On Saturday after I had finished running Saturday detention at school I went over to see the Rainbow Warrior – Greenpeace’s famous ship in Docklands. 

As a member of Greenpeace I had an email last month inviting me to visit the ship and take a tour.  The Rainbow Warrior is moored in Docklands, London on its way to Copenhagen where it will take part in campaigning at theCopenhagen summit next in December.

It was amazing to learn about life on the ship and hear firsthand from experienced campaigners the lengths that Japanese whalers will go to, to meet their quota and the efforts Greenpeace activists go to, to protect the whales.  Having met a lot of staunchly pro-whaling Japanese people when I lived and worked in Osaka and now having met some very determined Greenpeace activists I can imagine it really must be quite a tense experience.

While I was there I signed up for the Greenpeace Airplot campaign to be one of thousands of beneficial owners of a strip of land Greenpeace has purchased that will be needed by developers to build the third runway at Heathrow.  While this may not actually stop the runway being built, it will significantly complicate and delay the process.  More information can be found at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/whats-your-plot-stop-third-runway-20091022 

Next time the Rainbow Warrior is in town I recommend a visit to anyone interested in the work of Greenpeace!