Mike Mate

The security – the men in orange coats – lined the jetty, facing Rainbow Warrior. Paul leaned a little wooden ladder onto the port-side gunwale and Penny stood before the accommodation door handing National flags out to environmental activists as they stepped from the accommodation (where they’d been hiding from view). Each activist took a flag in hand, walked up the ladder and stepped onto the coaling jetty. The orange coasts stopped the first one, and the second, the third and fourth, but by the time the twentieth activist was walking up the ladder onto the jetty holding a bright National flag, there were too many to catch – they let them all go. 30 activists walked off the Rainbow Warrior holding onto the flags of the worlds 30 least polluting countries. I was delighted by the bright and beautiful colours that flapped and the peace that emanated from the action. E.on’s proposed new coal-power plant at Kingsnorth would emit as much carbon dioxide as these 30 least polluting countries combined. DISASTER set sail on a dark and grim cloud.