Unfortunately for Leipold—and fortunately for the rest of us—the BBC reporter was armed with facts and undeterred by dogma. And again I point this out in the context of Greenpeace's current effort to use its velvet-glove name to hide its brass-knuckles attack on the IT industry. Here's the second half of the exchange (and at the bottom of this column I've provided links to the 100-second clip plus a few other goodies):
Leipold: "That we, as a pressure group, have to emotionalize issues—we're not ashamed of emotionalizing issues. I think it's a fact—"
BBC reporter Stephen Sackur: "You call it emotionalizing, others would call it scare tactics. Will you sit here now and tell me that you in all honesty do not believe that the Greenland Ice Sheet is going to melt by 2030?"
Leipold: "I don't know—I don't think it will be melting by 2030."
BBC: "So in fact would you say that it was a mistake for your organization to put that out?"
Leipold: "That may have been a mistake—I don't know this specific press release—I do not check every press release."
Oh my. So the Dear Leader goes from saying the Greenland Ice Sheet will be gone by 2030, to saying that he doesn't know after all, to saying that he doesn't think it will be melting by then, to saying that it might have been a mistake for his fellow shakedowners to put out the press release making those preposterous claims, to washing his hands of it by saying he's too busy to check what "emotionalizing" claims his "pressure group" is making.
So think of that when you see the attempts by Greenpeace to smear IBM, Microsoft, and Google, three magnificent private enterprises with superb environmental track records and philanthropic missions. Because to the shakedown artists, none of that matters—their goal is control, influence, and power to undercut free enterprise and force this country and then other industrial powers to take a few steps back toward the Stone Age.
Don't be fooled by the name. And to IBM, Google, and Microsoft: continue to stand up for yourselves and your excellent principles, and don't be fooled into thinking that if you acquiesce to this latest round of nonsense from the screechers, that they'll let you go next time. No, it'll be quite the opposite: if you give in now, they'll know that you'll give in next time, and they won't stop until they've done enormous damage to you, your shareholders, your employees, and others in the IT industry with the unmitigated gall to oppose their sacrosanct vision for how everyone else should behave.
Don't be fooled by the name.
Recommended Resources:
100-second clip with Leipold and BBC
full interview with Leipold and BBC
Some compelling counterbalance to Greenpeace lunacy