Greenpeace - Making Waves: Windmill warriors

Finally I have made it to the Rainbow Warrior! Well what can I say... having volunteered and worked with Greenpeace for nearly 5 years wondering when I will actually set foot on our flagship - it feels a bit strange to be here at last. It's like seeing a legendary celebrity walking down the street and realising that they actually exist in the real world and not just in the media.

Another thing I have found when seeing someone famous is they are always smaller than I expected. The same was true for the Rainbow Warrior. She has a huge reputation but she's actually rather little. But catching a glimpse of her through the window of the van when we arrived in the dark on Saturday night - still sent a surge of adrenaline gushing through my bloodstream as the myth suddenly became reality for me.

Now onboard only for a couple of days - it feels like I have been here before since I felt instantly at home as soon as I arrived. There are some familiar crew faces around but the ship itself seems to have a personality all of it's own. She is certainly the most friendly of all our three ships.

Usually I am in the Greenpeace International office working as a web editor and online campaigning coordinator. Since the Quit Coal tour finally came within reach of a short train journey I couldn't resist the opportunity to join in for a day and be part of the real action.

On Friday I helped plant four thousand toy windmills in Antwerp at a site where the German energy company, E.ON, plans to build a new coal fired power plant. We're encouraging the Belgium government and E.ON to quit coal and fully embrace wind energy.

I didn't get a wink of sleep the night before in the Belgian warehouse thanks to a couple of loudly snoring activists but some coffee and an urge to personally give coal the finger - helped me wake up at 5am and get on the bus to Antwerp.

When we arrived we climbed over a fence (using ladders) and began setting up the windmills while other activists painted a giant windmill on the tarmac along with the message "Flanders, Quit Coal". There were over 80 people from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg who had come as volunteers to take part in the action.

Sticking toy windmills in the ground seemed a little funny to me at first but after I had created my own miniature windfarm of some several hundred windmills I stepped back and admired my achievement. Many of my windmills were spinning happliy in the breeze and when the sun finally came out the metallic ones were all sparkling like glitter. It was quite a sight. I wondered how much energy we might actually be able to get from all of them if they were hooked up in such a way (yeah ok - probably not technically possible at all but bear with me). I bet you I could have powered my laptop from my windfarm at least. So I was imagining a proper windfarm in this area instead of coal power plant... just thinking about how much nicer that would be. No dirty pollution or greenhouse gasses. It would be crazy to build a new coal power plant in Antwerp when there is so much potential for wind power here in Belgium and such a great need to reduce CO2 emissions.

Once the painting was finished we all gathered around the windmill on the tarmac for a photo. There were several folks from the local and national newspapers and TV channels who stood on the other side of the fence on top of a hill to document the action. Some campaigners did interviews, while we sent a mexican wave around our circle a few times before leaving the painted message there for E.ON and sending it out to the government and to the public through the media.

The police were on the scene but they agreed to having us leave through the main entrance after checking our ID. I was really glad we didn't get arrested!

We brought all the windmills back with us and the ship's crew has been giving them to children who have come on the ship during open days this weekend in Ostende. They have also been used to decorate the ship and I've kept one for my desk back in the office - to remind me of the day when I stood amongst four thousand of them in a field with 80 other activists before getting onboard the Rainbow Warrior for the first time.

Comments

Hi Lisa! glad to hear your adventure on board of the Rainbow!.
I have been there, and i loved it. I would love to see the RW again.
But is nice to read she is in good hands and still doing amazing things around the world!
xx
Valeria

Posted by: Valeria | November 9, 2008 10:15 PM

weldone liza glad too hear from u i love greenpeace keep up the hard work you cool greenpeace worker.

Posted by: greenpeace pow | December 13, 2008 10:28 PM