This time a week ago, we were making banners in the snow near Oslo. Now a lifetime away, the Rainbow Warrior is moored on the outskirts of Copenhagen, and the city is gripped by a dazzling array of climate events for the COP15 summit.
We left events in Oslo on a Tuesday evening, before the campaign really started to put demands (in a good way) on the ship. Wednesday saw a climate vigil outside the Grand Hotel, which is apparently a Nobel Prize tradition. The winner usually waves from the balcony, but Obama was no-where in site. Perhaps the non alcoholic Glog made up for his absence, but given the sensitivity of the police to some simple photo ops, I'm not certain. Equally to keep the authorities happy we moved the ship ½ km further from the town centre. They insisted, which seemed a little rude.
Thursday saw the big day, with the US President arriving in all his pomp and security. Gunmen on the roof, big military helicopters circling, a veritable horde of police and little sign of the man himself. The mornings events saw various Greenpeace activists distributing placards through the crowd with the message 'Obama - Our Climate, Your Decision' The ceremony itself saw similar activities, banners and the like, with a Greenpeace campaigner on the inside ejected for distributing such placards. He snuck back in again a short while later. The evening saw a Peace rally and a march into the back of the main square. Some of the placards made it into the next days news, as did the ejection story.
I'm not fond of marches, but the media picked up on the messaging, and perhaps a shadow of the idea that climate change will drive future wars. Peace and environmental issues are now inextricably linked, and climate change isn't simply an environmental issue any more. Perhaps an economic-social issue?
Friday saw us leave Oslo and a very calm passage to Copenhagen. We sailed much of the way, and I was relieved from the Galley to spend some time on deck. A moderate amount of chipping and painting, quite a lot of cleaning and the necessary playing with ropes and mooring lines.
Sunday finally saw the Warrior arrive in Copenhagen, after some disturbing talk that we might turn away and head straight to Amsterdam. Greenpeace isn't geared up to deliver much in the way of hard core actions at the summit, and some of the other ships in port were getting restless. The crew of the Warrior seems to be more sanguine. If we do nothing else in Copenhagem, then we can tell people we were there, and we bore witness to the decisions that took place. And perhaps our presence will influence things simple by the sheer being of it.
On a similar vein we took some time out on the Saturday night to mark the Aveez climate vigil on the bridge, and the candles perhaps gave the captain a nervous twitch. We met as the crew to brainstorm ideas as to what we wanted to do, if the campaign had no specific ask for us, and the sharing of ideas was fulfilling and a lesson learnt.
So coming alongside in Copenhagen, a trickle of Greenpeace volunteers from the nearby warehouse turned into an impromptu welcoming party. They'd come from all over Europe to support the activities at Copenhagen and they seems somewhat awestruck to see the Warrior slide alongside their Spartan accommodation.
Abandoning the ship for a while I met old friends in the city to talk of the protests that had been going on, the huge march on the Saturday, the random arrests of 1000+ people, and the sense of futility that was affecting the activist community.
If we do one thing in Copenhagem it will be to bring the spirit of the Rainbow Warrior to those who need it, to shine a light into those dark places, and to reinvigorated our friends and fellow activists for the week ahead. I suspect we'll do more.....
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