Greenpeace. Closing BP stations

Yet again[1], Greenpeace get it wrong. Being neither Green nor Peaceful.

Today they've been targeting[current] small businesses that are franchised out from BP.

They have been basically preventing customers from filling up at BP franchises by illegally blocking off entrances, trespassing then turning off the petrol pumps by the emergency switches and, unbelievably, tampering with those switches with a screwdriver to remove the physical switch.


Two things immediately spring to mind (beyond the utter stupidity of tampering with the safety system):

 1) BP couldn't give a fig about this in any monetary capacity. It's well known that there is little money to be made selling petrol to end users in the UK since the vast majority of the difference between pump price and raw cost ends up in the government's coffers

 2) Most of the profit in petrol stations comes from the concessions sold in the shop. The sweets, the sandwiches, the maps, and so on. BP don't see any of those since they're run by small businesses/families, and it is those small businesses/families that Greenpeace are hurting.

Green? Hardly. All anyone who wants petrol is going to do is go to Tesco or Shell or Morrisons down the road.
Peaceful? Trespass - nope. Tampering with critical safety systems - nope.

They really have no idea....


[1] http://advertisingbollocks.blogspot.com/2010/04/greenpeace.html

Green'peace'

Update 7-Apr'10 1300UTC: As expected, they've climbed down on this one, and removed the post claiming people were taking 3 of the sentences out of context. They have, in what they claim to be transparency, 'relocated the post,' but not the comments that were made against it, though for the moment, they appear to have omitted to delete those on the original post.

Original post:
What Greenpeace claims they do[current]:

We defend the natural world and promote peace by investigating, exposing and confronting environmental abuse, and championing environmentally responsible solutions.

Which is a load of bollocks really; what they're actually planning on doing[current]:

If you're one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments[1] into submission, then hear this:
We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.
And we be many, but you be few.

So nice to see that Greenpeace are promoting peace by invoking barely contained threats of violence. Of course, as pointed out elsewhere, this sorta smacks of people who are losing the argument.

[1] Not that Greenpeace themselves aren't above a little "cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments into submission" themselves:

While the protestors[sic] make Greenpeace’s actions look like people power, their team of lawyers mount legal challenges against the plans of government or businesses wishing to build [power stations, and transport.]

Greenpeace’s actions have threatened energy production in the UK. They have mounted challenges to every attempt at fuel exploration and production, or the construction of conventional power generation plants, and to nuclear processing and power generation. Through decades of lobbying, protest, scare-mongering, direct action and legal challenges, Greenpeace have contributed to the UK’s failure to maintain its energy infrastructure. The result is that what we have left is in imminent danger of collapse, and energy experts warn that we face imminent shortages. Increasingly weak governments have given in to the pressure from these bandits. And as we can see with Cameron, he’s given in to them before he’s even taken office. Expect things to get worse.