Thom Yorke sails on Greenpeace's new Rainbow Warrior

Thom Yorke was aboard Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior III for its maiden voyage, from Amsterdam to London, with Louise Gray of the Telegraph the only journalist on board. He spent 12 hours of the crossing unable to leave his cabin.

I thought it would be like being on the tour bus.

Thom Yorke¹

Throwing up was the worst of it, he told Gray. The best was the ship, from the bridge and the radar to the sails and the engine room. He went partly for his ten-year-old son, who is obsessed with the sea, and partly out of his own interest in technical answers to environmental problems. He came to climate campaigning after having children, when he found himself waking every night terrified. Climate summits and watching David Cameron go backwards on the environment have since left him angry with politics and wanting action.

Greenpeace spent £16 million on the ship, the first it has had built for the job; the two Rainbow Warriors before it were converted fishing boats. Its 54-metre A-frame mast carried it along at 12 knots on the crossing without the engine, and it has a helicopter pad and a radio room behind steel. Its first campaign is to be on the Amazon, against illegal logging.

This is not some hippy tug boat, this is cutting edge serious sh*t. And right now that is what the environment movement needs.

Thom Yorke¹