For whose safety?

By Stijn Rombouts - Chairman

Today, while vacuuming for a home care client, news reaches me that police are intervening at an Extinction Rebellion action in Amsterdam. Climate activists are being according to NOS mass arrests. I think back to my first climate protest. That was in December 2015 in Paris, when the historic agreement was signed. How different was the atmosphere then: we felt protected by the French police in our right to demonstrate, and when the agreement was concluded, there was talk of a historic moment. Hopeful, we boarded the bus back home. The countries would come up with a solution to the eco-crisis together.

Now, in 2019, the reality proves different. The Dutch government has to be forced to act by the courts and even then a weak climate agreement follows. There is an ongoing investigation into Shell's entanglement with the Dutch government, and big polluters seem to escape once again in the cabinet plans. Greta is portrayed as an alarmist disturbed child and ‘climate extremists’ are a threat to public order. What is actually being protected here? At least my future is not.

Will I soon have to explain to my children (if I dare bring them into this world at all) why there are gigantic famines in vulnerable countries in Africa? Do I have to start explaining why scores of wonderful animals have been expertly exterminated as a result of our overconsumption? Do I have to explain why numerous island states are a thing of the past? And how am I supposed to explain that?

By saying that our government chose to reach out to big business, which invested millions in sowing doubt about the eco-crisis? By saying it chose “not to want to be the good boy of the class” and that politicians were selling our future for a few extra years on the plush? And when the time came, we were the problem. We were disrupting public order. We were the danger.

Today, my heart goes out to the people who are also fighting on my behalf for a livable planet. People who are fighting against opportunism, greed and endless looking away. Rebel for life!