Patrick Moore (environmentalist) - Criticism

Criticism

Moore's views and change of stance (see above) have evoked controversy in environmentalist arenas. He is accused of having "abruptly turned his back on the environmental movement" and "being a mouthpiece for some of the very interests Greenpeace was founded to counter". His critics point out Moore's business relations with "polluters and clear-cutters" through his consultancy. Moore has earned his living since the early 1990s primarily by consulting for, and publicly speaking for a wide variety of corporations and lobby groups such as the Nuclear Energy Institute. Monte Hummel, MScF, President, World Wildlife Fund Canada has claimed that Moore's book, Pacific Spirit, is a collection of "pseudoscience and dubious assumptions."

Writer and environmental activist George Monbiot has written critically of Moore's work with Indonesian logging firm Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). Moore was hired as a consultant to write an environmental 'inspection report' on APP operations, however Monbiot states that Moore's company is not a monitoring firm and the consultants used were experts in public relations not tropical ecology or Indonesian law. Monbiot writes, that sections of the report were directly copied from an APP PR brochure, commenting that hiring Moore is now what companies do if their brand is turning toxic.

The Nuclear Information and Resource Service criticized Moore saying that his comment in 1976 that "it should be remembered that there are employed in the nuclear industry some very high-powered public relations organizations. One can no more trust them to tell the truth about nuclear power than about which brand of toothpaste will result in this apparently insoluble problem" was forecasting his own future. The Columbia Journalism Review points out that Moore's position at the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition was paid for by the nuclear industry and he is in fact essentially a paid spokesperson.