Mike Mate

Exhausted, I disembark the Rainbow Warrior in the pouring rain, leaving the iconic vessel in the hands of a new captain. I hold my head down to the wind, hands deep inside my jacket pockets. The right pocket shares the hand of a beautiful woman. She steps through the puddles beside me in knee high red leather boots. I follow her into Amsterdam.

The sun shines in South Africa – in a few days I will be there, in Pietermaritzburg for Christmas and in McGregor for New Year. But I won’t be home long – this leave I will return to Amsterdam, to winter. If I am doing the right thing all the doors will open. On my first day off the boat the doors to a health and fitness centre opened up – I need to develop my core strength to take me back to Copenhagen.

For four days Rainbow Warrior made the headlines in every Danish newspaper. We were on all the TV channels. People asked why we were blocking a ship from discharging coal and then they understood – doors opened and a step taken forward towards the most important meeting ever on planet Earth – the United Nations meet in Denmark in December 2009.

We must act within ten years to avoid runaway climate change and we’ve just wasted one of them. Climate talks have ended in Poznan. The United Nations will talk again in a year’s time, in Copenhagen. The countdown to Copenhagen begins.

Today as the 14^th COP meeting on Climate Change ended, the US undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs and head of the U.S. delegation at the UNFCCC, said that the United States would never make the 20-to-45 percent emissions cut (by 2020) that Europeans hope to include in a final pact – because Congress will not even back Obama’s more modest target.

Today as Rainbow Warrior pulled out of Copenhagen I watched a little boy, dressed up in mittens and furry jacket, running along the path past the mermaid. I wondered what world he will inherit. Solving climate change demands nothing less than full global cooperation – the world’s great opportunity for people to become humble, to become one.

photo by Christian Aslund

South African state-owned utility ESKOM has canceled its plans to build a second nuclear reactor because of the enormous cost. Two weeks ago, Greenpeace launched its Africa office with a report “Nuclear power: a risky investment” which documents all the financial woes including massive cost overruns of two current Nuclear power projects in France and Finland.

South Africa’s nuclear plan has strategic importance because it is a leading developing country that many others follow. ESKOM was planning to build a special Pebble Bed Molecular Reactor, supposedly “more suitable” for developing countries. But this technology is not suitable even for South Africa. It will be hard to sell.

This announcement comes as the United Nations meet in Poznan, the COP 14 negotiations. At these Climate Change talks industry is promoting nuclear nuclear power as a climate friendly technology that should be supported in developing countries. South Africa’s wise decision now makes this claim more difficult to hold.

Back home, the R60 billion of public funds should now become available for the implementation of an energy revolution! If we are doing the right thing, all doors will open for us.
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There was not much coal left in the holds of the Hanjin Imabari. I could tell by the sound of the giant 40ton grab scraping against the steel, and by the sheer volume of boat that had risen up and out of the water. We were getting reports back from ashore that media had made a meal of our activities and public opinion was in our favour. The power company wanted to talk.

When the police called us up over the radio on Friday morning, they asked what our plan was. I told them “Our intention is to take the message – Quit Coal – to Poznan, to the UN Climate Change Conference”. And so we picked up the anchors. I brought Rainbow Warrior close down the side of the coal ship and sounded the horn in a long farewell blast – Hanjin Imabari replied. Then as her bridge windows came into view I looked up to see the captain standing behind them, he was watching our departure. I raised my hand in salute and farewell, he returned the acknowledgement and we went on our way.