Blogger: Kim Matthews, Campaigns Intern
Up above the streets and houses on this rather overcast Saturday, soared the steel and glass edifices of Canary Wharf. It was my first visit to this part of London and I couldn’t help but see the beauty and grace in their engineering. I was also struck with a sense of surrealism given that I had come to the heart of the financial district to meet an environmental campaigning legend.
A few weeks earlier an invitation had dropped onto my doormat offering me the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of a tour on the newly purpose-built Rainbow Warrior III, the literal flag-ship of Greenpeace. She was going to be docked in London for just 6 days before setting sail to the Amazon to fight the good fight against environmental injustice and illegal logging.
I was 8 when the first Rainbow Warrior was launched from the Thames and to me she became an icon for the fight for the rights of our natural planet. I vividly remember watching the television transfixed, with my heart in my mouth, as brave activists tried repeatedly to ram their dinghies between whales and their pursuant whaling ships. Blown up in 1985 by French Special Forces, a second ship was born, like the first, from an old trawler vessel. After 20 years of tireless work, Rainbow Warrior II will be spending her retirement in Bangladesh as a hospital ship.
Turning a corner past some no-doubt costly waterfront properties I spot a pair of great crested grebes bobbing about in the water of the dock, reminding me that nature survives, often hugely successfully, even in the deepest heart of the urban jungle. And there she was, sleek and green, her metal masts towering 55 metres upwards. Engineering and beauty easily matching, and in my eyes surpassing, the buildings surrounding her.
I ended up in the nicest queue I have ever stood in! Couples, individuals, families, all as eager as I was to see and touch this new addition to the cause. Much of the tour remains a blur but what stands out was touching the dinghies and imagining what they might be doing next time I saw them. From every angle she was graceful, yet you could almost feel the determination, strength and courage of her predecessors and their crews as they faced danger and even death in the name of the planet.
I’ve only just found out that her name comes from a Native American Cree prophecy:
“There will come a time when the earth is sick and animals and plants begin to die. Then the Indians will regain their spirit and gather people of all nations, colours and beliefs to join together in the fight to save the Earth: The Rainbow Warriors.”
I can only wonder whether that time is now. Either way one thing is for sure, the world has never been more in need of a Rainbow Warrior.