...but not in a bad way, more of a triumphant chuckle, really.
It's all because of this article that was posted on Treehugger.com: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/greenpeace_coal_conference_activ...
When a major coal conference was being set up, Greenpeace offered to sponsor the event, working through a misleading name. It wasn't until someone discovered that the "company's" website redirected you to Greenpeace's "Coal is Dirty" site that they realized they had been duped into accepting evironmentalists into their midst.
To their credit, they allowed Greenpeace to attend and have their booth set up. They even invited someone to speak at the conference! If you read the article, it has an excerpt of that speech (it was a short one since he was cut off by security removing the speaker), and it was sufficiently powerful to have those coal barons squirming, I'm sure. At their booth, they had children handing our asthma inhalers and water samples from coal mines (which are disgusting by the way).
The part I like best about this story is the fact that Greenpeace happily took the opportunity to enter into "enemy territory" if you will and made the most of it. In the process, they learned things about major coal supporters, their goals (like making new coal mines in Alaska), and how they see their product ("Coal," according to one industry leader, "is life itself").
More importantly, they reached the people who really needed to be reached, presenting a side that is all too easy for them to ignore or dismiss when all their surrounded by are people with similar opinions. Greenpeace made a bold, intelligent move and I hope that they got through to at least a few.
