TACLOBAN CITY—The Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s most iconic ship, docked on Wednesday morning to this welcoming city, the most devastated city in the country during the onslaught of Supertyphoon Yolanda more than four years ago.
The Tacloban leg is the ship’s last stop in the country, part of its Southeast Asia ship tour.
But it’s visit here is not for any celebration, but to hear stories of the people who lost their families, friends, property and livelihood to the strongest typhoon to hit a populated area in modern history.
“The Rainbow Warrior is in Tacloban to weave together stories of climate-impacted communities and bring it to the world. It gives us that space s to share our stories of disaster, survival and loss. But we also want to highlight how we here in Tacloban hold on to that hope and eventually rise above what happened here,” said international climate-justice campaigner Joanna Sustento, who lost five members of her family including both parents to Yolanda.
“We will also highlight the disaster that happened right after the disaster. These are the injustices that happened right after Yolanda. I do not believe there were only more than 6,000 who died here,” she added.
Sustento herself has two family members who were never found. She and her brother underwent a DNA testing but, after almost five years, the result has still not been released.
“We want to give justice to people who went missing and were never found. I know many people are craving for that closure, who simply want to know their family members are already dead and that they have been buried in some mass graves,” Sustento said.
The Rainbow Warrior is in the region to support communities in pressuring governments and corporations to take immediate action on climate change. Community members are drawing attention to the fact that human rights continue to be threatened by the impacts.
On March 1 the people of Eastern Visayas, along with Greenpeace Southeast Asia–Philippines, will launch the LIVErary—a human library—where storytellers and experts will share their knowledge and experiences on themes of loss and hope, pain and perspectives, as well as justice and injustice in the context of climate change.
“The LIVErary will be collecting and connecting peoples’ stories, as well as surfacing stories yet untold, of the impacts of the climate crisis on our rights as human beings. Remembering and sharing are key elements of justice and healing. They contribute to social memory, build on and strengthen the social and cultural fabric and raise questions of accountability and responsibility, of what is fair and right and what is unjust,” Sustento said.
Community representatives from other countries, who are also fighting to reclaim rights threatened by climate change, are also participating in the LIVErary. They include Ingrid Skjoldvær, former chairman of Nature and Youth, an organization that, along with Greenpeace Nordic, has sued the Norwegian government for allowing new oil drilling in the Arctic; George Nacewa of the Pacific Climate Warriors in Fiji; and Kelsey Juliana, one of the youth plaintiffs who filed a constitutional-climate lawsuit against the United States government.
“Responsible countries leave their oil in the ground. Norway claims to be a climate hero, but continues to drill in the Arctic. This violates our constitutional right to a safe environment and is deeply unfair to those already affected by climate change and future generations,” added Skjoldvær, former chairman of Nature and Youth, and another book in the LIVErary.
A permanent symbol of remembrance will be unveiled in Tacloban during the Rainbow Warrior’s visit. The Memorial Gift, a 2-meter-high installation made from scrap metal salvaged in the aftermath of Yolanda, is in the style of a crinkled paper boat to signify how strength (metal) can come from vulnerability (paper). The sculpture was created by AG Saño, a local artist, survivor of Yolanda and a petitioner in the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines Inquiry into the Responsibility of the Carbon Majors for Human Rights Violations or Threats of Violations Resulting from the Impacts of Climate Change.
The national inquiry was triggered by a petition filed at the Commission in 2015 by representatives of communities across the Philippines.