4 ~ Sunday, May 23, 1993 ~ North Shore News im a real- life eco- 1oore THE RELATIONSHIP betwcen Paul Watson, tree-spiking advocate, and Pat Moore, spokesman for the forest in- dustry, is one of the more compelling real-life dramas around. If you wanted two guys to em- body the divisions that have emerged in modern conservationist philosophy (considered until recently to be onv unified school of thought) you could hardly do better than pick these two. If they hadn't already both signed releases allowing characters based on them to appear ina movie that portrays them as war- rior-brothers in a battle to stop nukes and save whales and seals, I'd be busy trying.to pitch them as antagonists in a filma saga about tumberjacks versus tree-spikers. One of the keys to good drama is to have lots of interesting ironies underiying the plot, along with a “‘backstory"’ to give depth to the conflict. A Watson-Moore face-off flick would be a natuzal, set amidst towering Sitka spruce, with chain- saws shrieking in the background. Although they have surfaced on opposite sides of the stumps in the B.C, forestry debate, the two are, in fact, old eco-war buddies, hav- ing served, in both cases, in my opinion, with considerable distinc- tion, as Greenpeace front-line ac- tivists back when the three mil- lion-member international en- vironmental organization was still just a West Coast phenomenon. Think about it. There are rougtily as many paid-up Greenpeacers in the world as there are British Columbians, and despite the organization's current financial and internal political problems, its growth and influence show little sign of declining. As I have been insisting for a quarter of a century, the en- vironmental wars are just begin- ning. The last 20 years have seen the number of environmental groups in Canada grow from about a dozen to. more than 2,000. And Canada has been ahead of the curve globally. The growth in eco-awareness that is taking place is the rest of the world is probably at the stage now it was at in B.C, in the early °70s. As things get worse — and they are getting worse, sorry. — the in- evitable political reaction to the destruction of nature and the deterioration of living standards everywhere is bound to become ' stronger, angrier, more desperate. Environment is, after all, the - ultimate last-ditch issue. And it is probably best understood as being a counter-revolutionary force, the “revolution’” having been the process of industrialization, with ' its disastrous impact onthe biosphere. ‘ ; HE'S TELLING EVERY- STRICTLY PERSONAL This worldwide counter-revolu- tion is, of course, fragmented, which is the main reason it hasn't been more successful. Yet there have been some victories, and Greenpeace, among the other groups, has enjoyed its share, The relative success of Greenpeace is, in much farger measure than the current genera- tion of Greenpeacers want to ad- mit, due to the efforts of Watson and Moore. Watson was the guy who took some of the early death-defying risks in front of the cameras, while Moore played an important role as a forceful advocate of various causes. Both were rather good strate- gists. They were both also top- notch Zodiac operators, put it that way. And neither one of them was afraid to stand up to authority, leap into helicopters in the face of blizzards, head off into fogbanks in the middle of the ocean, or -argue with each other at board ‘ meetings. |, Watson und Moore first met, so far as I know, at an early meeting of the Don’t Make A Wave Committee i in somebody’s house in North Vancouver. That would be back in 1970. That date tells you, by the way, why it is so amusing, although frustrating, to see Watson, a | native of Toronto, referred to last week by a Globe & Mail columnist as being a ‘‘tough guy”’ activist “from San Francisco.” That journalistic forgetfulness is ‘actually a very good measure of how superficially Canada’s na- tional media still cover en- vironmental issues. Here’s another measure for you: both men have aged rather swiftly since that long- ago meeting. Moore had a candy-floss mass of rock star-type hair, and Wat- 5:3) Boney thu Sate ONE THAT [MSO CHARM- END To THAT! ING... ANDSO BEAUT!- Thank y you, ‘North Shore folks! ‘Ourn new North Van ‘store is quite a a "success! face off | rama son’s hair was jet black. Today, Moore is mostly bald and Watson’s hair is white, even though they are both just in their early 40s. Students of irony will savor this minuscule detail of local eco- history: Moore once ran against me for the presidency of Greenpeace. He was nominated by Watson. As it happened, 1 won. Months later, however, 1 decid- ed to resign, my little election vic- tory having turned somewhat sour in the face of endless internal power struggles (surprisingly like an ordinary political party). 1! handed the presidency to Moore, and the job of ‘‘media coordinator’’ to Watson. It called for a level of cooperation between them that provided to be too much to ask. Watson basically thought Moore had no balls, and Moore thought Watson was a reckless egomaniac. Maybe it was as simple as the problem of two tigers to a hill. Anyway, here they are now, all these years later, slugging it out in the media on opposite sides. Moore arguing that there are “about 56 years of cut remain- ing” in the old-growth forests, and Watson giving lessons in spik- ing, challenging not only the log- gers but the rest of the en- vironmental movement, which he accuses of uselessness. And here is the standout piece of irony, the item that would make this all work so well as a script: Watson and Moore, al- though they represent virtually opposite extremes in the forestry debate, have both managed to ab- solutely infuriate the mainstream environmental groups at large. It’s difficult, in fact, to tell which one of them has been vilified the mosi lately by the cur- rent Greenpeace leadership. Hey, I don’t invent this stuff. I just pass it along. NO GI HONEST HARD WORK BARBARA DAHL put “BARBIE DOLL” TO WORK FOR YOU 983-2518 MCS st NARROWS ‘ 15) Sh dy oan dee a Le Aah di WEIL! TLL PUTAN | {NOBODY ae ues ABOUT MY Wire! it “Tilley's Travels” is moving to the Vancouver Sun on Wednesdays. You'll find our other ads on inthe North’Sh in the Sun and coun . daily in the Globe & Mail and ays in th PHONE FOR OUR FREE CATALOGUE. Hanging Baskets - Bedding Plants Soil - Planters & much, much more! 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