhy · · Score: 1
    it's been a long time since they stood for anything more then alarmist propaganda.

    you only need to read their website to see to know fuck all about the issues their protest so vocally about.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  43. You Know... by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    Every time you troll the nations newspapers in a dickish attempt to gain publicity at the expense of others, Jesus kills a whale.

    Now to even out the environmental Karma on a global scale, I'm going to have to travel to Japan and eat a whale. Nice going, Greenpeace!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  44. Re:Apple users alienate by timmarhy · · Score: 1
    "Greenpeace is great, but they never talk about many of the serious environmental problems, like too many humans only about 10% or fewer can live American-style before we wreck the planet."

    Fuck i wish i could put you in a picture and frame it.

    On the one hand you say greenpeace is great, but then you say they don't tackle any important environmental issues. WTF? how can they be great if they don't meet their primary function?

    you then go on to say we have too many people in the world (put your hand up if you think your one of those "too many" ?). finally you confirm my previous statments about greenpeace types by putting a link to an anti globalisation website in you sig.

    PURE GOLD.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  45. The strategy works by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 0
    It made people aware that there are environmental impacts associated with buying new gizzmos.

    Alarmism gets media attention. The later extraction of the truth is boring and not newsworthy. You just need to see how many people still believe in WMD and that Sadddam is an Al Qaeda leader to see that people don't see the truth.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:The strategy works by Aardpig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Iraq

      Well, that's a surprise for many folks, I imagine.

      No one ever said that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11.

      Quite right. Except for Bush, on 5/1/03:

      "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror...We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got."

      ...and Cheney, on 9/14/03:

      "If we're successful in Iraq...we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

      Tell me, with your head so far up the Administration's ass, how do you get the Kool Aid into your mouth?

      --
      Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
    2. Re:The strategy works by jcr · · Score: 1

      how many people still believe in WMD

      Oh, I think pretty much every Kurd on earth believes that Saddam had WMDs.

      The fact is, he had them, and he admitted to it at the end of operation dessert storm. He signed a cease-fire agreement that obligated him to destroy not only his WMDs, but also his WMD development programs, and document having done so (you know, like Libya did after Kadaffy got spooked by seeing Saddam in prison.)

      What he did instead was try to bluff, so he made a habit of jerking the UN weapons inspectors around, and he was allowed to do so for about a decade. 9/11 had the effect of temporarily reducing the USA's willingness to put up with that bullshit. Too bad for him.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    3. Re:The strategy works by jcr · · Score: 0, Troll

      Come to think of it, nobody claimed that Saddam was connected to Al Queda in particular, but he was indeed a sponsor of terrorism. Abu Nidal lived in Bhagdad as his guest, and Saddam paid the families of palestinian suicide bombers.

      But hey, don't take my word for it: check out what Al Gore had to say about Saddam's connections to terrorism back in 1992.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    4. Re:The strategy works by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

      "Come to think of it, nobody claimed that Saddam was connected to Al Queda in particular, but he was indeed a sponsor of terrorism."

      In his "Mission Accomplished"-speec, GWB said this:

      "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more."

      Seems to me that he's claiming that Iraq and Al-Qaida were "allied"... So your claim is 100% WRONG.

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    5. Re:The strategy works by SetupWeasel · · Score: 2, Informative

      9/11 had the effect of temporarily reducing the USA's willingness to put up with that bullshit. Too bad for us.

      Corrected.

    6. Re:The strategy works by Oligonicella · · Score: 1, Informative

      Apparently you don't understand the use of an elipsis:

      ellipsis

      . 1.Gram. a. the omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction, as the omission of who are, while I am, or while we are from I like to interview people sitting down. b. the omission of one or more items from a construction in order to avoid repeating the identical or equivalent items that are in a preceding or following construction, as the omission of been to Paris from the second clause of I've been to Paris, but they haven't.

      The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of Al Qaida and cut off a source of terrorist funding.

      And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.

      In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th, the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.



      If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.

      Reads a bit different when you supply your snip, don't it?

    7. Re:The strategy works by Aardpig · · Score: 1

      Not in the slightest.

      --
      Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
    8. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, it does. Wow, the GP lied and should be ashamed. There's really no two ways about it.

    9. Re:The strategy works by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Iraq. No one ever said that except for those on the left that try to say that Bush said it.

      Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Iraq? This post has to be a troll, or the worst typo ever.

      (If there are any 5-year-olds in the audience, Saddam Hussein happened to be dictator of Iraq for decades.)

    10. Re:The strategy works by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Reads a bit different when you supply your snip, don't it?

      No... it really doesn't.

      How is that Kool-aid, anyway?

    11. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems to me that you're a another asshole, playing around with language until it fits your agenda.

    12. Re:The strategy works by jcr · · Score: 0, Troll

      Corrected

      Do you have any idea how snotty editing someone else's words to completely reverse their meaning and then claiming that it's a "correction" is? FUCK YOU.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    13. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Next WMD's have been found in Iraq. Just not the enourmous stockpiles that everyone from John Kerry to John Rumsfield said we'd find. Still, there is speculation that they were moved to Syria. So please stop comparing WMD's in Iraq to Santa Clause. It's like saying that we found a little house, an old fat guy in a red suit, his wife and nine flying reindeer at the north pole, but no elves. Therefor, Santa doesn't exist! You're a moron if you think Bush actually thought there were WMDs in Iraq. If his joking about it doesn't make it obvious enough that he never really believed there were WMDs in Iraq and was lying to the American people and our military about it the whole time for political purposes, look no further than the Downing Street Memo.

      -- AC because I don't like arguing politics on /. but you need to meet a clue stick, badly.
    14. Re:The strategy works by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Iraq Well, that's a surprise for many folks, I imagine. I meant 9-11. Bad typo on my part. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of 9-11-01.

      No one ever said that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11. Quite right. Except for Bush, on 5/1/03:

      "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror...We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got." ...and Cheney, on 9/14/03:

      "If we're successful in Iraq...we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." I still don't see them saying that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11. I DO see them saying that Iraq is part of the war on terror. Iraq supported terrorists. Iraq paid the families of suicide bombers. Iraq trained and harbored terrorists. I think that point was made quite clearly in my last post and you did not dispute it. You just tried to change the subject. Bush made it quite clear that we would not only fight terrorists, but the governments that support them. Iraq was one of those countries.

      Also, you didn't touch on the fact that Al Qaeda is in Iraq today. Tell me, putting why we went into Iraq aside, do you want us to leave Iraq today, effectively surrendering to Al Qaeda in that region?

      Tell me, with your head so far up the Administration's ass, how do you get the Kool Aid into your mouth? So because I want America to succeed, I want to see the freedom spread to the people who want it (and the Iraqis want it, trust me, I've been there), and I want to defend those that try to do what is right from those who will lie and twist the truth to meet their political goals, then have my head up this administration's ass? I supported our actions in Bosnia, was my head up that administration's ass too? When people lie in an attempt to make my country look bad, I will call them out on it. I took an oath to defend this country from all who threaten it, foreign and domestic, and I will stand by it.
      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    15. Re:The strategy works by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      Reads a bit different when you supply your snip, don't it? No... it really doesn't.

      How is that Kool-aid, anyway? Well, seeing as the GGP was trying to use the part of a quote to say that Bush was trying to pin blame for 9-11 on Iraq, and the Prez clearly stated that Iraq was an Al Qaeda ally, yeah, I think it shows the inherent dishonesty of the GGP's post. It is obvious that when you see the whole quote, that that is not what Bush was saying at all. And for you to say otherwise is blatantly dishonest of yourself. Sorry if it doesn't jive with your agenda. You should not let your political agenda filter your hearing like that.

      I find it ironic that those who claim that Bush lied are the ones who are doing the lying themselves by denying the truth like the fact the GP stated. I also find it sad that Slashdot mods would mod that down as flamebait. All the GP did was state fact. What have we become when the truth is considered flamebait?
      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    16. Re:The strategy works by ArcherB · · Score: 1
      Let's try that again with proper formatting.

      Reads a bit different when you supply your snip, don't it? No... it really doesn't.

      How is that Kool-aid, anyway? Well, seeing as the GGP was trying to use the part of a quote to say that Bush was trying to pin blame for 9-11 on Iraq. It is obvious that when you see the whole quote, that that is not what Bush was saying at all. The Prez clearly stated that Iraq was an Al Qaeda ally. So yeah, I think it shows the complete dishonesty of the GGP's post. And for you to say otherwise is blatantly dishonest on your part. Sorry if it doesn't jive with your agenda. You should not let your political views filter your hearing like that.

      I find it ironic that those who claim that Bush lied are the ones who are doing the lying themselves. They deny truths like the facts that the GP stated. I also find it sad that Slashdot mods would mod that down as flamebait. All the GP did was state fact. What have we become when the truth is considered flamebait?
      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    17. Re:The strategy works by k8to · · Score: 1

      It's totally snotty. Given.

      But it's not really a reversal. We're all sad.

      --
      -josh
    18. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The fact is, he had them, and he admitted to it at the end of operation dessert storm."

      Mmmmm... dessert storm.

    19. Re:The strategy works by SetupWeasel · · Score: 1

      "Corrected" is irony. Yes, it is snotty, and I have people do it to me, but it was the most succinct way to get my point across. I have no sympathy for Hussein, but his death was not worth our soul.

    20. Re:The strategy works by oni · · Score: 1

      You should not let your political views filter your hearing like that.

      It's a bit like what many religious people do, isn't it. Sad.

    21. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Iraq supported terrorists. Prove it.

      Iraq paid the families of suicide bombers. Prove it.

      Iraq trained and harbored terrorists. Again, prove it. You know who does train and harbor terrorists, though? Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. You know, our "allies," whom we didn't invade. Both are also *directly* tied to 9/11. Pakistan's ISI wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta. The 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

      Bush made it quite clear that we would not only fight terrorists, but the governments that support them. Iraq was one of those countries. Saddam's Iraqi government were enemies of Al Queda. Iraq was a sectarian state. Al Queda are radical Islamic fanatics. They were not allies. Though Al Queda and the US were, when Al Queda originated, as "Guerrilla fighters" defending against the spread of Communist Russia. Should we attack ourselves for creating, funding, and training them?

      Also, you didn't touch on the fact that Al Qaeda is in Iraq today. Iraq was better off before we got there. Before the "civil war", and the insurgent terrorists of different factions invading the country from every place possible, before the sanctions, before the American *military occupation* of a sovereign nation, before the looting, Iraq had great schools, great health care, a wealth of resources, a productive economy, and a good quality of life. What do they have now? They're practically a third world country and barely have power. They wouldn't fully recover for at least 20 years even if we left today and all the insurgents left with us.

      Tell me, putting why we went into Iraq aside, do you want us to leave Iraq today, effectively surrendering to Al Qaeda in that region? You tell me. A safe withdrawal should have been part of the plan. If we stay, it gets worse. If we leave, it gets worse. You figure it out. Your support for the invasion helped get us into this mess.
    22. Re:The strategy works by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      The Prez clearly stated that Iraq was an Al Qaeda ally.

      Say what? With context or not, the speech clearly says the following:

      now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.

      No amount of context changes the fact that what is said, there, is that attacking Iraq and bringing democracy there would, they claim, be a direct blow against the terrorists who carried out the attacks on 9/11.

      So, in a sense, yes, you're right, Bush wasn't claiming Iraq actually carried out 9/11. He was claiming that they supported, and provided a "geographic base" for, the Islamic Jihadists who carried out those attacks. Except that, unfortunately for Bush and Co, Iraq was a secular state who had no ties with Al Qaeda (unlike, say, Saudi Arabia), and attacking them has done precisely the opposite of what they claimed: it's provided fuel to an already burning hatred against the US, and provided a lawless country in which terrorism could flourish.

      Now, you could claim that, hey, they didn't know that was going to happen. Except, of course, that many people were telling them that this is *precisely* what would happen... including Bush Sr, as I recall. And they were right, much to the world's detriment.

      Regardless, the point is that, yes, the US government attempted to draw a connection between Iraq and 9/11 by claiming they were an Al Qaeda supporter, despite evidence to the contrary. They then used this specious argument to wage a pointless war, diverting attention, funds, and resources away from far more important fronts, such as Afghanistan. And the result has been, without question, disastrous.

    23. Re:The strategy works by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      Here is how I see it. Islamic terrorists attacked the WTC under the Al Qaeda banner. Iraq supports Islamic terrorists. So in attacking Iraq, he was taking out a source of support for Islamic terrorists, in the geographic center of where most of these terrorists come from, the middle east. As for attacking other countries with a strong terrorist presence, such as Saudi Arabia, this would be counter productive. We would literally be taking out a government that is actively helping us fight terrorism. This would mean that we would need to take over whatever support, no matter how small, that their current government is providing in addition to running the day to day security operation (police force) of that entire country. Iraq was not only refusing to help us fight terrorism, but they were actively supporting terrorists in places like the West Bank and Gaza. Bush had already stated that any government actively supporting terrorism could be attacked. Had Bush not attacked Iraq, this would have been seen by the world as hollow threat. The war against Iraq is a part of the War on Terror just as much as the war in Afghanistan. Both had the sole purpose of taking out governments that supported or provided safe haven to terrorists and install a free society that would become an ally in the world's fight against terrorism.

      Iraq fired on NATO war planes patrolling the "no fly zone" as mandated by the UN. This was a direct attack on US sovereignty.

      There is also little doubt that given the chance, they would support other terrorists organizations that aimed to attack the US. An actual example would be the attempted assassination of George Herbert Walker Bush when he visited Kuwait. Being the now sitting President's father aside, the government sponsored attempt at a former US president is reason enough to go to war. Clinton did not have the guts for it and Bush couldn't use it as an reason because too many people would claim that GWB was simply saying "I'm looking for the man that shot my pa!" With GWB's cowboy image the way it is, he could not politically afford to give the opposition more cowboy ammunition.

      The way I think YOU see it is that Bush was trying to make a direct link between Iraq and 9-11. He used both in the same sentence. He was trying to link Al Qaeda, the group that actually pulled off 9-11, and Iraq. As we all know, Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 so any linking between the two is completely dishonest.

      I see where you are coming from and your view is valid. Of course, I think that way I see it is correct. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

      However, how are why we got into Iraq is completely irrelevant today. I hope that we can agree that a defeat in Iraq would be a disaster for the US. It would provide the boost that Somalia gave to Al Qaeda multiplied proportionately to the amount of time invested and number of troops involved. It would turn Iraq into a 1990's Afghanistan with enough oil resources to finance whatever operations were desired! That is something that neither US nor the world can afford.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    24. Re:The strategy works by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Iraq supports Islamic terrorists.

      Well, now, here's where the fundamental disagreement comes in, doesn't it? What evidence do you have that Iraq supported Islamic terrorists, specifically Al Qaeda? Everything I've come across says that a) Saddam's regime was entirely secular, and b) he did his best to squash religious extremists because they posed a threat to his power. Nor was there, to my knowledge, any documented evidence of support of Al Qaeda by the Iraqi government. Unlike Afghanistan, which was known to be harbouring and supporting terrorists.

      And, whether or not you believe Iraq supported terrorism, it was completely and utterly clear that Al Qaeda was, at the time, based primarily in Afghanistan, and that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on 9/11. Hence why the invasion of Afghanistan was met with relative support for the world community. And then, for reasons that remain specious, the US suddenly turned it's attention to Iraq, without finishing it's job in Afghanistan, and without catching Osama bin Laden, the individual generally considered the mastermind behind the attacks.

      Meanwhile, if your memory remains clear, you might recall that the US never attempted to use terrorism as the basis for justifying an invasion of Iraq to the UN (probably because there was no such basis) (incidentally, they did attempt to use the terrorism line with the American public, but alas, they tend to be more gullible than the UN). Despite the fact that harbouring terrorists was a valid justification for invading Afghanistan, the US chose to justify the Iraqi invasion based on the claim that Iraq posed an imminent threat to it's neighbours, due to it's possession of WMDs. Except that the evidence was, at best, thin, at worst, flat out fabricated.

      So, tell me, why would the US use the weak case of WMDs to justify the Iraqi invasion if the link to terrorism was so plainly clear? Unless, that is, it wasn't that clear, and you're simply mistaken.

      I hope that we can agree that a defeat in Iraq would be a disaster for the US.

      Unfortunately, this goes without saying. OTOH, I'm not convinced one *can* "win" in Iraq. I'm not even convinced you can form a stable government there, given the diverse and conflicting sets of religions and races. And that's ignoring the destabilizing forces of nations such as Iran, who *do* actively support terrorism. Of course, if the US had never gone in, or had actually planned out the postwar scenarios, we might not be in this mess. But, alas, it's too late now. The damage is done, and the only people winning are the extremists and the undertakers.

    25. Re:The strategy works by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      I hate /. now. This is one of the best posts ever, and some slash-douche mods it "troll".

    26. Re:The strategy works by ArcherB · · Score: 1
      Well, now, here's where the fundamental disagreement comes in, doesn't it? What evidence do you have that Iraq supported Islamic terrorists, specifically Al Qaeda? Everything I've come across says that a) Saddam's regime was entirely secular, and b) he did his best to squash religious extremists because they posed a threat to his power. Nor was there, to my knowledge, any documented evidence of support of Al Qaeda by the Iraqi government. Unlike Afghanistan, which was known to be harbouring and supporting terrorists.

      Well, then it appears you need to educate yourself. Please, take a look at this page. You will find gems like this one.

      At a minimum, we know that Saddam Hussein's government supported terrorism by paying "bonuses" of up to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers. How do we know this? Tariq Aziz, Hussein's own deputy prime minister, was stunningly candid about the Baathist government's underwriting of terrorist killings in Israel.

      "President Saddam Hussein has recently told the head of the Palestinian political office, Faroq al-Kaddoumi, his decision to raise the sum granted to each family of the martyrs of the Palestinian uprising to $25,000 instead of $10,000."

      It also has copies of canceled checks that were sent to the families of suicide bombers, along with a certificate of appreciation that was sent to families of the "martyrs".

      I know what you are thinking, "These are Palestinian terrorists. They don't count." Well, first I bid you tell that to the families of those murdered for going out to eat. Next, let me point you to another quote:

      After escaping Italian police in October 1985 following the Achille Lauro hijacking (thanks to his Iraqi diplomatic passport), Abu Abbas finally ended up in Baghdad in 1994, where he lived comfortably as one of Saddam Hussein's guests. U.S. soldiers caught Abbas in Iraq in April 2003. This time, he did not get away. He died last March 9, in American custody, reportedly of natural causes.

      That hijacking was NOT in Israel, but on a cruise ship on the high seas.

      I know what's next, "But what about Al Qaeda?"

      This is Abu Musab al Zarqawi. After running an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, he found his way to Baathist Baghdad, where he reportedly checked into Olympic Hospital, an elite facility run by the late Uday Hussein, son of the captured tyrant. Zarqawi is believed to have received medical treatment for a leg injury sustained while dodging American GIs who toppled the Taliban. He convalesced in Baghdad for some two months. Once he was back on his foot, Zarqawi then opened an Ansar al-Islam terrorist training camp in northern Iraq. Zarqawi is thought to be behind the October 28, 2002 assassination of this man, Lawrence Foley:

      Even the courts agree:

      Thus, there is abundant and undeniable evidence that Saddam Hussein provided money, diplomatic services, shelter, medical care, and training to terrorists of every stripe, including those complicit in the 1993 WTC bombing and -- according to a Clinton-appointed federal judge -- the September 11 attacks. The Iraqi dictator aided al-Qaeda and other global terrorists who murdered Americans, both at home and abroad.

      Maybe you'd prefer a different link. Maybe from a source that is known to be more left of center. How about The New York Times?

      Well armed and financed by both Iraq and Iran, this affiliate of Al Qaeda has since provided a haven for bin Laden followers exfiltrating from Afghanistan. They tried to assassinate an articulate Kurdish leader, Barham Salih, killing several bodyguards, but their target escaped and several killers were captured. Our National Security Council members did not learn about this bloody engagement, one of them told me a week afterwar

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    27. Re:The strategy works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are such a fucking whiny baby, jcr.

  46. Surprising? Why? by vandan · · Score: 1

    While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.

    Greenpeace needs media attention. Since they're not exactly best of friends with big business, it's really no surprise at all that they try to leverage whatever they can to thrust themselves into the spotlight. If they didn't take this approach, they wouldn't reach as many people. Reaching as many people as possible is the name of the game. There are bad ways of doing this ( email spam, fax spam, 'market researchers' calling at dinner time ), and there are creative ways of doing this. Apple are in the spotlight, and are fair game.
    1. Re:Surprising? Why? by DreadfulGrape · · Score: 1

      I'm not surprised either, but for different reasons. Apple is not "fair game" to be singled out for an industry-wide phenonmenon, but that's Greenpeace's typical modus operandi. Any other CEO would sue their asses, but Jobs, with his left-leaning sympathies, probably will not.

      --
      sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
  47. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The poor little kid who wrote this needs some intense therapy.

  48. Got a minute for Greenpeace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was accosted once on PSU campus in Portland, Oregon by a Greenpeace canvasser, on a particularly rainy, crappy day, worse than the usual. "Have you got a minute for Greenpeace?" he asked.

    "I'll get back to you when it isn't raining," I replied.

  49. At they're honest . . . by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

    hile it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it."

    Isn't it only really hypocritical if they don't admit it?

  50. Greenpeace trolls the media. by Kyle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Greenpeace admits that it's easy to troll the lazy, sensationalist, fact-immune, hypocritical, navel gazing, self righteous, egotistical, ignorant, self serving, ... media.

    News at 11.

    --
    The previous comments are only true, if no-one says they're wrong.
  51. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Conservatives are about truth, ideas that work, and doing things without governmental controls, but the private sector instead. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
  52. Drive those SUV's boys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    One day's worth of wildfires spews more natural CO2 into the air then years of driving millions of cars.

    Why drive an overpriced hybrid when that muscle car of your dreams is no less green, in real, practical terms?

    1. Re:Drive those SUV's boys... by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 0, Troll

      You are stupid. Wildfires put CO2 back into the air that the trees took out. Over the lifetime of the trees, which isn't long at all, it's a net 0 C02 source.

      Squeezing your fat American ass into an SUV or "muscle car" (what a joke) and driving said piece of shit burns carbon that was taken out of the atmosphere millions of years ago. This adds carbon to the atmosphere that hasn't been there for millions of years.

      There is a difference, a big one, even if your puny brain can't understand it.

  53. "Hypocrtical" does not mean what you think it does by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

    If Greenpeace were grabbing headlines by complaining that Apple is grabbing headlines, that would be hypocritical.

    If Greenpeace were complaining that Apple is using dangerous chemicals in their manufacturing, while Greenpeace itself was manufacturing goods using dangerous chemicals, that would be hypocritical.

    Greenpeace admitting that it targets high-profile companies in order to most efficiently convey their message, is NOT hypocritical.

    I think the word you are looking for is 'disingenuous', which I actually don't even agree with. But it matches your slanderous intentions better than the word 'hypocritical' in this situation.

  54. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by pclminion · · Score: 1

    Conservatives are about truth, ideas that work, and doing things without governmental controls, but the private sector instead. Liberals have one facade they portray to grab the whiny-hearts, the undecided, the people who know no history, and those with hate to spare. It's a big tent, the Democrat party...tree huggers, herbalists, hippies, union thugs, foreign spies, and bigots. There's just one idea: making people victims. When they're victims, they election on "we'll get those republicans, this time!" and they never do.

    And you were doing so well. You actually had me agreeing with you until this. But you're just another divisive, partisan fucktard. Oh well.
  55. But it is OK to do anything by SEWilco · · Score: 1
    1. Re:But it is OK to do anything by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      Not quite. The end doesn't so much justify the means, as all means to the same end are equally valid. The obvious corollary of which is: means of different validity serve different ends.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  56. Greenpeace members rape baby penguins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Along with bottlenosed dolphins at meetings on the weekends.

  57. Welcome to the new demoracy. by metrometro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Problem: People worldwide are concerned about the environment, human rights, and peace/security. Many feel that multinational corporations are making things worse. But multinational companies are really good at avoiding regulation by 'traditional' democratic institutions, namely governments.

    Solution: Brands are already signifiers of complex emotional meanings. Marketers would love to define these meanings for us, but the meaning of a brand is a contested space. Holding high-value brands accountable for the sustainability of their actions becomes a powerful tool, but ONLY when those brands defy the values of their customers. Turns out many customers don't like toxics leaking out their landfills and so on. They never did. But now that marketeering has taught us that brands have deep things to say about who we as customers are, well gosh, suddenly brands that represent poisoned water tables are in deep shit. Because branding is about feeling, and poison-water feels bad.

    Think about it: Greenpeace's only action was to release information. Not exactly threatening, unless that information drives customers. If Greenpeace doesn't share the values/ethics of the people who shop at Apple, there's absolutely no effect. But they do. Greenpeace picks targets that have value-added brands, brands with emotional resonance. It's hardball tactics and it's completely fair because what they said about Apple is true. Generic companies are also bad, but those companies don't have fanboys and big brand-name markups. Apple makes all kinds of promises to its customers wrapped into "Think Different". Turns out the customers want that to means something.

    The interesting thing about this is that far from destroying brands, it actually makes them more powerful. Suddenly brands go beyond marketing language to become signifiers of real corporate ethics, where a value-added brand is even more desireable, because we customers know that a company that claims to "Think Different" but isn't will get crucified. Outing liars increases trust. Good for everyone: markets are more efficient with more information.

    1. Re:Welcome to the new demoracy. by BlackSabbath · · Score: 1

      Damn, and I wasted my last mod points a couple of hours ago!

      Thanks for the +1 Insightful post.

    2. Re:Welcome to the new demoracy. by timmarhy · · Score: 1

      You'd do well not to use greenpeace as a source of information. you'll get few actual facts from those weasles

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    3. Re:Welcome to the new demoracy. by metrometro · · Score: 1

      > You'd do well not to use greenpeace as a source of information. you'll get few actual facts from those weasles

      Turns out I don't. My background is in evaluating investment risk around sustainability issues for portfolio managers. I don't care what Greenpeace says, I care what their customers do in response. Greenpeace releases information, capital is reallocated. I try to predict that by examining the actual ethics of the companies involved. Shocking, but environmental best practices do translate to better investments -- primarily through reduced volatility, but there's evidence that it's a leading indicator of innovation and good management as well. See the Innovest Group for more (I use their data).

  58. Re:"Hypocrtical" does not mean what you think it d by timmarhy · · Score: 1

    it all just makes me wish for some good old fashioned hippie whomping

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  59. Trons for Children by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

    I just read on your web site that you do have a charity project that you work on (or worked on; given how little you seem to update your web site, it's probably old news).

    So is it just that only projects that *you* work on are worthwhile, but things that other people believe in enough to take action on are worthy of your disdain? You were involved in a "faculty-wide fundraiser" according to your site. It's ironic that the submitter of this Greenpeace story used the word 'hypocritical' (even though it actually isn't justified in Greenpeace's case), because I can't think of anything more hypocritical than your post, given what you have on your web site.

    1. Re:Trons for Children by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      Ooh, personal attack, I don't get these too often. I'll bite.

      Who says I have anything against other people's causes? Like you have seen on my website, I am involved myself in many causes that I believe in - the one you see is the only one in which I act in an administrative capacity (as opposed to merely grunt work).

      I have nothing against Greenpeace because they hand out things on the side of the street, I respect many organizations that do the same. My disdain is for the behaviour of the organization and its members, not the cause it purports to represent, and the elitism of it all.

      Take yourself for example, because I'm not a member of Greenpeace, you feel free to presume that I don't care about environmental issues. Because I dismiss any attempts to market their drivel at me on the street you presume that I am ignorant about your issues and that I would "suck down all the resources [I] can". Sure, because I'm not out there waving placards and shouting slogans I *must* be a fossil-fuel burning scum who drives a big SUV. This is not to mention the work I've done in power-conservation measures at my workplace, including recommendations for minimizing power use in a large industrial facility, and my own small measures, exchanging all bulbs in my place for power efficient CCFLs. In fact, I am a complete user of public transit, never owning a car in my life (though admittedly, part of this is for the financial freedom of living car-less).

      So yes, because I'm not as zealous as you I deserve to be mocked for being part of the problem, despite the fact that I am, on the whole, one of the more upstanding citizens of the world when it comes to environmental issues. I keep myself educated on these topics by consulting many sources, and I won't buy into any of the drivel either side of the debate shoves in my face - for the simple fact that brainwashed groupthinkers are just like corporate suits - they will lie about everything and anything (as evidenced here in TFA) to get your support. No thanks, I do my own research.

      It seems to me, my friend, I am not the one "maintaining an unjustified sense of superiority" here. I do what I feel is best in the background, instead of inflating my sense of self-importance by making myself as high-profile as possible.

      Now, as to why I blow off the Greenpeacers in the streets? Because their tactics smell suspicious, constantly, full of half-truths and exaggerations, and using many of the same tactics as the common preacher on the street-corner, a demographic I have little patience for also. Instead of presenting their argument soundly either verbally or in written documentation, they resort to emotionally charged rhetoric with little meaning, and then are seemingly upset when you won't swallow their entire claim on their word. Like I've mentioned before, there are FAR better sources for information on important issues than your average Greenpeace pamphlet, and far better people to discuss them with than the average Greenpeacer standing on the side of a street (oh yes, I've done that too).

    2. Re:Trons for Children by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 1

      You make very good points, and I can certainly see that I misjudged you. It was your comment in the context of all of the other posts in response to this story, that made me assume that you were of a similar mind set to others who attacked Greenpeace in this forum.

      I suppose it was the word 'disdain' that was at the heart of it. Why would you have disdain for people who are trying to make a positive difference, even if you don't agree with their methods? I am completely a-religious but when Jehova's Witnesses knock on my door to try to spread the word about their religion, I don't treat them with disdain. I realize that they may be misguided, but they have good intentions; they only want to try to help me in a way that they think I need helping. And they're polite, as I expect the Greenpeace volunteers that you have been talking about are as well.

      Anyway, I got to your post probably when I was just completely fed up with the crap that closeminded individuals were posting in response to this story. I get so tired of reading the opinions of people who have formed their ideas principally on whatever is most convenient for them, rather than what is most justified when considering the larger scope of the world as a whole. I apologize if I categorized you incorrectly.

  60. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have to admit though, it's damn good advice.

  61. As a proud tree-hugging-hippy... by calstraycat · · Score: 1

    ...let me just say that I fricking hate Greenpeace.

    Although I agree with some of their stands on environmental issues, they are detrimental to environmental movement overall. All Greenpeace does is provide the Rush Limbaughs, Fox News twits and other industry stooges with ammunition to paint all environmentalists as extremist loons. The vast majority of conservation-minded individuals are educated, rational, reasonable and intelligent people. But, in the minds of many in our society, Greenpeace loons = all environmentalists.

    It's a shame.

    1. Re:As a proud tree-hugging-hippy... by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      Damned fucking straight!

      Greenpeace has been a disreputable bunch of radicals and vandals who act in the name of environmentalism, and damage the efforts being made by real environmentalists--people who are working for positive change in the world. Their goals may be laudable, but their actions are unconscionable and often dangerous.

      Unfortunately, mention the word "environment" in the wrong circles, and you're likely to hear a response of "Yer one a' them damned greenpeace hippie freaks, ain'tcha?"

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
    2. Re:As a proud tree-hugging-hippy... by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't think that Greenpeace is the only environmental group that the Dittoheads try to smear as raving loons. Anyone who demands any environmental protection that could conceivably detract from the GDP, or force industry to do anything against their will, receive basically the same treatment.

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  62. Myopic blowhard rants on Slashdot, film at 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've hit a trifecta here: off-topic, flamebait, AND trolling.

    Thinly disguising an outrageous and one-sided Ann Coulter lovefest in a story about Democratic puppets doesn't really make your post about Greenpeace. Too bad there are plenty of dipshit moderators to back you up.

    Funny how you talk about "liberals" and "Democrats" interchangeably without regard to your own party's horrible record on, well, everything. But I assume you'd make a distinction between "real" conservatives like yourself and the "fakers" that tarnish your great reputation. Keep on espousing those Christian values, though, if you can find any between your own lies and hypocrisy and rose-tinted glasses.

  63. I wonder.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is Steve Jobs going to use his Distortion Field to sink one of their ships in revenge?

  64. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by WheelDweller · · Score: 0, Troll

    "And you were doing so well. You actually had me agreeing with you until this. But you're just another divisive, partisan fucktard. Oh well."

    Precisely. I'm having a debate, you're having a name-calling session. Rarely is the open-mindedness and enlightenment so, so....."progressive".

    And by the way...that "progress"? It's destination is socialism.

    And how can I not be partisan? One side is using the same verbage as the terrorist, going on about global warming and the housing market, the other is trying to keep free speech open (not getting the 'fairness doctrine' re-instated. One party is certain that teaching masterbation to kindergarteners and pushing drugs, the other is against it.

    So partisan? Sure. You have to pick a side. Do it with reason, not knee-jerk heart-strings. And clean up your language- it's a sure way to indicate you've lost the argument, every time.

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  65. 50 Reactors. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish I didn't have to read about this which in the long run does nothing for the environment and instead was was reading about 50 reactors being built in my State of California with the support of all environmental groups. Instead if this was announced every environmental group would be in court instantly to stop it and they would. Why do these groups have to suck so much?

  66. Re:Apple users alienate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They've made themselves targets by doing everything better.

    There I corrected you.

  67. The Housing market? by microcars · · Score: 1

    "One side is using the same verbage as the terrorist, going on about global warming and the housing market,..."

    The Terrorists talk about the Housing Market?
    --
    I like microcars
    1. Re:The Housing market? by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

      Yeah, about two or three weeks ago; "We have no income taxes", remember? I though it was pretty funny, myself, until I realized one political party was using the same rhetoric.

      Insane...I think it was (and I'm guessing on the spelling:) Al-Zaraheiri.

      --
      --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  68. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by pclminion · · Score: 1

    Precisely. I'm having a debate, you're having a name-calling session. Rarely is the open-mindedness and enlightenment so, so....."progressive".

    You're not debating, you're identifying all Democrats as idiots. I could just as easily say the same about all Republicans, but I won't, because such a generalization is untrue and pointless. I made a specific statement about YOU. YOU sir, are a fucktard.

  69. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by EvilZim · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Here is a much better and more concise guide that I just wrote: Step One: Be 21. Step Two: Go to a bar. Step Three: Find a girl. Step Four: Get said girl drunk ????? Step Six: Profit

  70. Greenpeace doesn't care about the environment by tjstork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...Any more than Larry Craig is concerned about gays. The so-called environmental movement is a religious institution, a profit center designed to exploit people's legitimate concerns in order to enrich itself. It's just a racket, that's all it is.

    Just do this exercize. Watch some Sunday TV and look at what the preachers are doing... yamming up about some horrific topic and threatening the wrath of God, if you don't give them money. Then, turn on the likes of PBS or the Discovery or Science channel, and, if you happen to find a good environmental documentary, you'll find some jackass yamming up about some horrific topic and threatening the wrath of mother nature, if you don't give them money. While I doubt it it would be politically possible, but I bet if you could have switched Jerry Falwell and the head of Greenpeace and made them do each other's jobs for a year, they wouldn't have missed a beat, because they are all doing the same thing.

    Please don't get all hot and bothered about some nonsense that says: "yeah, but they do such good work." These people are con artists, 99% of the time, and what they sell is entertainment. It's entertainment, that's all it is. Just like in Christianity, if you want to save someone, so it is in the environment. If you want to save the world, start with your own life first.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Greenpeace doesn't care about the environment by sheldon · · Score: 1
      I understand what you are saying, but Greenpeace has never asked me for money.

      Not that I'd give them money anyway. I don't like giving money to charities because most all of them exist for the sole purpose of existing... as you say.

      Just like in Christianity, if you want to save someone, so it is in the environment. If you want to save the world, start with your own life first.


      Yeah, but just like in Christianity, you have to spread the word to change your own life first.

      Discounting greenpeace for a second. I've observed that in many cases, we end up with government regulations in thes arenas because companies and people don't listen to the marketplace. On a different scale, our state just passed a no-smoking act in public bars and restaurants. Opponents claim that we should have let the market decide. But the market has been for years demanding no-smoking, and the corporations didn't listen. I say this because anybody who has been to a restaurant in the past 20 years knows when the question "Smoking or non-smoking?" is asked, what they really mean is "do you want a table now, or do you want to wait an hour?" Now it doesn't take a genius to realize they could have maximized revenues by eliminating the smoking section.

      The main danger is when groups go after government trying to push something because they can't convince people of it otherwise. That's hard to do, as generally when that is tried(see Terri Schiavo), there is a huge backlash. However, when they do convince the citizens of their point of view, and the market doesn't respond... that's when government comes down.

      Many corporations in recent years have begun looking at environmental issues because they see the citizens are ahead of the game, and they want to be out there before or if government does come down. It's a market competitive issue.

      I guess the point is... Things aren't as bad as they seem.
    2. Re:Greenpeace doesn't care about the environment by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Do you pay taxes? then they are getting your money.

      Plus I get asked weekly. They are worse then the beggers. The begger have the decency to have a sign and keep there mouths shut..mostly.

      Greenpeace and other put on a fake smile extend there hand to envoke a social reaction then use the to leverage you from your money with lies, misdirection, and a stack logical fallacies.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Greenpeace doesn't care about the environment by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1

      Do you pay taxes? then they are getting your money.
      Erm, bullshit. Greenpeace does not receive government funds.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    4. Re:Greenpeace doesn't care about the environment by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Do you pay taxes? then they are getting your money.


      How? They don't receive govt funding.

      Plus I get asked weekly.


      I've never met someone from greenpeace. Never, not once. Nobody has ever asked me for money. I've had some other groups stop by, maybe once every 10 years. But never greenpeace.

      Greenpeace and other put on a fake smile extend there hand to envoke a social reaction then use the to leverage you from your money with lies, misdirection, and a stack logical fallacies.


      So who doesn't? Politicans.... The religious nuts... they all do this.

      Hey this week is Islamofascist Awareness week. Guess why? David Horowitz needs money.

      I ignore 'em all. I suggest you do the same.
  71. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

    Thank you for again proving my point: switch to profanity and claim defeat.

    You *can't* say the same about the Conservatives. (Notice the precision with which I'm using the terms, here...not all Republicans are Conservative.) Conservatives are almost Libertarian, and a lot of people agree with the general stance of both.

    Now, as is present in any gathering of any number of people, hipocracy and corruption can be found...there's one in every bunch. A lot of people use this argument to stay away from church, but it never stops them from visiting the grocercy store, somehow...

    But the core Conservative ideals are what everyone wants. Less government. Less intrusion. Less taxes, strong military for protection, adherence to the Constitution. But just the other day Hillary was suggesting $5,000 for each child born...no word on where the money will be coming from, but I know they pay taxes. And her masterpiece of deception is universal healthcare. It sucks in Britian, Canada, Cuba and France, I have the idea it'll suck here, too.

    Some thoughts before you warm-up to "free" healtcare: the same government in which you mistrust the Federal Reserve, the draft, tax loopholes, set outrageous taxes on fuel, buy $600 toliet seats....do you *really* want to put your *life* in their hands?

    To do so, would be stupid, no?

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  72. Not Hypocritical by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    So Greenpeace makes an example of a villain that the most people will notice and be affected by when they learn the story. How is that "hypocritical"?

    Greenpeace isn't an order of saints or something. They've got some very strong positions on some values that are also held by some very moral people. But they're very pragmatic about working to conserve specific things for the practical welfare of people in this world, and of the world we're living in. They're not here to save your soul, just your planet.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Not Hypocritical by rprins · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's the complete opposite of hypocritical if you acknowledge the facts.

    2. Re:Not Hypocritical by geekoid · · Score: 1

      " conserve specific things for the practical welfare of people in this world,"

      They stopped doing that years ago. Please pay attention.

      Everything they said about Apple was made up. They LIED, tried to hurt the reputation of a popular company, mislead reports.
      Why? to generate donations. Anti corporate, no more no less.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Not Hypocritical by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      I suppose lying is always "hypocritical". But explicit hypocrisy means subverting what you explicitly stand for. Greenpeace stands for protecting the environment and ending war. Attacking Apple, even if it were true, would be properly "hypocritical" if Greenpeace had damaged the environment or sent troops.

      I'm not discussing the truth of Greenpeace's attacks. I'm discussing the spurious claim of hypocrisy, which is a much broader indictment of the org that is baseless.

      Start paying attention, and stop changing the subject. Even if you're going to change the subject to a claim that Greenpeace stopped conservation efforts for the practical welfare of people in this world years ago, back it up with evidence. But even then, unless your evidence shows this attack on Apple violated that specific charter, you're not arguing with me, but with your own strawman.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  73. Summary Incorrect by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Informative

    First off, I'm not a fan of Greenpeace, and I do think that they targetted the iPhone because of the increased publicity it would bring.

    However, Greenpeace did not admit that is what they are doing. The summary is incorrect.

    If you think we just protest against Apple then look out for soon a report covering a wide range of manufacturers as we have done in 2006. While it might not make as many headlines as the iPhone it doesn't mean that we are not focusing on all manufacturers to remove toxic chemicals from their products.

    What Greenpeace said is the opposite of what the summary claims they said. Greenpeace said that they recognize that their report on the iPhone did capture more headlines, but that they do, and have done, the same thing with other phones. Greenpeace is claiming that they did not focus on the iPhone in order to capture headlines, that it happened because the media is more interested in news relating to the iPhone. Which also makes perfect sense, because that is what their readers want to read about (not whether it's right or wrong for them to report what the people want to hear, but that is the way it is).

    So again, I agree that Greenpeace almost certainly did focus on the issue in order to attract attention to the issue, and that that is their standard operating procedure, it is clearly false that they admitted to it.

  74. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by mr_matticus · · Score: 1

    I don't know who's spoon feeding you your manure, but it sure is funny.

    The "precision" you're using the terms? Liberal and Democrat are interchangeable, but Conservative and Republican aren't? Republicans have a pretty good stranglehold on the bulk of giant disasters and wasteful spending.

    Everyone says they want less government and less taxes, but they also want the basics covered, which costs an increasing amount of money. Where is your question about where the money is coming from for tax cuts and outrageous Iraq spending? How about the money on infrastructure improvements the country so desperately needs? How about the abomination that is faith-based initiative spending and putting strings on funding mandates? You "conservatives" are worse than any Democrat--you're willing to spend the money if it harps your backwards viewpoints and furthers your own ego-stoking goals, and who cares whether or not it actually helps anyone?

    "Conservatives are almost Libertarian"? Someone seems a little definition-challenged. "Do you *really* want to put your *life* in their hands"...when no government healthcare program (only a funding plan) has even been proposed, nor would it be mandatory if you don't "trust" them? Your facts are no better than your spelling.

  75. Since they're done with Apple... by VGPowerlord · · Score: 1

    Since they're done with Apple, will they go after Orange next?

    Yes, I know I'm comparing Apples to Oranges...

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  76. What do you expect?? by spazoid12 · · Score: 1

    What can you possibly expect from communists, anarchists, or just plain freaks? The truth? lol.

  77. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ladies know well that it's a juvenile prank. Angry dykes may be offended, but most females would show more romantic interest to the guy who wrote this than to a chivalrous loser who takes it seriously.

  78. I admit by istartedi · · Score: 1

    I admit targeting Slashdot for targeting Greenpeace for targeting Apple grabs karma; but only if you do it early on. It's probably too late for me to get anything out of this, so what good are you?

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  79. how brave of you! by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny

    So that why we French blow them up. BOOM! Sink there ship and say goodbye smelly hippie! Oh, sure, you'll take out a few unarmed hippies on a boat, but stick a Nazi army in Paris and you're all, like, "Oui Monsieur! aauuuuhhhhh.... je voulais dire.... Javol ha Commandante!"
    1. Re:how brave of you! by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

      "They shall not pass"

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    2. Re:how brave of you! by Fyz · · Score: 1

      Nah go awey or I shall taunt you a seconde time!

    3. Re:how brave of you! by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Haha, I visited New Zealand in 2000, and they were STILL pissed-off about that. They didn't seem to appreciate my laughing at it.

    4. Re:how brave of you! by CustomDesigned · · Score: 2, Informative

      While outwardly welcoming the Nazis with open arms, the French underground was instrumental in defeating Hitler. Poland bravely met the Nazis in open battle, and got wiped out. You could say the French were more devious, but it took guts to be in the underground too. Those who were caught went to the infamous death camps.

    5. Re:how brave of you! by LizardKing · · Score: 3, Insightful

      the French underground was instrumental in defeating Hitler.

      Wrong. While there were some very brave resistance fighters in France, even after the Normandy invasion in 1944 it was little more than a token operation. The SOE (British intelligence agency tasked with things like operations in occupied Europe) only supported the resistance for its morale boosting and propaganda value - most actions in occupied France were carried out by British operatives. De Gaulle acknowledged how unimportant the resistance was, and quipped that if all the people who claimed to have been resitance fighters had been then the Germans would never have been able to occupy France in the first place. The high profile of the resistance in post war France was an attempt to disguise the level of collabaration with the German occupiers by most of the French populace - a classic case of the victors writing the history to favour themselves.

      Poland bravely met the Nazis in open battle, and got wiped out.

      As did the French in 1940. Had the French and British used similar tactics to the Germans (concentrated armoured attacks, units authorised to operate in a semi-autonomous manner rather than requesting orders from above at critical moments) then it is debatable whether German victory could be assured. It was the piece meal use of French armour (technically on a par with the Panzers of the Low Countries campaign) rather than in massed defensive actions and counter attacks, along with ineffective leadership from the high command that enabled the Germans to win such a stunning victory. It is clear that the Western Allies had learnt nothing from the Polish experience of Blitzkreig at this point.

    6. Re:how brave of you! by CustomDesigned · · Score: 1
      Filing away your informative rebuttal, however:

      The SOE (British intelligence agency tasked with things like operations in occupied Europe) only supported the resistance for its morale boosting and propaganda value - most actions in occupied France were carried out by British operatives.

      Since conservatives credit the "Main Stream Media" with turning a decisive victory in Vietnam into defeat, it seems to me that "morale boosting and propaganda" are indeed instrumental for victory. Some of those very brave resistance fighters, though few perhaps, have very inspiring stories. I'm thinking at the moment of Jacques Lusseyran.

    7. Re:how brave of you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Godwin's law? In my thread?

      It's moar likely than you think.
      [ Free Hitler Check ]

    8. Re:how brave of you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of those very brave resistance fighters, though few perhaps, have very inspiring stories.

      Yeah, just like all these Mohammeds, Achmeds and Alis that blow themselves up in a crowd, or snipe unsuspecting people.

      No. Grow up and realize the fact that they were not "fighters", but "insurgents" and "terrorists", and also plain faggots. If hell exists, they are burning there right now, so no need to imagine them as martyrs.

  80. Environmentalism and Corruption by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    Environmentalism scares people. It ushers in big, unwanted changes. It tells people how to run their lives. And when that ideology clashes with libertarianism, like here on slashdot, a lot of mud is slung. The word "corruption" gets tossed around, as if it's not enough to be ideologically opposed to the environmentalists, but they also have to be sell-outs.

    In fact, if Greenpeace didn't publicly admit it had gamed the system for publicity, I would bet that there would be some FUD story claiming that they took bribes from [insert portable music device manufacturer here], and how this is just another example of their racketeering.

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
  81. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by pclminion · · Score: 1

    Thank you for again proving my point: switch to profanity and claim defeat.

    Defeat? You are the -- what's the term again... fucktard -- who has framed this as an "us vs. them" debate. You presume a battle where none exists. At least, none EXISTED until you chose to diverge from rational discourse and switch to partisan buffoonery. I don't really care if you claim to be a Democrat, Republican, or otherwise, at this point. You are simply a fucktard.

  82. Shocking? by LKM · · Score: 1

    While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it."

    Yeah, in today's world, it must indeed be shocking to find an organization telling the truth.

  83. Erm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So in other words you don't actually care about animals or cleaning up the Earth and just added that bit in for some false credibility?

  84. You are missing the point by pablochacin · · Score: 1
    First, thanks for such informative description of what kind of shit technology are putting in their products.

    However, I think you are missing the point here. The issue is not if Apple is still using toxic sustances in their products. The point is IF Greenpace is right in manipulating media in this way, targeting one company because is highly visible to the media.

    In other words, those sustances you mention, are less toxic if a less known company uses them?

    This is clearly a biased report which jeopardizes Greenpeace's credibility as the reporting policy is not transparent for us, the consumers. Greenpace should state clearly which media reporting policy is using and it should be based on some objetive metric such as the environmental impact or the recurrence of faults by companies.

  85. No, really... by Myrkridian42 · · Score: 1

    it IS Jobs. Look at it. It's a "dirty hippy playing the guitar" with Steve Jobs' face photoshopped over it. The picture is playful swing at Apple, not a smear on Greenpeace.

  86. so what? by m2943 · · Score: 1

    Apple is a publicity slut: glitzy ad campaigns, using pictures of Einstein and Chavez, carefully controlled leaks, etc. If Greenpeace uses them as a target to give more visibility to a cause, that seems reasonable to me. Why should we let Apple get away with only creating positive images for marketing purposes?

  87. Apple isn't pretending to be a disinterested party by argent · · Score: 1

    Why should we let Apple get away with only creating positive images for marketing purposes?

    When Apple claims to be a disinterested party they get hammered, even in supposedly pro-Apple forums as this, even on such occasions when they actually have a track record to support their claim. Because we know they're just another company (yes, really, they are).

    So turn it around.

    Why should we let Greenpeace get away with pretending to be unbiased? If they're going to act like just another marketing machine, then they shoud be treated like one.

  88. The ends don't justify the means.... by otis+wildflower · · Score: 1

    .... Unless they're _your_ ends. In which case, slander and attention-whore away. I mean, it's all for the good of the proletariat, yes?

  89. How Dare You Sir! by mdsolar · · Score: 1

    How dare you post this scientific gobledygook. This, Sir, is an Apple shill site!

  90. Why? by Luscious868 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While it's logical and not surprising, I find it quite shocking to see them be so cavalier, and even hypocritical, about it.

    Why? Show a me a group or individual publicly campaigning for a cause that isn't cavalier and, in some cases, downright hypocritical. Both conservative and liberal groups and individuals do this all the time and I'm tired of it. Right wing "pro life" advocates who seem to have no problem supporting a war in which innocent people are dieing every day spring to mind. As does Al Gore and the host of other leftist celebrities who try and bring attention to global warming by traveling the world in private energy wasting jets and then get from event to event via SUV once they've landed.

    I'm sick and tired of the "do as I say, not as I do crowd". Shut the hell up you shameless self promoters.

  91. Not surprising at all by ajs318 · · Score: 1

    Groups such as Greenpeace have never given so much as a flying fuck about the environment. In fact, the absolute worst thing that could happen as far as Greenpeace &c. are concerned would be the development of a cheap, plentiful and innocuous energy source capable of replacing fossil fuels altogether. Why? Because then they would no longer have a stick to beat us with.

    Apple are based in California, for crying out loud -- the state with probably the most stringent environmental legislation anywhere outside the EU.

    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  92. What ,really,is the problem? by flyneye · · Score: 1

    No one but a tiny minority of muttonheads actually believe ANYTHING Greenpeace has to say.
    The world has long since figured out that it is an organization that exists to benefit those who are paid to work there.
    Naturally they are trying to stir up headlines to raise funds.It takes less than a rocket scientist to figure out that they target the impressionable(young,teens) who are looking for purpose to fullfill their existence and exploit it to their financial and P.R.gain. Between the young and the clueless they make a pretty good living and have just as much fun as any supermarket tabloid speading lies created from half truths and outright bullshit.
    No one of consequence takes them seriously.
    No story here,move along please.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  93. Terrorism... by runwolf · · Score: 1

    Terrorism is the act of scaring people for a social or political reason using violence (or threat of violence). A person who uses terrorism is called a terrorist. Sometimes they do the things they say they will do, and sometimes they do not. Terrorists think that if others are afraid of them, they will have more power over other people.

    Huuuuuuum...

  94. What? Alarmist environmentalists? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No way! Say it ain't so!

  95. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

    The liberal mind is so interesting; capable of much technical knowledge, yet devoid of self-control and wisdom; the programming runs deep. Calling me a 'Fucktard' doesn't promote your insistance, win the argument, or do anything but embarrass yourself.

    There *is* a war going on. These people in Greenpeace are just one small unit in it. The masters of the 'progressive' movement own 80% of the media....they're just coming to terms with no longer owning 100%. Back in the day Walter Cronkite saw the Tet Offensive with all the blood and guts and declared it a loss. But the truth is, some 80,000 VC died in a very short time, damaging them critically- the war was almost won, yet because Cronkite spoke it, the president was convinced and we had 'lost'.

    They yearn for the days before Fox News, the internet, and Matt Drudge. Their game is coming apart, but I fear not fast enough. Their goal is the same; divorce us from tradition, de-educate us, empty our collective pockets, and make America unable to come to the rescue for the next century like it did, last century.

    And you, with your bluster and assumptions...you're just another bot in their arsenal. When you scream 'Partisan', you're fulfilling their rhetoric of those 'holy' days where there was no partisanship: just their viewpoint. No alternative views; no dissent; fascism. And when you call me a 'fucktard' you show what you were before they brainwashed you: some garden variety know-nothing kid.

    Thanks for illuminating my point; I won't bother with a reply.

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  96. Environmentalism by RoninOtter · · Score: 0

    Being an "environmentalist" myself, I can understand what organizations like Greenpeace are trying to do. They're trying to raise awareness, and that's a good thing. There's a list a mile long of things which the general public had no idea were happening over the years, and those things coming to light shocked them and made them push for change.

    Now, I have to say, I don't support Greenpeace financially because I feel that too many of their members tend to go too far. That is to say, they try to be shocking in and of themselves, as opposed to simply reporting the facts and letting the facts alone do the attention-getting. I've also heard the stories of them chaining the propellers of oil tankers and becoming human shields in the whaling industry.

    In the insanity of the modern age, some people who believe in an ideal will resort to more extreme measures to make themselves known. Sometimes that's called for, but it can get out of hand. I don't think this was a gross negligence or corruption on Greenpeace's part, but I think they would have preserved more of their credibility if they had stuck closer to the facts. Instead, they've run the risk of being labeled as "reactionary attention whores" and having the issues they're talking about ignored.

  97. Who's smelly ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A frenchman calling a hippy smelly - ha ha

    thats rich

  98. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

    "The "precision" you're using the terms? Liberal and Democrat are interchangeable, but Conservative and Republican aren't? Republicans have a pretty good stranglehold on the bulk of giant disasters and wasteful spending."

    Look closely; Republicans are the Conservatives that got into office. They're doing the massive wasting, and it's gotten us almost as unhappy on this side of the aisle as you are, on yours. I've screamed when I learned the money-and-men headed to be border had been cut off and diverted. I screamed when Bush picked Harriet Myer for the court. I screamed when McCain/Feingold broke the ever-sacred First Amendment. Alas, Bush isn't a great Conservative.

    If you'll look closely, even though the war (well, the part that's on TV is the occupation, and we're winning) the defeceit has been dramatically reduced. It in was in the news last week. It's because "Reganomics" or "Supply Side Economics" is working again, the SIXTH time it's been tried. The third time was under JFK, by the way.

    It *shouldn't* cost more and more to cover the basics, but when each and every item in the budget is getting a 9%-every-year standard, and someone doesn't get it, the Democrats cry "Oh, you're CUTTING the budget! Children will starve!" and the media amplifies it.

    So, on tap in the next decade or so are millions of senior citizens with no way to pay them, tens-of-millions on Welfare, and the houses we built for them, all needing money we don't have, and the hospital system, because there's too much government in it (Medicare/Medicade demanding prices) we'll be out of business.

    WE NEED TERM LIMITS.

    Only 3% of Congress changes after elections. We're electing people who are only good at one thing: getting elected. Almost no one there has had a real job, ever! How can we expect them to do anything *but* vote where the money is?

    Democrats are the first to buy votes with your tax money. See last week with Hillary pushing $5,000 to every child. See the S-CHIP plan for poor children, having "poor" defined by $80,000 a year, and "children" defined as old as 25. This is textbook Liberalism.

    There once stood a Democratic Party worth mentioning. It sourced people like Truman and FDR. But since Vietnam they've become SO much more Liberal it's false advertisement to call them Democrats. Teaching my pre-schooling masterbation? No thank you, Jocyln Elder. Still trying to put a bounty on the heads of the unborn? Back off, secular scientists. Take "God" off of everything? Piss off, ACLU.

    If you think there's no difference between the parties, please, for the love of God, DON'T VOTE anymore!

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  99. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow what a truthless and ignorant screed. How's that dishwashing job working out for you?

  100. Re:Apple isn't pretending to be a disinterested pa by m2943 · · Score: 1

    Why should we let Greenpeace get away with pretending to be unbiased? If they're going to act like just another marketing machine, then they shoud be treated like one.

    Greenpeace is a not-for-profit. That's not my opinion, that's a legal fact.

    When Apple claims to be a disinterested party they get hammered, even in supposedly pro-Apple forums as this, even on such occasions when they actually have a track record to support their claim.

    Apple is never a disinterested party: their goal and their legal obligation is to improve their bottom line, nothing else. If they claim they have any other goals, they are lying.

    Greenpeace, of course, is also not a disinterested party: their goal is environmentalism, but they are quite clear about it.

  101. Why Apple Doesn't Talk by Swift2001 · · Score: 1

    You kind of want some official response to a story like the Greenpeace boondoggle, but it only fans the flames. As it is, Apple's "no comment" makes the rumor sites go wild.

    But has any "issue" with the iPhone ever been overplayed as much? Let's see: if you have a baby with an iPhone, don't let them chew on the earphones. Well, they don't have iPhones. And if they chew on the earphones, they might get a spanking. Plus, not having your earphones burst into flame along with the battery seems more important in this instance. As for the rest, well, there "might be" more bad chemicals. Which will remain inside the iPhone until it doesn't work anymore, at which time you will of course give it in for recycling, right?

    It doesn't suprise me that Greenpeace acts this way. They have been an irresponsible organization for a generation, with a totally inflated reputation. In terms of the overall environmental activists, the NRDC is the New York Times and they're the Enquirer. They demagogue ruthlessly, they're sloppy with facts and light on research-- yuck.

  102. No blackmail by mcvos · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not hardly. Greenpeace is a blackmail racket, and their main line of business is getting companies to pay them to fuck off and shut up.

    Does this count as slander, or is it simply FUD?

    Greenpeace is funded by private citizens, and doesn't even accept funding from governments, corporations, or other organisations that might compromise their independence. The only way in which companies are requested to "pay up" is by reducing their damage to the environment. If you have evidence to the contrary, I would love to see it.

    1. Re:No blackmail by CrazyCanuck2 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Evidence? We don't have to give you no stinking evidence! (Well, maybe we'll have some next week. We loaned ours to SCO, and all we get lately is an answering machine...)

  103. Greentards! by Alessandro · · Score: 1

    Never mind facts and credibility, lets just attack Apple 'cause it grabs headlines. Listen greentards, if it comes down to choosing between Apple and Greenpeace, it's Apple all the way. Greenpeace has lost whatever tiny shed of credibility it had. The greentards are doing more harm to the environmental movement by making up alarmist stories. Haven't the greentards heard about crying wolf?

    --
    Alex
  104. Re:Seriously man, are you a pussy? by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 1

    As a born and bred bridge troll, I take great offense at the insinuation that all manner of trolls are incapable of participating in a civil debate on what is clearly a controversial topic. For someone who claims to possess Leftist ideals, your sweeping generalizations of my race are hurtful and inconducive to the discussion at hand.

    Now excuse me while I eat a passing traveler.

    (Irish traveller. %&#! pikeys...)

  105. I dismissed Greenpeace ... by CustomDesigned · · Score: 1

    many years ago when they started their campaign to ban the element Chlorine. (I kid you not.)

  106. Big Surprise by JCSoRocks · · Score: 1

    Greenpeace is painfully hypocritical and full of liars? Big Surprise. These organizations full of self-righteous crusaders always are... Peta is a good example - http://www.peta-sucks.com/main.htm This isn't trolling, this is obvious truth to anyone but the Pamela Anderson's of the world...

    --
    You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  107. As a former hippie with some leanings... by Roadkills-R-Us · · Score: 1

    ... I gotta agree.

    But why was the OP "shocked"? Many of the big environmental groups, at the top, are indistinguishable from the people they're fighting. It's power at any cost, and screw everyone who disagrees.

  108. Greenpeace hyprocritical? Imagine that. by gatkinso · · Score: 1

    Well, atleast more folks realize it now.

    --
    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  109. Mod parent UP! by mcvos · · Score: 1

    "Overrated" I might be able to understand (if the parent actually was rated high), but who the hell rates an informative and insightful post like this "flamebait"? One of the mysteries of the slashdot modding system, I guess.

  110. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly, this is a how-to for those certain members of the population that cannot legally enter a bar.

  111. Speak it loud and clear by deesine · · Score: 1

    Seems like you've read some Bill Whittle. If not, I highly recommend.

    --
    damaged by dogma
  112. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by armareum · · Score: 1

    If sex is the only outcome that matter, then better advice would be to just go pay a prostitute for some. It also gets rid of any obligation to good or talented at sex - they'll tell you exactly what you want to hear.

    --
    Is this a rhetorical question?
  113. Greenpeace isn't about the enviroment by geekoid · · Score: 1

    It is soley there as anti-corporate dick waving.

    It died as a useful environmental tool in the early 80s.
    Don't give them money or recognition.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  114. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by pclminion · · Score: 1

    The liberal mind is so interesting; capable of much technical knowledge, yet devoid of self-control and wisdom; the programming runs deep. Calling me a 'Fucktard' doesn't promote your insistance, win the argument, or do anything but embarrass yourself.

    The idiot mind is more interesting. You actually think I'm a "liberal" just because I dislike your partisan shit-slinging. You've gone wrong in the first 10 seconds of the "debate." I haven't voted for a Democrat in over 8 years.

    Your logic is basically, "I'm a Republican, he doesn't like me, therefore he must be a liberal Democrat." You have the IQ of a nematode. I don't like you because you seem to group each one of the hundreds of millions in this country into one of two groups, not because you are a Republican, not even because you want to defend that idiot Limbaugh. Like I said, you were on a good course until you decided to slip into partisan shit-slinging. You also define yourself in terms of which class of people you despise. Only a complete moron thinks like that.

  115. Marketing by Neanderthal+Ninny · · Score: 1

    How easy we, the media and some of us, get deceived by some people in the marketing world. However the world has gotten much more complicated so verifying sources is a hard thing to do but this verification needs to be done so we don't get the wool pulled over out eye in which this case Greenpeace did on Apple. This really doesn't help Greenpeace any in this "marketing" champaign against Apple and this will even more ammunition for the detractors of Greenpeace since now they have caught Greenpeace in a smear champaign.

  116. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

    Nice ploy; pretend to be Republican or Conservative. If you were, you'd know that Limbaugh was wronged in plain sight, in the exact same way any one of us could be. But that doesn't matter; presenting a good slap, does.

    "Nematode"..that puts you in 8th grade biology class around this time of day. You probably still think Limbaugh is fat, much less have any concept of anything he's said in 18 years. It's childish to present something without facts. It's deadly to vote that way. Keep that in mind, it'll give you something to do until the bell rings for lunch.

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  117. Re:Apple isn't pretending to be a disinterested pa by argent · · Score: 1

    Greenpeace is a not-for-profit. That's not my opinion, that's a legal fact.

    Where did I say that Greenpeace was not a not-for-profit?

    I said that Greenpeace was operating as a marketing machine, and that they were not acting impartially nor applying their resources effectively. None of these have anything to do with what their goals are, whether their goals are laudable, or how they are funded.

    Apple is never a disinterested party: their goal and their legal obligation is to improve their bottom line, nothing else.

    If two actions both serve those goals, and they advocate one of those over another, then there is no reason to presume bias in that advocacy. If an action does not have anything to do with those goals, then there is no reason to presume bias.

    But in any case, even if you decide not to believe that these circumstances could exist, I didn't say they should be given a "pass" even in that situation. I'm actually granting Greenpeace MORE leeway.

    My point is not that Apple is "better" or that Greenpeace is "worse", it is that when they are seen to be behaving in the same way, and Apple gets taken to task for it, why should Greenpeace be given a pass when they are not only seen to be acting inconsistently with their declared goals but have admitted to it?

    Look, the original argument was that Apple wasn't being expected to hold to the same standard as Greenpeace. My point is... they are: Jobs does get hit with brickbats in the press on a regular basis, but this time it's Greenpeace that's claiming to be exposing bad practices while they're actually ignoring the real bad players (who continue to operate in the darkness) in favor of attacking a high profile target that's already been responsive to them.

    They're crying wolf at Apple, ignoring the real wolves, and telling everyone that there's no point in actually responding to Greenpeace because Greenpeace doesn't care what you actually do... they only care how much PR they can get out of you.

  118. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by pclminion · · Score: 1

    Nice ploy; pretend to be Republican or Conservative.

    You're right -- I'm not a Republican. Nor am I a Democrat, a conservative, a liberal, or anything else. I'm a CITIZEN who has opinions on issues, opinions formulated based on my personal perceptions of reality. You on the other hand prefer to avoid actual thought by aligning yourself with a political abstraction. I suppose you can fly through the polls in 10 minutes flat. You seem to be the one who wants to avoid facts.

    As for Limbaugh, I have no idea if he's fat or even what the guy looks like. What the hell does it matter if the guy is fat? I just know that, based on a few things I've heard him say, he's an inflammatory jackass.

  119. Re: HOW TO GET A FEMALE TO LET YOU FUCK HER! by Brad+Eleven · · Score: 1

    Right on. Tom Cruise was awesome in Magnolia.

    --
    "Press to test."
    (click)
    "Release to detonate."
  120. Re:Cavlier and hypocritical? No surprise. by mr_matticus · · Score: 1

    More and more nonsense.

    Reaganomics IS deficit spending, making your whole point self-contradictory. It is also not a solution in and of itself. The particular supply-side approach also only restores the status quo, as it loses energy as the economy recovers; in other words, you have to dig the hole in order to need it. I'd also challenge you for a factual source for your claim that the deficit is going down as Bush wastes tens of billions of dollars seemingly every month--money we don't have.

    As to basic services that "shouldn't cost more and more", it would appear you need to be introduced to reality. We have this thing called the dollar, which is tanking on account of our terrible spending and disastrous fiscal policy. When it's worth less, it takes more to cover costs. Population is also increasing, which increases costs. Inflation is also a consequence of time. All of these things mean it will continually cost more to provide the services that society wants.

    Too much government in medicine? My god, you ARE bonkers. The whole HMO/healthcare access clusterfuck is the result of Conservative and free market policies put forth by your heroes. Care to those who can best afford it. Price controls? What price controls?

    "WE NEED TERM LIMITS"? Turns out we HAVE term limits. They're called elections. The people get exactly what the people choose. But you're encouraging people not to vote; what you think that would actually accomplish is unknown. I support your advice, though, because the more people like you that sit at home, the better. The 97% incumbency rate is also being misapplied by you (though it does indicate where you get your outrageously cockeyed "news" and "information")--more than 3% of Congress changes at each election, and if people wanted different people in office, well, there's that secret little "ballot" thing.

    Since Vietnam the country (and the Democratic Party) has shifted solidly to the RIGHT. The Democrats are not liberals. They're chickenshit moderates who don't have the spines to stand up to the Jesus hypocrites and the Spendy Conservatives. Democrats want to spend money, but they have a strategy for paying for it. Republicans (and your "Conservative" friends you try to separate from the current administration) want to spend the same amount of money, but couple it with tax cuts so it becomes even MORE expensive.

    It's amazing how you can stand on your soapbox with so little of substance. You're practically a Fox News posterchild--a real life Stephen Colbert. Sensationalist ranting aside, you've got nothing but a desire to shove your Jesus up everyone's ass and unravel the social programs that need to be repaired if this society has any hope of meeting its humanitarian obligations, let alone staying economically competitive.

  121. Prove it. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    It is very easy to make baseless accusations, not so to prove them.

    Go on wise boy, show us all the rich Greenpeace activists leading lavish lifestyles supported by people's donations.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  122. Oh really? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Then surely you will have no problems to provide us with some documented examples of such deplorable behavior....

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  123. I don't know what you saw.... by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    .... but I do know that the stuff you are smoking is of very high caliber....

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  124. Pal, you look lame. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Accept defeat and shut up.

    Poor sod, beaten by reasoned argumentation and having nothing to reply.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  125. And Greenpeace oposes industrialization where? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Oh wait, you mean dirty industrialization without regard for the environment?

    Sorry, my bad, I did not get you environmentally murderous gist.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  126. Really. No, seriously, really? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Then why is this harmless waste not disposed off with my kitchen waste.

    And why, oh why wise one, is this kind of waste so heavily regulated if it is harmless?

    Inquiring minds *must* know....

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  127. Oh really? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    And you could not be bothered to provide some links to this information (hint: Greenpeace does not accept donations from corporations, only individuals).

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  128. And this surprises people? by bandmassa · · Score: 1

    The environment movement has been taken over by ferals, not hippies, and the loony fringe. The planet will die as much because of the backlash against environmentalism caused by the ratbags in the frontline movement.

    Yes, there are some good and true believers, but so many are anti-science (we cannot save the planet without science), ill-informed or just plain contrarianists. Unless the activist organisations can regain some mainstream cred, the earth is as surely fucked as if we just give up and burn coal as dirty as ever until the party's over.

    --
    "I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1