I recently spent several days in Venezuela spreading the word about junk science. One of my stops was at the Universidad Catolica in Caracas.
I was accidentally led into a lecture hall where Greenpeace was showing a propaganda film. (You know the type. It featured gallant environmentalists cutting through ocean swells to harass some poor oil tanker trying to deliver its cargo.)
Figuring out that we were in the wrong lecture hall, my hosts and I beat a hasty retreat.
As I left the lecture hall, I picked up a Greenpeace pamphlet. (I wanted to see what they were using to brainwash Venezuelan college students. I was not disappointed.) The cover of the pamphlet said:
por un futuro sin riesgos. This translates in English to:
for a future without risk. Now, exactly what is "a future without risk?" And is there such a thing?
Contrary to what Greenpeace would have Venezuelans believe, there is no such thing as a future without risk. Everyday, from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, we are constantly balancing risks and rewards, costs and benefits..
For example, there's risk commuting to work. I spend about 90 minutes a day in my car and that's plenty of opportunity to get killed in an automobile accident. Of course, if I stayed home, the risk of starving to death is probably a lot greater. So I drive to work.
Would a Greenpeacer stay home? I doubt it. So why are they marketing the concept of "a future without risk."
With this concept, Greenpeace can point to any industrial activity in Venezuela and associate it with "risk." And Greenpeace tells us that our future should be "without risk" — but they really mean "without industrial activity."
Unfortunately, if you ever been to Venezuela (or most of the rest of the world) you've probably observed that the number one environmental problem is not industry. Rather, it's poverty.
And so Greenpeace's "future without risk" really translates into "no future."
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