Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore reported his former environmental group to the Federal Bureau of Investigation after it published an article that’s a “dishonest and disfiguring” attempt to entrap academics skeptical of global warming.
“The organization I co-founded has become a monster,” Moore writes in an article detailing why he reported Greenpeace to the FBI under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, wire-fraud statutes.
“I am profoundly dismayed that the organization I founded – an organization that once did good work addressing real environmental concerns – has descended to what I consider to be criminality and also proposes to descend to libel,” Moore writes.
Greenpeace published a report on Princeton University physicist William Happer and Pennsylvania State University sociologist Frank Clemente claiming they were willing to take money from fossil fuel companies to write papers casting “doubt about climate science,” all without disclosing their sources of funding.
Greenpeace activists posed as business consultants representing foreign companies with interests in oil and coal and asked Happer and Clemente if they’d be willing to write papers on the benefits of carbon dioxide and downplay the effects of pollutants from coal use.
Both academics were open to writing papers, but what Greenpeace claims in its article “were crafted in such a way as to distort what the above correspondence makes plain were wholly innocent and honest statements, so as to make them sound sinister,” according to Moore.
“Accordingly, I have decided to inform the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Greenpeace’s dishonest and disfiguring attempt at entrapment of Professor Happer, whom I know to be a first-rate scientist, one of the world’s half-dozen most eminent and experienced physicists, and one who would never provide any scientific advice unless in his professional opinion that advice was correct,” Moore notes.
“I have reported Greenpeace to the FBI under 18 USC 96 (RICO statute); 18 USC 1343 (wire fraud); 18 USC 1512 (tampering with a witness due to appear at a Congressional hearing); and 18 USC 1505 (obstruction of proceedings before committees),” Moore writes.
Happer, a prominent global warming skeptic who argues more CO2 benefits the planet, was set to testify before Congress Tuesday at 3 p.m. Greenpeace published its story about an hour and 20 minutes before Happer was set to testify.
Greenpeace’s story claims Happer was willing to take money from a Middle Eastern oil company to write a paper on the benefits of more atmospheric CO2 — something which is widely supported by scientific literature.
Activists claim Happer was “willing to produce research promoting the benefits of carbon dioxide for $250 per hour,” but Happer wasn’t actually going to take any money for writing the paper. Instead, he wanted the money to go towards his nonprofit, the CO2 Coalition — which he and Moore are both board members on.
“The organization’s timing was clearly intended to spring the trap on Professor Happer hours before he was due to appear in front of Congress,” Moore writes. “This misconduct constitutes a serious – and under many headings criminal – interference with the democratic process that America cherishes.”
Happer, however, gets no salary from the CO2 coalition. Happer also only agreed to write the paper if “my views… are in line with those of your client,” according to the email chain.
Greenpeace also attacked Happer for saying he could claim he “received no financial compensation for this essay” — activists claimed their “client” didn’t want their name in the essay. It should be remembered that Happer was not in fact getting paid to write the essay.
“The academics’ willingness to conceal the source of funding contrasts strongly with the ethics of journals such as Science, which states in its submission requirements that research ‘should be accompanied by clear disclosures from all authors of their affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions about possible sources of bias,’” Greenpeace writes, neglecting to mention the work product it asked for would not be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Greenpeace activists also cornered Happer after he testified before Congress Tuesday. Happer and others had to fight activists off as they asked him why he was willing to write an essay on the benefits of CO2 for an oil company.
“I shall also be asking the Bureau to investigate Greenpeace’s sources of funding. It is now an enemy of the State, an enemy of humanity and, indeed, an enemy of all species on Earth,” Moore writes.
Greenpeace did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on their undercover investigation.
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