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...

Snapshots from day2

as they say a picture's worth a thousand words... here are some nice photos of what happened on day2 by Albert Lozada of Solar Generation Pilipinas

- chuck baclagon

Day2: Read my lips

The weather today is fairer than yesterday and what’s good about it is that its not so hot as it was yesterday just before it rained. We had a lot of visitors today, that’s why we spent most of our day taking photos of people in a project that we have fondly called: “Read my lips: QUIT COAL!”

Basically the idea is that we are taking photographs of people sporting a drawing of an open mouth with the text, ‘quit coal’ over their lips, basically just so that we could print it later and deliver it to the government just so that they’ll realize that its not just Greenpeace and some civil society groups who are against the proposed coal plant, but the common folks from varying classes and professions.

This project was initiated back when the Rainbow Warrior was still in Manila for an open boat, and what we did was we brought along a computer mounted with a web cam and took photographs of people holding the banner at portside, we already have more than a hundred pictures from local folks students, professionals, religious laity, a couple of police officers and even the Archbishop of Iloilo, Angel Lagdameo, who visited our camp right before sunset, he was more than gracious in accommodating us with the camp site and he just dropped by to show his solidarity with the volunteers from various groups that have set camp.

Hopefully the people pushing for the plant will read our lips loud and clear and decide to no longer push for the coal plant build.

X.S. You can also be part of this photo project just download the banner on this link and snap a shot of yourself holding the banner and submit it in this form, or if you’re on Flickr you could join our group in this link.

- 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

"positive energy"

Today our activists painted the 'Sam John Spirit', a second coal carrier waiting to come in and offload its polluting cargo. They painted QUIT COAL QUIT COAL QUIT COAL QUIT COAL, in large white letters, all the way down the 223 metre long starboard side. I was able to read it from our anchor position, where we are still blockading the 'Medi Firenze', 3 miles away. But the most amazing thing happened some hours later.

I had just finished lunch when Kristin looked up through the porthole and exclaimed "we're moving". Sure enough, the stern of the Rainbow Warrior was swinging rapidly towards the Medi Firenze. I left my dirty plate on the mess-room table and ran up to the bridge, the rest of the crew close on my heels. The Power Station launch was pushing as hard as it could on our port bow, trying to displace our anchor array - this was causing us to swing. As luck would have the wind was on our side and I called out to Dan, who was sighting the lie of the anchor chain on the bow, "set the jib". Whilst Dan made the preventer rope fast, Sarah took the yellow remote controls and unfurled the sail, and the wind filled it. The security launch had no chance. And then, an angel must have passed us by, everyone on deck was looking up at the jib, at its design of green wind turbines. "There we go Sarah", I called out, "positive energy", and the entire ship broke into spontaneous applause. The Power Station launch was being pushed backwards by wind filling the sail.

- Captain Mike Fincken