I did it. Just now. I opened up the original version of our Greenpeace web writers style guide in our super computer, added “bonehead” and saved it to the network.

bonehead (noun) a appropriate term for most CEOs and heads of state, a bonehead is an informal term for a stupid person; a dunce, like George W. Bush.

What finally prompted me to take this rebellious stance in such a boring document?

Well, a week-long debate over an article about a GE DNA gut bacteria study. http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?news%5fid=18279

I finally said “that is it”. How are we suppose to make this world a better place if we spend a week arguing about minor changes and whether it was actually the first human volunteer study, even though our science unit could not find any reference to any other human studies. Oh wait, there was one on an artificial stomach.

Artificial! If I’m going to be eating this stuff in my afternoon chips that aren’t labelled, then I want to know that it is safe, has been tested, on human volunteers, not just a plastic bag.

Sometimes it seems we are so afraid of saying something unless 100% provable by science. You think the biotechnology, oil, logging, nuclear, and chemical companies follow this same theory. Surely they would not be making the millions in profit if they did.

I can’t remember ever saying to myself, I’m going to join Greenpeace because its got good science. I joined Greenpeace, I come to work in the morning, I spend late nights and weekends working because I believe that we must make a moral and ethical choice to make this world a better place, to not destroy the world around us that we depend on for our lives.

Yes, science is important, it does have a place, but I don't make all decisions in my life based on science - I don't think it will solve all of our problems.

Yeah, sure sometimes I feel like one of the stark raving mad lunatics my mother used to warm me about. And we often get accused of fear mongering, blowing things out of proportion. But we’ve got headlines about 2km wide asteroids heading for earth to compete with.

So will putting boneheads in our style guide really make a difference?

No, not on the big scale of things, maybe not even for anyone else. But for me, I’ve said, here’s the line, no more bullshit, I’m not doing this for the science unit, I’m not doing it for the Oxford dictionary – I’m doing it for my children that I may have some time in the future, maybe.

Oh, alright, I’m doing it for myself. I’m tired of living in a world run by bullshit leaders, spouting bullshit down the media pipelines and never getting anything but bullshit for the people on the other end.

I need to add bullshit to the style guide too.

bullshit (noun) the lies and deceptions told to us by corporations, governments, managers and parents to make us submissive, docile and willing to settle for a mediocre life, with a polluted environment and people suffering all around us.