News Shorts and Other Busyness

Brent Spar Campaign Vindicated By Public

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 15.

Almost 74 per cent of the general public aware of the Brent Spar controversy believe Greenpeace should continue its campaign against the dumping of oil platforms, according to an opinion poll conducted by Opinion Leader Research.

The poll, conducted in January over the telephone and involving 1,000 members of the public, helps demonstrate that Shell’s best efforts to regain the PR ground over the affair have failed.

When Greenpeace publicly apologised over its miscalculation of the amount of radioactive sludge actually on Brent Spar, right wing media, egged on by Shell’s PR team, reported the news as if Greenpeace had apologised for the entire campaign. Fifty seven per cent of those questioned in the poll thought that the Brent Spar platform should not have been dumped, with only 32 per cent in favour.