The Rainbow Warrior, the iconic Greenpeace ship, has docked in Cape Town and will be open to the public at the V&A Waterfront harbour over the weekend. Greenpeace, an international environmental campaigning organisation, is calling on African countries to “break free” from fossil fuels. Between 10am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, visitors will be able to tour the ship’s deck and bridge, which houses its navigation system, meet the Greenpeace crew, and learn about their campaigns and life aboard the ship.
The first Rainbow Warrior wasbombed and sunkin 1985 while protesting French nuclear testing in the Pacific. The ship currently docked at the Waterfront is the third iteration. The first two boats were reused fishing vessels, but this one was designed and built specifically for Greenpeace.
The ship sails around the world, campaigning against oil and gas drilling and illegal fishing. It also assists scientists and specialists in conductingresearch. Recently, scientists studied radiation levels in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where the United States conducted nuclear bomb testing from 1946 to 1958.
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The ship was alsostationedat the recent international climate conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Speaking to attendees during a tour of the boat, ship captain Maria Martinezacknowledgedthe lives lost in the recent floods in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. “Events like these remind us that the climate crisis is a reality.
It’s already shaping lives, increasing the intensity of extreme weather, and placing a heavy burden on communities that are often the least responsible for the crisis,” she said. “We can do things differently. We don’t have to be so dependent on fossil fuels,” said first mate Daniel Mares.
“As more and more technology becomes available, hopefully there will be more alternatives.” He described how Uruguay, within twenty years,phased out fossil fuels and built a power gridnearly 99% powered by renewable energy such as wind, hydropower, and solar. “It’s possible,” he said. Last week, the African Energy ChambercriticisedGreenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior for being “hypocritical” in pushing an anti-fossil fuel agenda while relying on diesel to fuel the ship.
The statement also noted that millions of Africans live without electricity. Mares acknowledged that the Rainbow Warrior, although built as a sailing boat, uses diesel when there is no wind.
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