Feature story - 23 August, 2002
Archbishop Desmond Tutu joined the call for a clean, nuclear free future from the deck of the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza today as the ship and crew continued their work in the run up to the Earth Summit next week.The Noble Peace Prize winner told the crew "Thank you for your work for peace and for a nuclear free world, it is wonderful and we thank you."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu blessed the Esperanza and the crew and then joined them in wishing for a clean, peaceful and nuclear free world.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu joined the call for a clean, nuclear
free future from the deck of the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza today
as the ship and crew continued their work in the run up to the
Earth Summit next week.
The Archbishop made a private tour of the Esperanza, which has
recently returned from a four-day voyage into the Southernocean to
protest the passage of a deadly cargo of plutonium off South
Africa.
The Nobel Peace prizewinner told the crew "Thank you for your
work for peace and for a nuclear free world, it is wonderful and we
thank you."
One of the key demands that Greenpeace will put to all Heads of
State attending the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, is a requirement
that they should reject climate changing and dirty energy policies
- the fossil fuel and nuclear industries, and to address the energy
inequity suffered by the world's poor at the same time.
Governments at the Summit must make a commitment to divert the
annual $250 million subsidies from dirty power and invest in
sustainable energy systems such as solar, wind and wave technology,
which could bring electricity to the 2 billion people - one third
of the planet - who currently have access to none.
"One day, down the line people will say, why did it happen?"
said the Archbishop on the deck of the Esperanza. "It will be
because of the contribution of you and you," he added pointing to
the crewmembers. He then thanked them "for the people of today and
the people of tomorrow who are not yet born, but who, because of
what you are doing, will be able to live in a world that is
clean."
The blessing from Archbishop Tutu was the first for the
Esperanza, the newest ship in the Greenpeace fleet. His visit
echoed a visit made to her sister ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by the
Dalai Lama during the first Earth Summit in Rio ten years ago.
The Archbishop spent nearly an hour on board and was presented
with a Greenpeace book documenting the 30-year history of the
international environmental group's protest in photos, and two
Greenpeace T-shirts bearing the logo "Choose Positive Energy" and
"Stop Plutonium Terror".