The latest stunt by Greenpeace is not something I respect even though I have substantial problems with Arctic oil drilling. Members of Greenpeace tried to get onto a Russian oil rig in the Arctic and the Russians arrested them subsequently charging them with piracy. Interesting to me is this is also pushing up Putin's popularity as he has said he doesn't view it as piracy but it was nevertheless a significant threat to a dangerous resource. As we have seen, most recently on the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, if an oil rig is mishandled the damn thing will explode and people will die, not to mention the vast threat from the oil that is spilled and the damage to the environment that comes from it.
I've been a huge supporter of Greenpeace for years but I can't support the oil rig stunt even if I appreciate what they were trying to do. This was simply not a good way to do it. Greenpeace led the way on fighting the Japanese when they pushed out their phony research program to justify killing whales and this arguably is piracy as well but there is no risk to anyone other than those who are committing the crime. Many people are fighting the Japanese these days and fairly successfully but Greenpeace started it.
What's interesting to me is that Putin seems to be entirely covered in Teflon as nothing at all sticks to him. While just about every other politician on the planet is doing nothing so much as making a damn fool out of himself or herself, Putin is very much on the rise in public opinion. For example, there's Netanyahu's statement recently that you can tell Iranians are controlled because they don't wear blue jeans and can't listen to Western music. Not surprisingly he's been ridiculed and maybe the response is you can tell Israelis are being controlled because they have to listen to rubbishy Western music.
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