Re: RADSAFE digest 1187

[Dick King <king@reasoning.com>]

> 
> Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:56:58 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Richard G. Piccolo" <rgp2m@poe.acc.virginia.edu>
> Subject: The Jungle
> 
> The reason that the Greenpeaces, Sierra Clubs and others serve
> a purpose is because sometimes the Gatekeeper loses sight of
> his or her purpose.
> 

> 
> 3) Airbags and seatbelts certainly weren't the result of
> brainstorms from the big 3. Same with fuel efficient cars.
> 

Cars were competing on milage long before CAFE.

Of course the real competition on milage [that ad series, "the American way to
beat the pump" sticks in my mind]

And we got airbags that decapitate the odd child now and again because the
government ignored the research documents from the Big Three.  Of course, the
documents they ignored don't exist, but Ms. Clayborn[sp?] acknowledged.

Driver airbags are a good idea [and they were popping up here and there before
the required date] but passenger airbags probably are a bad safety buy.
They've killed a hundred tots in round numbers, and although airbags are
credited with a thousand saves or so, considering the number of single
occupancy vehicles i would imagine that most of these are drivers, not
passengers. 

> Now, I deplore the tree spiking and transmission tower
> sabotage, that is absolutely criminal.
> But, I know that my life is a little better for the
> many things that are addressed by these groups. 
> 
> And speaking of environmentalists making gobs and gobs of
> money. I sort of doubt that they do. Sure, some of them do.
> Even a lot of them do. But, let's think about this for a
> few...The average reader of this group has a pretty good job,
> benefits that include life and health insurance, probably a
> good vacation package, a couple of cars, a reasonably nice
> place to work, plenty of time to spend on the ol' Radsafe
> listserver and wax philosophically, some modicum of job
> security for a long time. All in all, not a bad gig. 
> I don't think
> for a minute that any intervenor has all this going for him or
> her. I doubt they make the big bucks. You really think the guy
> out there in a Zodiac standing between an Icelandic whaler and
> a right whale makes even 20K a year? Much less the benefits.
> I sure don't. He is doing
> that for the same reason you are irritated at him. Because he
> believes in it - and I sort of admire that in a person. I doubt
> you will see me in the North Atlantic facing down a charge
> propelled harpoon. Heck, even if this guy if off his nut, I
> admire him for his conviction of purpose. (And this is quite a
> different type of conviction than those in power in Bosnia,
> Zaire etc. There is no comparison and I hope we all can
> recognize that. I mean, do you think Milosevic gives a thought
> to a whale?"

The rank and file environmentalist in the boat is altruistic, but a case can be
made that the _leader_ of his group is not and that the sailer is getting bad
info from the GreenPeace brass.  They sure didn't get their facts right before
they organized a boycott of Shell re their proposed scuttling of an oil rig at
sea in 1995!

-dk