This is not yet the end...

We all felt hopeful by the time the Rainbow Warrior has faded down into the horizon off to continue the struggle for a greener and peaceful future that's free from coal.

Looking back we cannot help but feel hope at the prospect of freedom from coal. Two days before the Philippine Independence Day we lit the night sky of the Jaro Cathedral grounds in Iloilo to manifest our aspirations as beacons of hope and it is with the departure of the Rainbow Warrior that we are hopeful that the candle lights that illuminated that dark night sky has sparked a flame that would carry on until genuine and lasting freedom from coal is realized.

This is not yet the end...

Stay tuned for the Rainbow Warrior's arrival in Thailand...

In the eye of the storm – or the effects of burning coal

What an end to our Quit Coal ship tour in the Philippines… After talking about the effects of Climate Change on the Philippines for several weeks, I experienced them first hand with “Frank” or internationally better known as Typhoon Fengshen. The Rainbow Warrior left just in time from the island of Boracay where we had launched the “Save the Climate, save Boracay” initiative with local resorts. Just hours later the typhoon struck the island.

I have never seen such torrential rainfall, flooding and strong gales for 3 days. Stuck on the paradise island of Boracay – it seemed more like hell with no way to escape; no electricity, water or any kinds of communication with the outside world.
The locals assured me that this was nothing compared to a super typhoon.
Although typhoons hit the Philippines on a regular basis, they have changed their pathway due to climate change hitting the islands more frequently and intensely. Here you can get a glimpse of the impacts.
I can tell you, that I am more than relieved that the storm is over. The sad irony is that the island of Panay with the City of Iloilo, where we have been protesting against the new coal fired power plant and pointing at the impacts of Climate Change, has been hit hardest. Greenpeace Southeast Asia is now looking if we can help with the rescue operations.
Climate Change often seems so far away to me, reduced to scientific numbers – this experience has definitely showed me that we cannot waste any more time until we act.

- Mareike Britten

Taking the easy way out...

News came about of intimidation from Panay Power Corporation (PPC), wherein their men harassed the Greenpeace Climate Defenders Camp in Barangay Ingore, Iloilo City, Philippines and endangered the safety of peaceful activists.

In an unprovoked attempt to disrupt the camp, workers from PPC, acting under orders from management, tried to dismantle the camp tower while Greenpeace climbers were still on the structure and could have been injured. Later the workers fenced in the Camp tower with bamboo poles and tarpaulin, cutting off the Greenpeace activists.

A quick look at it, simply makes me realize how PPC is now trying to take the easy way out, by resorting to violence in order to brush aside our message. At the same time it also demonstrates why the Greenpeace principle of non-violent confrontation to raise the level and quality of public debate has stood the test because it does not take the easy way out it seeks to go deep into the roots and follow through on the issue and stop only when the 'wrong' has been made 'right,'as Cesar Chavez puts it:

"Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak … Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."

Read our statement on the incident

- chuck baclagon

Facing the pro coal villagers

Have you ever been surrounded by 20 people shouting at you in a language you don’t understand? Quite scary. Yesterday in the early hours of the evening the pro coal chief of the village next to our camp had organized his relatives to come to the camp and shout their pro coal messages. The atmosphere seemed tense.

I made eye contact with the women in the crowd and smiled at them and to my surprise the smiled back, even giggled and seemed somehow embarrassed. Most of them had spent the afternoon with us while their children had coloured in pictures of the Rainbow Warrior with our Quit Coal message. Three women seemed more serious though and tried to agitate the crowd. My heart was beating. Not the right moment to sit down and have a discussion about Climate Change. Just repeating that we are here to protest peacefully, smiling and calming down the crowd. I can understand that they want the jobs at the power plant and the money the company promised to invest into schools. However they will be the ones first feeling the impacts of climate change and won’t have any resources to adapt. I have to tell myself that many people in the community are against this plant and that this is also more than just a local issue.

It seemed hours before they left. They might come back though today.

- Mareike Britten

Save the Climate - Quit Coal in Iloilo, Philippines

Do you remember the movie “The day after tomorrow” ? When I watched it a shudder ran through me and I felt helpless with this dooms day atmosphere in relation to Climate Change. Entering the climate defenders camp this morning here in Iloilo, Philippines in the area of a proposed coal fired power plant, reveals a completely different picture; laughter, colourful flags and banners all around the site, happy but tired Greenpeace activists are working to improve the camp and an atmosphere of peace prevails.

The local children have found their way into the camp and use our improvised pier made of rafts as a platform to jump into the sea. Shouting, clapping and splashing are filling the air. Next to us some workers of the existing power plant have set up camp. I overheard that they are quite happy to be here as they are paid overtime and just have to sit and watch. I feel relieved. The situation looked differently yesterday. Police and the local pro coal village officials came with a whole crowd into the camp and threatened to dissemble the camp. After some negotiation they backed off. This morning they blocked off the road to the camp not letting any camp supporters like nuns and bikers through. Now everything has calmed down.

Being among so many passionate people gives back the feeling that we are doing something meaningful. Sometimes I miss this feeling working in the office and just reading about all the great activities that people organize to combat climate change.
Most important is the feeling of giving hope to the community here. A nun came to me 2 days ago and thanked me for Greenpeace being here. That makes even the worst heat bearable.

- Mareike Britten

Solidarity night against coal

We were all in high hopes as music from Noel Cabangon and other local artists filled the halls of the Pius XII Catechetical School in Iloilo for a solidarity concert that was held with the local coal opposition in Iloilo, and what made it extra special is that as we were about to start news came that the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on the Renewable Energy Bill that would expedite the development of renewable and indigenous energy sources, a wonderful night indeed....

- chuck baclagon

Day 1: Fire & Rain

"The poor will be hardest hit by weather-related disasters and by soaring price inflation for staple foods, but even the richest nations face the prospect of economic recession and a world in conflict over diminishing resources. Mitigating climate change, eradicating poverty and promoting economic and political stability all demand the same solution: we must kick the carbon habit!"
-Ban Ki Moon, United Nations Secretary General

Today’s world Environment Day and what better way to celebrate it than to open a ‘Climate Defenders Camp’.

Under the clear blue skies we’ve set up camp right outside the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, we’re here because there’s an ongoing struggle between some business groups and government officials on one hand, and the Roman Catholic Church & environmental groups on the other, over a proposal to build a “clean coal” 165MW coal-fired power plant in the province. The location of the coal plant is beside an existing diesel plant located within the city itself, and within 300 meters from densely populated low-income residential neighborhoods.

The NGO Germanwatch, has ranked the Philippines as the top nation to be hit by climate-related disasters in 2006. Yet despite being ravaged by some of the most powerful storms, floods and mudslides in recent years, yet the Philippine government is embarking on one of the most aggressive coal expansion plans in Asia.

It is in response to this myopic perspective of development that we’ve set camp in one of the city’s busiest areas we want to engage people into looking at the long-term benefits of opposing the plant and while at the same time pushing for a dramatic shift of our energy dependence from coal to renewable energy.

As we set camp youth members of Solar Generation launched a solar café that runs on solar energy derived from the solar panels that we’ve also installed on site, we’re hoping that the people of Iloilo would share our vision of a greener future that’s no longer dependent on fossil fuels, echoing the sentiments stated by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon on his World Environment Day Speech.

A few hours after we’ve put up the entire camp along with the exhibit, rain suddenly gushed and what seemed like an afternoon drizzle suddenly became a relentless downpour that flooded the entire camp area and we were forced to take down all the stuff that might get damaged from the water that's speedily engulfing our camp.

By the time the rain has stopped it was almost dusk and we were forced to regroup and rebuild. Hopefully tomorrow's another day...

This is a video taken by our volunteer Albert on his camera during the rain

The whole experience candidly reminded me of James Taylor’s, Fire & Rain where there’s a line that goes: “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain…” and that best explains how we all felt we put up camp under the scorching heat of the sun up until noontime when suddenly the rain poured. On hindsight, our experience during the first day of the camp best illustrates the sudden unpredictability of weather patterns that we are all experiencing now, due to climate change. All over the world there’s a debate on whether or not we should kick the carbon habit.

Hopefully this camp will in its own little way help turn the tide in the debate.

• you can also read the web story on the Greenpeace website

- chuck baclagon

So we wait again....

I wanted to write for this blog last night but our night turned into dawn because of developments near the port of the Pagbilao Coal Plant where the Rainbow Warrior is anchored.

Company representatives came onboard and asked to talk to us about their operations. As we were ending the discussion, the plant manager (who said his name was irrelevant to the conversation when I asked his name) told the Captain something like, "A wise man understands the law" but the Captain retorted with a one-two punch (figuratively) and with a smile said, "And an ignorant man hides behind them". Applause!!!!! As we know not all laws are fair that is why we are advocates. We find something wrong in the law, that's why we work to change them. We thought that was the end of it for the day.

Then, at 10 PM last night, the Coast Guards arrived asking the Captain to receive a letter saying the Warrior was violating Philippine laws by anchoring near the port and that we could be removed and arrested if we don't move the ship.

We are still here and we are now on our second day in Pagbilao. This morning, we were able to paint a ship on anchor outside the Pagbilao port carrying coal with the message "Quit Coal". It's late afternoon and we're still waiting... Waiting for government to respond to our demands that (1) there should be no more construction or expansion of coal plants in the country; (2) increase investments in renewable energy; and (3) inclusion of CO2 emissions in the EIA system.

So we wait again....

-Beau Baconguis

Quit Coal - Save the Climate

Hello. My name is Beau and I'm the campaigner on board the Rainbow Warrior for the Philippine leg of the Quit Coal, Save the Climate Tour. Our first day on the Rainbow Warrior began with the crew waking up really early to prepare to dock at the Legaspi port from anchorage in the Albay Gulf. For someone who does not know much about ships, it looked like a complex maneuver in order to squeeze in between two boats was needed because the port was quite small. But Captain Mike and his crew made it look so easy and we had landed in no time.

We kicked off the tour with a press conference onboard. Captain Mike charmed the press with stories of how we work with the Rainbow Warrior and other Greenpeace ships. He spoke of SAILING into Philippine waters all the way from New Zealand. Our Executive Director, Von and Climate Campaigner Jasper talked animatedly about our campaign to push for renewable energy while phasing out coal.

The highlight for the day was the declaration of Vice Governor Brando Sael of Albay Province (on behalf of Governor Joey Salceda) that Albay Province would be a Coal-Free Zone. We were very pleased because this meant, zero toxics from coal facilities for the people of Albay, less CO2 emissions going out into the atmosphere. Equally important is the signal that they send to the national government that the environmental, economic and social costs with coal is just too high that investing in coal is just not worth it. The people of Albay feel strongly about this because they know what it is like to be hammered by typhoons year in, year out.

Mabuhay to the people of Albay for this courageous deed!!!

-Beau