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March 30, 2008New ship webcam - Arctic Sunrise
Thom (radio operator) and Wout (external systems techie) have set up a webcam for the Arctic Sunrise. Now you can follow what the ship is up to, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That said, today's a Sunday - the only day off for the crew. Keep your eye out for coffee drinking.
Tune in tomorrow (Monday) and you'll see activity on deck again. The ship's in port for maintenance, so if you like watching things like new satellite dish instillations, then you are in luck.
Post comments to this entry for the crew and Thom will pass them on.
Merkel and Bush
My favorite headline of the G8 so far, "Bush, Merkel vow to fight poverty, disagree on climate". This follows what was apparently a very nice lunch meeting between the two of them. From the article:
"But Bush made no reference to Merkel's demands that G8 leaders commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 2 degrees Celsius.Merkel, for her part, recognized that while the US and Germany agreed on combating poverty in Africa, there were other "areas here and there" which needed further discussion."
In perhaps not unrelated news, today German police boarded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise - even though it was well outside the summit security zone. The police boarded without a search warrant and confined the 24 crew before seizing Greenpeace equipment including engines from inflatables, making the boats unusable, and the hull of a Greenpeace hot air balloon.
I wonder if, at any point during the lunch, Merkel and George "there ought to be limits to free speech" Bush touched on how far a government should go to ensure that leaders of the world's wealthiest nations can meet without the inconvenience of protest.
Greenpeace statement in response Merkel/Bush comments today.
From the BBC: Who are the G8 protesters?
Captain's blog stardate -316217.69: Mike's Week
Mike Fincken is aboard the Rainbow Warrior as part of the Middle East Peace tour. Here's his personal blog of a week in his life:
Wednesday 07 March
On the last of the four flights connecting Cape Town to Aden I awoke to the shaking of the airplane moving rapidly down the runway. I awoke confused. I could not tell if we had just landed or were about take off, until the front of the Yemeni airplane lifted up and my stomach sank. I drifted off again. The trolley ran down the aisle and stopped against my foot, a piece of sweet bread was placed in my hand. The trolley passed me by, heading down toward the back of the plane, my headed nodded forward and the sweet bread hit the cabin floor.
Following my day-and-half commute to work, it was a welcome sight -the Rainbow Warrior. Lit up at night, lying quietly alongside in Aden harbor. The crew were mostly tucked away in their bunks, but a few familiar faces were there to greet me. Canadian Phil, (the coxswain who had made the dramatic rescue of the three Sirens off Corsica during the first week of my last voyage on the Rainbow), drew my big black suitcase over the gunwale and onto the steel deck. He carried it through to my cabin - I had arrived home from home.
Fair winds, Bruce Abraham
Pete Willcox, first skipper of the Rainbow Warrior, wrote this homage to activist Bruce Abraham:
Bruce Abraham died yesterday. I do not know the details.I met Bruce in 1983 in Seattle, when we were there getting ready for that summer in Alaska. He wanted to join the crew, and came with us on the day trip from Lake Union to downtown Seattle. It was a tricky docking, with a good breeze blowing us off the dock. Bruce talked his way onto the bow and somehow into the position of throwing the heaving line to shore. The monkeys fist flew off the bow, right towards some picture windows of an overlooking restaurant. As the pilot and I gasped, Bruce at the last second gave a little flick of his wrist, and the heaving line fell gently on the dock. I hired him on the spot as third mate.
Greenpeace at the Mirno More
© Greenpeace/Ingrid Frankhauser
Just been looking at photographs from the Mirno More peace fleet trip on the Greenpeace Austria website, with lots of happy faces on board a Greenpeace yacht in the Adriatic.
Mirno More means "peaceful ocean" in Croatian, and is organised every year by an Austrian social NGO, Started 15 years ago following the Yugoslavian war, to give refugee children from the war regions a possibility to hook up with their origins while spreading the peace message.
Rainbow Warrior Rescues Stricken Yacht
On board the Rainbow Warrior, outboard mechanic Phil tells us how he was dragged from his bed at some ungodly hour to rescue three Portuguese ladies whose yacht had run aground off the coast of Corsica. All in a night's work for the crew of the Rainbow Warrior!
Read more on the Defending our Mediterranean »
Rainbow Warrior delivers MSF aid to Beirut
Larnaca Cyprus:Rainbow Warrior loading supplies for MSF humanitarian mission to Lebanon. © Greenpeace / Phillip Reynaers
As we already mentioned, the Rainbow Warrior is currently helping Medecins Sans Frontieres to deliver aid to Lebanon. The latest news is that the the RW is back safe and sound in Cyprus after its first sucessful mission to Beirut.
More here...
Rainbow Warrior to help Medecins Sans Frontieres mission
Our colleagues on board our ship, the Rainbow Warrior, are currently working with Medecins Sans Frontieres to get urgent medical supplies into Lebanon.
According to MSF:
"To date it has been very difficult to move large volumes of relief goods from Beirut to southern Lebanon by road. Trucks have been hit by missiles, so truck drivers are reluctant to move into the southern region and there are major problems in getting materials to Beirut quickly enough. The Greenpeace offer means a partial solution of one of our two problems."
Life, fishing and hypothermia on the Bering Sea
While the Defending Our Oceans and Defending the Mediterranean expeditions continue in warmer waters, Greenpeace USA is about half way through their own research expedition in the Bearing Sea (off the coast of Alaska). They are looking at how the intensive industrial fishing there is impacting the ecosystem and local fishermen alike.
In one hair raising post they talk about how the locals are being forced to go further and further out to fish - with dangerous results...
"We've been here for a few days now, getting to know the people and the place and sounding out what people think of an ecosystem management based fishery. So far it's clear that it's what people want. I met an old guy the other day who started the conversation by saying "I hope you guys make those draggers go 100 miles offshore." The locals are being forced to go farther and further to get fish while the big factory draggers pillage their traditional waters."
The Esperanza and the Rainbow Warrior
From Elaine on the Esperanza: "It's 5.40 am GST and if you are fast enough you might be able to catch a pretty special moment. We're meeting up with the Rainbow Warrior on its transit accross the Mediterranean."
Meeting the Warrior »
Gavin: The Rainbow Myth »
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