Wake Up and Smell the (Solar-Made) Coffee by Pau Tapay

A little past 6 in the morning in a small booth in the Tiendesitas shopping area, the heavenly smell of coffee began to waft in the morning air. A few more seconds, and a large crowd of people had already gathered around the Solar Café eagerly awaiting their cup of coffee. And it wasn’t ordinary coffee, mind you. It was coffee made using solar-powered coffee makers, which explained why there were solar panels to the side of the booth.

Serving coffee seemed pretty simple at first. (Or at least way easier than biking until you’re dead tired, especially for someone like me, who doesn’t know the first thing about riding a bike.) Precious, KT and I were pretty confident we could handle everything. After all, how hard could pouring and brewing coffee be? Pretty hard, it turns out. What we weren’t expecting was the size of the crowd. As we served coffee to bikers of all ages, police officers, journalists, and so on, we realized that the crowd was in no way thinning out. Of course, while it got somewhat crazy (imagine lots of people deprived of their much-needed caffeine), it was also nice to see that the people weren’t just after the coffee. They were also asking questions about the solar panels, which conveniently gave us the perfect opening for talking about climate change and clean energy. And I would like to think that they left with more than just a cup of coffee.

The Tour of the Fireflies Experience by Bernice Ejercito

For the first time in years, I actually did something to celebrate Earth Day. I joined the Tour of the Fireflies: a 50km bike ride to promote clean air and as a member of SolarGeneration, clean energy as well. A newbie of SolarGeneration, that was the first activity I took part of, I was even so excited I couldn’t sleep the night before. Nonetheless, I woke up early the next day to make it to the event on time. When I arrived at Tiendesitas, hundreds of people were already there for registration and, of course, SolarGeneration and Greenpeace groups were early too, to set up the Solar Café. On that day, hundreds of cups of coffee and stickers were given away thanks to volunteers, including me, who patiently distributed and brewed coffee using the solar powered coffee brewer.

About an hour later the actual bike ride began. I think almost a million people participated in this event and roads were actually packed full of them [bikers]. The tour itself was exhausting and the heat was deadly but thanks to my bike buddies Mac and Maricar [GPSEA Philippines volunteers], I eventually made it to the finish line.

Back in Tiendesitas, members of SolarGeneration [Manila] were continuously having petitions signed to promote clean energy [for ADB to stop funding coal projects]. What’s amazing about this is that people from all ages actually get together to fight for a common goal like RG [fellow SG Manila member] who is only 15 and what’s great about it is that the youth seem to be getting more and more aware and involved with issues regarding the environment. Tired and exhausted, I sat down to lunch with my fellow SolarGeneration and Greenpeace volunteers and realized that despite the heat, the exhausting bike ride, and all the hard work put into the coffee and petitions, it was worth it because I got to meet new people, had so much fun and was even able to help save the earth in my own little way.

ADB Annual General Meeting 2006

It's around 2am now and everybody has just went to sleep. It has been a very busy day but I just had to write about the exciting things that happened today! Before narrating today's (or yesterday's) events, let me introduce myself. I am Denise, a SolarGeneration member from the Philippines who has gone all the way here, in India, to bear witness to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s shortcomings when it comes to combatting climate change.

Today is the first day of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ADB and everyone was really swamped with tons of responsibilities. I was supposed to join fellow SolarGeneration members in drafting our declaration and in practicing for our public presentation but I had to go with some of the Greenpeace representatives to Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) to help out with the Impacts Exhibition. It was quite a challenge because Samir (one of two GP India Actions Coordinators) and I had to go back to the hotel to get some additional materials. Well, I was able to get through with that and put up the exhibit with the help of Sri (GP India Energy Campaigner) and Red (GPSEA Energy Campaigner). And, yes, the exhibit really had an impact. I had the ADB NGO Coordinator Bart Edes suggesting that I put up greener pictures instead, those that could probably show ADB's good green projects. I just managed to give a smile then went on to finish putting up the exhibit.

After the exhibit, I luckily spotted Fa (SolarGen coordinator in Thailand) and we went on to meet with other SolarGen members Cheng from China and Harshini from India. Earlier in the day, Fa, together with community leaders in Thailand and other Greenpeace campaigners, went to meet with the ADB President and gave the bank president a bowl of coal to bring to him the message that coal power plants in Thailand are doing no good to the people and there is no way to go but to stop funding coal projects and put the dough into renewables instead.

At around 430pm, we went to listen to Red's speech at the Regional Integration and Natural Resource Impacts Seminar and witnessed how one of ADB's top officials easily dismissed Greenpeace's demands to ADB to re-direct funds to renewable energy projects. He said that renewables is not as least cost-effective as it is thought to be and that there will always be losers and winners. It's a food for thought, really. How a man of influence could easily say that just completely baffles me.

But what could be more baffling (or surprising) than Greenpeace's sudden beaming of climate change messages to the people of Andhra Pradesh and to the ADB delegates? After Red's talk, we went to the ADB's hosted dinner to give the people a reminder that climate change is happening now and that there should be no time wasted in fighting it. Jasper (GP Southeast Asia Philippines Energy Campaigner), Maia (GP International Campaign Assistant), Inaki and Samir took care of projecting the images on the white wall of a hotel near the hosted dinner's venue while the rest of us went to the dinner to get people to look at the beamed messages. The beaming was right on cue! When the cultural presentation finished, there was a pause and suddenly you find people turning their heads to look at beamed messages such as "CLIMATE CHANGE: THE PARTY IS OVER" and "ADB: STOP FUNDING COAL NOW!"

Cheng initially didn't plan on going (because she had to do last-minute shopping for the next day's events) but admitted on the way home that she was glad she went to the beaming instead. The experience was inspiring and rejuvenating and it suddenly had Cheng, Marc, and I plan more activities to have our presence felt and our message reach across to the higher ups of ADB. At the end of the day, I couldn't help but say to myself, "This is good weariness, one that gives you more energy to look forward to the days to come."

And I sure hope that all of you will also look forward to the days to come because we have planned great activities that'll surely blow "coal ashes" away.