Meghan Houlihan, Greenpeace

Meghan Houlihan is the renewable energy program director for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, based in Greenfield, Mass. She periodically abandons her desk job to work as a web editor aboard Greenpeace vessels.

Good morning! I'm writing from the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace ice-breaking vessel that has navigated around -- and through -- ice floes in the Arctic, been rammed by Japanese whalers in the South Pacific, and put itself in the path of U.S. missile testing. It's a special ship with a rich history. We have just commenced an expedition in the waters around Chile's Patagonia region to document its threatened ancient forests and generate awareness of those threats.

Today marks my first "real" day as a crew member on board, which means I was subjected to the usual 7:30 a.m. wake-up knock, a soft "good morning" in an accent I couldn't identify (yes, I have adjusted to the Chilean schedule described in my previous dispatch). That was followed by a safety tour of the ship (in which first mate Madeline encouraged newcomers not to set fires or rush back to the cabin for pictures of Mum during an emergency), and the morning cleaning ritual, which includes scrubbing toilets and mopping floors. This is my third voyage on a Greenpeace vessel, so I had the good sense to claim the "lounge" for cleaning duty before anyone could beat me to it (it consists of rinsing beer cans and vacuuming -- vastly preferable to the toilets).

Today we're preparing for a press conference on board. We'll present findings from the previous leg of our Patagonian tour, which focused on global-warming impacts in southernmost Argentina and Chile, and we'll announce the three-week forests expedition we have just begun. Yesterday I mentioned the Alumysa project that mining company Noranda proposes to build in this area -- an aluminum smelter and hydroelectric dams. A few days ago, members of our team went to visit with families who live in one of the areas that will be flooded if Noranda is allowed to build dams for the hydro plant. The local residents, such as Don Diego, aren't so keen on Noranda's proposal. Even though Noranda can offer him large sums of money to relocate -- a strong enticement when one lives in poverty -- Don Diego refuses to give up his land.

Looking out at this spectacular landscape and breathing in this clean air, it's difficult to imagine such a polluting industry moving in. But then, I suspect that the same thing could have been said of other areas around the world that are now industrial wastelands.

Now is not the time for such grim ponderings, however -- too lovely a day, and I'm called back to the tour website, which I will be updating from the ship. And since I've been hunched over a table writing this entry -- all chairs on board have been claimed for the press conference (a demanding bunch, those journalists) -- I will give my back a break and sign off.