Greenpeace is scrambling to explain away an embarrassing admission by its outgoing executive director that the group exaggerated a statement about melting Arctic ice and  “emotionalizes” issues to sway public opinion.
 
On its blog, Greenpeace tried to cover-up the admission by executive director Gerd Leipold as the work of “the handful of global warming skeptics still standing.” 

Gerd Leipold

In an attempt to “astroturf” (create a false impression of a grassroots response to an issue), Greenpeace urged online followers to spread its cover-up “clarification” via social media tools like blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Environmental and left-wing organizations often accuse conservative groups of astroturfing on contentious issues. (more…)

The outgoing leader of Greenpeace has admitted his organization’s recent claim that the Arctic Ice will disappear by 2030 was “a mistake.”  Greenpeace made the claim in a July 15 press release entitled “Urgent Action Needed As Arctic Ice Melts,” which said there will be an ice-free Arctic by 2030 because of global warming. 

Under close questioning by BBC reporter Stephen Sackur on the “Hardtalk” program, Gerd Leipold, the retiring leader of Greenpeace, said the claim was wrong. 

“I don’t think it will be melting by 2030. … That may have been a mistake,” he said.

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Sackur said the claim was inaccurate on two fronts, pointing out that the Arctic ice is a mass of 1.6 million square kilometers with a thickness of 3 km in the middle, and that it had survived much warmer periods in history than the present. 

The BBC reporter accused Leipold and Greenpeace of releasing “misleading information” and using “exaggeration and alarmism.”  (more…)