Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore will be in Prince George on Monday to give his thoughts on the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and how best to deal with the world's energy challenges.
And despite his claim to fame, he has a decidedly different take than the traditional environmental groups.
Now the head of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., a communications firm that provides consulting services to industry on environmental issues, Moore is perhaps now best known as a spokesman in a television commercial defending the Alberta oilsands.
"There are a lot of things we can do to reduce our environmental footprint but I believe a lot of people in the sort of popular environmental movement are going in a direction that is not feasible, does not make sense, and would end up causing more damage that it would cure," Moore said in an interview this week.
Moore's presentation, set for the Weldwood Theatre at the University of Northern British Columbia, 7 p.m. start, is sponsored by the Northern Gateway Alliance, a group of community leaders generally in favour of seeing the project go ahead.
But Moore said he comes from "an honest and sincere place."
"I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, I'm trying to give a clear picture of where the world's energy situation is now," Moore said.
Moore said he advocates a planned, methodical approach to tackling the issue.
"Like, for example, geothermal heat pump technology for reducing fossil fuel use in buildings, like, hopefully in the future, electric automobiles, but they still cost twice as much and don't go half as far," Moore said.
The technology has to "be there" before it can be used, he continued.
"This was the mistake with solar technology," Moore said. "It was rolled out into full-scale production before they managed to get it so that it was affordable.
"Now solar stocks are at 10 per cent of what they were three years ago because people are beginning to realize that it's economically unsustainable to try to base much of our electricity supply on solar."
