Rainbow warrior Arrives in India today.
And six Greenpeace activists were given another two days in
judicial custody for having pointed out that our government's
addiction to coal is taking our planet down. Yesterday they painted
"Smoking Kills" on a chimney at the Kolaghat coal power station and
the judge decided that the best thing to do was lock up the
messengers who brought home the bad news.
I don't know what to feel. Sometimes news doesn't make any
sense.
Earlier in the day, as our motley group sailed down the Hoogly
to meet the boat, I wasn't sure what to expect. I asked a few
people there what they thought of the ship. Bahar Dutt, the
environment editor reporting on the climate crisis for her
television channel CNN-IBN, said that the Rainbow Warrior is a
symbol, and an icon. Mukesh, a Greenpeace supporter from Pune who
came to welcome the boat said she is fun. Vinuta, our climate
campaigner said the Warrior offers us a platform to talk about
climate change.
But when I first laid eyes on her today as she sailed into
Kolkata with a banner between the masts that said 'Arrest Climate
Change Free the Climate Six', I knew what she really is.
She is Satyagraha on the high seas.
She is hope, and faith and belief. She is our conscience - the
collective spirit of millions of Greenpeace supporters. She is our
moral compass amidst all that is bobbing up and down in a sea of
uncertainty conspiring to take the planet down. She is our resolve,
that no matter what, ordinary people like the climate 6 will do
whatever it takes to intervene and bear witness.
We had hoped that the climate 6 would be released by the end of
today, instead at 4.30 pm this afternoon the judge sent them to a
correctional jail in Mednapore district. The next hearing of their
case is slated for Monday.
So it was only fitting that the Rainbow Warrior sailed up the
Hoogly and berthed at the Kiddanpore dock this afternoon. The wrong
people are under arrest, and I know the six activists will draw
strength from the fact that this symbol, this platform of
satyagraha, is here. In the spirit of the Rainbow Warrior, they
have taken a stand for their beliefs. And like the boat once did,
they will come out stronger because I think that if you can't sink
a rainbow, you can not chain a rainbow for long either.
This year's Noble Peace Prize award means that the world has
understood the climate is under deep crisis. But the judge's
refusal of bail to the climate 6 is a grim reminder that it will
take a lot of patient and determined work by many communities and
individuals before things really begin to change. Knowing a crisis
is the first step but that will not offer results. Awareness must
now trigger action, and change.
She reminds us, like always that while we have come a long way
on awareness; our task on action has only begun.
You
can take action now against climate change by joining our petition
to ban inefficient bulbs.