Greenpeace and environmentalists
Environmentalism is business as usual. Some examples. Last year, even as British, German and Italian ministers were asking for stronger measures on limiting carbon dioxide emissions than the original agreement in the 1992 Rio de Janeiro conference called for, the world's banking and insurance industries joined Greenpeace, reinforcing these proposals by demanding action against climate change.
The reason for this alliance between these businessmen and environmentalists was because "out of the 25 largest insured catastrophes in the U.S., 21 have occurred in the last decade, and 16 of those involved a combination of wind and water," Mr. Frank Nutter, president of Reinsurance of America, said. (Financial Times, March 27, 1995.)
Mr. Rolf Gerling, chairman of a German insurance company, said that the group "was taking greater account of environmental factors in its insurance policies and would try to set an example for the industry. Translation: Consumers will end up paying higher premiums and have large deductibles. That is good for the insurance business.
The Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufactures said orders for equipment to prevent air pollution, such as dust catchers, soared 393 percent to $ 252 million." (The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 7, 1994.)
"Recycling is being transformed from a gesture to help the environment, into solid business." (The New York Times, Oct. 8, 1994.)
Expect, very soon, industrialized countries putting up non- tariff barriers, such as environmental standardization and "green" ratings for companies, products and processes. In an interesting twist on recycling, German beer producers are demanding high standards of package recycling to keep foreign competition out.
Politicians, being who they are, have jumped onto the environmentalist bandwagon. The Greens, in Germany, had a strong show in last year's election and are now Germany's third largest party. Since the Free democratic Party is losing ground, Germany's conservatives are eying Green as a coalition party. Mr. Helmut Kohl siding with environmentalists -- during Shell's oil- storage buoy incident -- was just playing the good boy for Green voters.
Now, imagine if a firm has a certain industrial process, say, chlorine free paper production; said firm would have a Greenpeace hired gun to lobby for its wares. Good for Greenpeace, good for business. Environmentalists' scare tactics are not new. They have taken a page out of the weapons makers' book, which says: first create a scare, then the scared will sell your products.
Environmentalism is not about saving pandas and koalas, it is business as usual. I have not yet touched on the scientists' share of the business, namely, their quest for more funding.
OSVALDO COELHO
Bandung, West Java