Talk about double standards!: Greenpeace Norway "proud" of the country´s oil industry

Norwegians, those socialist Arabs of the Arctic, who enjoy a life in luxury  thanks to lucrative fossil fuel exports, also enjoy lecturing others on the lack of environmental awareness. Greenpeace Norway is no exception; these greenies are proud of their oil and gas industry while at the same time strongly condemning other countries - like Canada - which try to benefit from their own natural resources: 

I'd come to those offices because I was interested in the views of the world's largest environmental group on the industrial darling of the Norwegian nation. Was Greenpeace -- an organization often characterized as extremist by the Canadian government -- going to provide me the first voices I had heard stridently opposing the Norwegian oil industry? Not really. Like everything else in this country, the dialogue was decidedly more thoughtful, and typical of the much lower rhetorical temperature in Norway.

I was met by Martin Norman and Truls Gulowsen, two veteran campaigners from the Greenpeace Oslo office. 

When I asked if they were proud of the Norwegian oil industry, there was a somewhat awkward pause. Gulowsen offered these measured thoughts:

"In Norway the oil industry is the biggest problem for responsible action on climate change and probably will be re sponsible for a lot of problems in the future.

 But as a Norwegian, I am quite proud that we as a nation have been able to control the world's most powerful industry to the degree that we have. So when we discuss the oil industry with my international colleagues sometimes it makes me a little proud that many of my colleagues would be happy if they could get their oil industry up to Norwegian standards in terms of regulation and precautionary measures and openness."

Oh yes, Greenpeace´s man in Norway fakes some vague criticism of the the Norwegian fossil fuel industry, but in general he is proud of it! No wonder then that Gulowsen every year gets an invitation to speak at the Norwegian Police Academy, where he probably concentrates on berating foreign governments for endangering the future of the world, by allowing the exploration of fossil fuels: 

Especially when it comes to operations in Alberta, it seems the oil industry is not under control. It's not regulated and monitored and enforced the way one would believe as a Norwegian. The more it leaks out to the rest of the world about how Canada lets the oil companies behave in the tar sands is gradually changing the world's picture about the environmental status and responsibly of Canada, and that isn't beneficial to any Canadians. "

Talk about double standards! 

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