TORONTO -- Greenpeace, the international environmental action group, turned 20 Sunday, and like an earnest teen entering adulthood, it feels all grown up and ready to save the world.
But critics say the group is an overgrown punk, moreinterested in glory -- and protecting its worldwide $150 million annual budget -- than real accomplishments.
'Yes, we've made mistakes. We don't claim to be perfect, but we've got a commitment to action,' said Michael Manolson, executive director of Greenpeace Canada and a board member of Washington, D.C.-based Greenpeace U.S.A.
Manolson, a Greenpeacer for almost 17 years, rejects charges the organization is a slick, media savvy stunt-stager that accomplishes little. 'There's nobody getting rich in Greenpeace,' he said. 'We're certainly prepared to be evaluated on our record and the work we've accomplished -- that's what our supporters do.
As for its budget, Manolson said, 'Sure it seems like a lot of money, but when you're taking on the international industrial agenda and empire, ($150 million) is a nothing amount of money.'
A four-page synopsis of some of the accomplishments Greenpeace cites is impressive, dating back to 1972, when it says it forced the United States government to stop atomic testing in Amchitka, Alaska.
Greenpeace was born in Canada in 1971 when a ragtag group of anti- nuclear protesters calling themselves the 'Don't Make A Wave Committee' sailed into the Amchitka nuclear test zone in an attempt to stop the tests.
The fledgling group's reputation continued to spread, but it wasn't until a decade later that Greenpeace's credibility and stature were solidified internationally.
Greenpeace won worldwide attention in 1985 when French government agents blew up its ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand, killing one crew member. The ship had been protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
The Greenpeace movement, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, has spread to 24 countries, with a worldwide membership of over 5 million.
Among its accomplishments, Greenpeace claims victory in ending worldwide seal and whale hunts, banning leaded gasoline in West Germany and winning a 1988 U.S. court injunction against Japanese fishermen using driftnets in U.S. waters.
Manolson said the group's stunts, or 'actions,' are now staged to draw attention to months or years of research and lobbying by Greenpeace scientists, staffers and volunteers.
But Greenpeace's critics, on both the left and right, aren't sure the group is accomplishing anything.
'I look at Greenpeace as a 'feel good' organization,' said Paul Watson, a disgruntled Greenpeace co-founder who left in 1977 to establish the Los Angeles-based Sea Shepherd Society animal protection organization.
'They haven't had good ideas in 10 years -- they kicked out anyone with tactical experience,' said Watson, who prefers ramming illegal whaling vessels to protest marches and letter writing campaigns.
Watson said what began as an earnest, if naive, group of concerned people has become a movement taken over by 'lawyers and bureaucrats' solely concerned with fund-raising.
'Greenpeace is becoming a multinational eco-corporation,' Watson said. 'It's a pretty lucrative banner-waving organization.'
Canadian Nuclear Association spokesman Ian Wilson accused Greenpeace of spreading false and misleading information about his industry and its members. 'They go after industries ... which they see as productive in fund-raising,' he said. 'I'm convinced it's very deliberate on their part.'
Wilson said the association supports Greenpeace in opposing nuclear weapons testing, but disagrees with the group's opposition to nuclear alternatives to using fossil fuels.
David Somerville, president of the right of center, anti-big government National Citizens Coalition, says Greenpeace has outlived its usefulness.
'They were on the leading edge trying to sensitize people. They helped put environmental issues on the map -- but they're now on the map. Their time has past,' Somerville.
Somerville also criticized Greenpeace's politics. 'They're 'watermelons' -- green on the outside, pink on the inside,' he said. 'They don't like free enterprise or private property -- they've got a lot of philosophical baggage with them.'
At least one group's birthday wishes to Greenpeace are bittersweet.
'There's no question they've done good things, and I would much rather they are around than not, but our people have paid the price for Greenpeace's apprenticeship,' said David Monture, secretary-general of Indigenous Survival International.
Monture, whose group represents 1.4 million natives in Canada, Alaska and Greenland, said zealous Greenpeace campaigns against hunting and trapping in the 1970s imperilled the livelihood and lives of native people.
'Like the rest of the animal rights community, they were opportunistic,' and launched financially lucrative fund-raising campaigns at the expense of native hunters and trappers, Monture said.
Monture, who calls Greenpeace part of the 'animal protest industry,' said he doubts the group can now work with natives. 'As far as we know they don't have a coherent policy on indigenous people and sustainable development,' he said.
Monture said it is ironic that the name of Greenpeace's flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior' is derived from Ojibway Indian environmental beliefs.NEWLN:
