Waving goodbye to the Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Six weeks ago I packed my trunk in my bedroom in Grey Lynn Auckland, boarded a bus and rode downtown to Princes Wharf. There I walked up the gangway of the Rainbow Warrior. It was hot, late summer. American tourists crawled about the Viaduct. On the ship, there was excitement in the air and alleyways; a TARGET CLIMATE CHANGE banner ran between two masts. My cabin was downstairs and to the left. It had “Expect the unexpected” written on the door. I shared it with three others and it smelt like essential oils. I didn’t yet have my favourite spot to sit in the mess during dinner. And I didn’t yet know how to avoid pissing off the first mate. This would all come later. Read more »

The Rainbow Warrior in Wellington with the Beehive in the background (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

There is a worrying trend among our political leaders to use an age-old but completely nonsensical and deplorable excuse for doing bad things.

And it is this: “If we don’t do it, someone else will.”

We’ve had to tolerate this stance a number of times in recent weeks. First, David Parker, Minister for Climate Change, in response to our Lyttelton coal action

We have no intention of stopping the export of coal, and even if we did, it wouldn’t make any difference to climate change, because the countries we export to would just get their coal from somewhere else.

Second, Environment Minister Trevor Mallard, in response to the fact that his own company, SOE Landcorp, is clearing tens of thousands of hectares of forest in the central North Island for conversion to intensive dairying:

“If it (Landcorp) stops work someone else will do it.”

Read more »

Undoing dairy (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

It was a nippy morning and, coming from Auckland I could feel the difference moving down the island, but the physical labour returning over 1000 beautiful native trees to Papatuanuku warmed our bodies and our hearts.

The prestige mountain Tauhora stood in the distance, reminding me of how great our whenua is and the need to protect it. Just beyond us as we worked the land suddenly turned a destructive brown, with diggers working ignorant to the impacts of their actions, and the bigger picture of how the forest conversion to dairy farming will be on the environment and greenhouse emissions contributing to climate change.

Read more »

Dairy conversion near Taupo (C) GREENPEACE

While our teams in Taupo did some extreme gardening, I went to the Landcorp headquarters in Wellington to deliver a letter outlining Landcorp’s contribution to climate change and demanding that Landcorp halt its expansion plans for the dairy sector and instead lead the way in sustainable land use practices.

I arrived at the HQ on Allen Street and asked to speak to the Chief Executive, who came out very quickly to meet me. Perhaps they were worried I’d lock myself on to something!

I gave him the letter and then we had a great little debate. It went something like this …

They don’t own the land and therefore they have no say over what it’s used for.

(I pointed out that they lease it and do make the decisions about what it’s used for - in fact they’re playing a central role in the deforestation and conversion to dairy)
Read more »

All is very quiet on the good ship this morning. Half the troops have abandoned their posts! Usually at this hour the mess is filled with blurry-eyed Greenpeacers, but today it is just Tapio, mad Finnish engineer, talking about the vagaries of onboard filter coffee.

So where is everyone? Sometime late yesterday, about 15 people packed themselves into a couple of mini-vans. Sleeping bags were thrown in the back, along with spades. One girl had a very nice brand-spanking new navy blue spade. I had a surge of spade envy, mainly because I don’t even own one, let alone a shiny blue one.

There was talk of a dairy in the forest. They were heading North, they said, to a land where morning meant a chorus of cows, but trees were scarce. Some people were dressed in Swandries. And everyone seemed excited. I waved them off.

“Good luck with your tools!” I yelled.

Robert the volunteer (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

- A volunteer’s perspective

Today I lost my environmental activist cherry. Although I’ve been a Greenpeace supporter for a couple of years, this was the first time I’ve put my face out there for the organisation, and I wish I’d done it ages ago. Put aside all your preconceptions of hard-assed militants coupling with wind-burnt hippies. These people are down-to-earth, intelligent professionals with a bloody important message.

There were a couple of reasons why I offered to give up my Sunday for the Rainbow Warrior Target Climate Change Tour. Apart from the fact that I am passionate about the cause, it was a chance to spend some time on a ship that is an icon in its own right and a symbol for ecological movements all over the world. Even a grey day didn’t keep the Wellington public and tourists away. Read more »

Anne Manchester (right), niece of late, renowned New Zealand sculptor Colin Webster-Watson, presenting a $20,000 cheque from Colin’s estate to Greenpeace NZ Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid, infront of his sculpture Tail of the Whale on Oriental Parade in Wellington. (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

“I don’t think I’ve ever held this much money in my hand at one time!”

So exclaimed Greenpeace New Zealand Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid as she clutched a cheque for $20,000 today on Oriental Parade (it was a little windy, and one doesn’t want to lose that kind of sum to a rogue gust).

The money had been generously gifted by the estate of late, renowned New Zealand sculptor Colin Webster-Watson, from the proceeds of an exhibition of his work at Eastbourne’s Rona Gallery.

Colin’s niece Anne Manchester presented the cheque at the site of one of his sculptures – Tail of the Whale –, which takes pride of place just beside Oriental Bay Beach. Colin had been passionate about animal welfare issues and felt particularly strongly about whaling. His family had made the decision to gift the money to Greenpeace just as our ship the Esperanza set off on its recent expedition to the Southern Ocean. They decided Greenpeace’s Defend the Whales campaign was a very fitting cause.

As Bunny pointed out, this scale of gift is quite uncommon, and it was very humbling to accept something that will go a long way to helping us continue with our whales work. Thank you from all of us to Colin and his family and friends.

Renowned Political cartoonist Malcolm Evans puts paintbrush to billboard over climate change issue at Queens wharf,Wellington where Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior is docked. (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

Today. Wellington. Unseasonably still and hot. As 1:30pm rolls around, lunching office workers begin milling about Queens Wharf, where the Rainbow Warrior is docked. A blue-shirted man wielding a paintbrush stands at the ready beside a blank billboard canvas on the quayside. This is Malcolm Evans, prolific political cartoonist. And he’s about to put brush to paper over climate change. It’s something I’ve never seen before, a live billboard drawing. Each flick of the brush reveals something big and new – an elephant tusk, an expletive. It’s like watching a story unfold. By the end the moral is clear. Our politicians need to wake up. Read more »

The debate on board the Rainbow Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / SHAROMOV

The Rainbow Warrior arrived in Wellington yesterday, and to back up our survey of political parties, we cut straight to the chase with an on board political debate last night.

Climate spokespeople from four main parties came to defend their climate credentials – David Parker from Labour, Nick Smith from National, Jeanette Fitzsimons from the Greens, and Hone Harawira from the Maori Party. Read more »

Update: The debate can be viewed here.

In Wellington today (2 April 2008) at 7:00 PM, chaired by Sean Plunket from Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report and hosted by Greenpeace, NZ politicians are to debate which party’s climate policy is most on target to tackle climate change.

A live video webcast will be available at: http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/webcast from 7PM - 830PM
Read more »