It's slightly surreal sitting here in the mess of the Rainbow Warrior, where life is carrying on in all its usual, cosy hustle and bustle. (The crew members are helping themselves to spaghetti and salad as I write, and a couple of people are using the first quiet moment of the day to have a shower.)
Just outside is the towering smokestack of Kingsnorth and, around the corner, there's a small, concrete island owned by E.on which six people - including two of the Kingsnorth Six - have occupied. They're planning to set up a projector and beam images of climate change impacts onto Kingsnorth's smokestack. (So far, they've been troubled by technical problems - I'll keep you posted.)
I'm on the Rainbow Warrior just outside Kingsnorth coal plant. Security guards are trying to stop the 30 campaigners on the jetty from breaching security and walking through the power plant to the site of the proposed new Kingsnorth plant so, at the moment, they're holding the commemoration on the jetty, with security guards listening.
Each volunteer is carrying the flag of one of the 30 least polluting countries in the world; the proposed new coal plant at Kingsnorth will emit as much as these 30 countries combined. They're also reading out the evidence given by NASA director James Hansen and Inuit leader Aqqaluk Lynge at the trial of the Kingsnorth Six.
I’m on the Rainbow Warrior and we’ve just reached Britain's most controversial power station, with our peaceful flotilla plus a police helicopter and police launch for good measure.
As we came alongside the jetty, our stern line was cut to prevent us from mooring. Now, from the deck of the Warrior, John (our executive director) is negotiating with E.on staff standing on the jetty a few feet away to be allowed to hold our commmoration ceremony on the site of the proposed new plant.
A nine-boat protest armada led by the Rainbow Warrior has arrived at Britain's most controversial power station.
Dozens of climate campaigners from around the world are now on the jetty at Kingsnorth in Kent and are attempting to reach the site of a planned new coal plant in a heavily defended security zone to hold a sombre and dignified ceremony for the victims of climate change. Guards are trying to stop them entering the power station, while police boats are intercepting the flotilla.
It’s quite a sight: under a wintry sun, a flotilla of Greenpeace boats is heading down the Medway, straight towards Kingsnorth power station. The Rainbow Warrior is leading the peaceful armada and, from up here on the bridge, I can see our rigid inflatable boats abreast of us and streaming out behind in a V formation.
A couple of minutes ago, John, our executive director, phoned E.on and told them that our peaceful flotilla will be arriving at midday. Here's the mp3 or click to play:
Our amphibious incursion has a serious and peaceful purpose. The boats are carrying dozens of campaigners who plan to board Kingsnorth’s 700-metre coal jetty and then walk through the existing coal plant site to the site where E.on wants to build the UK’s first new coal plant in 30 years.
Rainbow Warrior leading amphibious incursion at coal plant
29 October, 2008
A nine-boat protest armada
led by the Rainbow Warrior is heading for Britain's most controversial power
station, carrying dozens of campaigners who intend to enter the site at
Kingsnorth in Kent.
The Greenpeace volunteers
will attempt an amphibious incursion from the Medway before walking onto the
site earmarked for the construction of Britain's first new coal-fired power
station in decades. They will then hold a sombre and dignified ceremony for the
victims of climate change.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at E.on's HQ at the moment. When the head of the Women's Institute - along with heads of other groups representing four million people in the UK - boards the Rainbow Warrior, signs a declaration, climbs into a Greenpeace inflatable boat, drives up to Kingsnorth coal plant and hand delivers a declaration saying no to new coal to E.on staff, the company must, surely, be sweating it a bit:
