Welcome to Friends of the Earth Netherlands
. A small part of our website has been translated into English.
| Climate change Forests Shell in Nigeria Earth Alarm |
Cyberactions News Publications Videos |
Latest news
| |
Shell, Shell, please turn out this light!
Earth Alarm #121, December 2009
For years, Shell has been promising to stop flaring gas in Nigeria. But year after year, Shell continues to break this promise. And it looks like that’s going to happen again this year. Gas flaring is a huge problem for people in the Niger Delta. It is also a significant source of greenhouse gases. Therefore, now that the climate is high on the political agenda, call on Shell to finally stop flaring this gas. Go to the Earth Alarm section |
||
 |
Campaign against 'the drama behind cheap meat'May 2009 - Friends of the Earth Netherlands continues its campaign to convince supermarket Albert Heijn and holding company Ahold to save the rainforests in South America. The Netherlands' largest supermarket sells meat that involves the use of large amounts of soy as feed for animals.Sign petition Read more |
||
| |
Burmese wood inspection team
6 February 2009 - Despite a European trade ban, Dutch timber companies are continuing to import Burmese wood. The 'Burmese wood inspection team' cordoned off Worldwood and Boogaerdt as 'crime scenes'.Read more |
||
Financial institutions vote more in favour of climate Amsterdam, November 5th 2008 -
In 2008 Dutch banks and pension funds voted as shareholders more frequently in favour of climate resolutions than they did in previous years. Pension fund PGGM is in the lead while ING en Fortis rank lowest. These are the findings of the study “Aandelen in klimaatverandering" ("Shares in climate change") which Milieudefensie publishes today where the voting patterns of Dutch banks and pension funds on climate-related shareholder resolutions is scrutinized.Read more |
||
Cyberactions
Peter Voser, seize your opportunity!Earth Alarm #118, June 2009 Friends of the Earth Netherlands calls on the new CEO Peter Voser, who takes over in July, to break through the present impasse and to take responsibility for the problems which Shell is causing all over the world. Milieudefensie also wants Voser to take steps to reduce conflicts in the Niger Delta, such as to stop flaring gas immediately and to clean up all oil leaks. Go to the Earth Alarm section |
AH: Stop greenwashing soy Expanding soy plantations threaten South American forests. The 'Roundtable'on soy does not solve these issues. Demand that retail multinational Ahold works on real solutions instead of greenwashing soy. Its supermarkets should quit selling meat reared on this destructive soy feed. Sign petition Read more |
Videos
Feel like sun, warmth and nature? Come to Nigeria this year and discover the wonderous and unexpected beauty of this country. It will be a very special holiday indeed!
(circa 1.5 minutes)
The People of Nigeria versus Shell
November 2008 - Four Nigerian citizens and Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Nigeria filed a unique lawsuit against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. The Nigerians, fishermen and farmers, suffer major damage from oil spills because of oil production by Shell. The lawyer of the plaintiffs asked Shell headquarters in May 2008 to clarify its role in oil spills in Nigeria. The response of Shell was unsatisfactory. Therefore, the plaintiffs decided to start the lawsuit.
(circa 5 minutes)
Jasper discovers palm oil
October 9, 2007 - Jasper wonders why everybody talks about palm oil and ends up in Brussels.
(3 minutes 22 seconds)
Dutch customers start moving to climate-conscious banks
June 22, 2007 - Dutch customers are starting to move to climate-conscious banks. One hundred customers of banks with the worst 'climate performance' have already left their banks since June 10 to join more climate-conscious banks.
(2 minutes)
Blunt Ax Award 2007
May 25, 2007 - For the third year in succession, Milieudefensie has examined the selection of wooden garden furniture in ten chain shores in the Netherlands. The Blunt Ax Award 2007 goes to Life & Garden. (1 minute 48 seconds)
Unpaid bills discovered at shareholdersmeeting Shell
May 15, 2007 - Demonstrators from Milieudefensie dressed up as accountants passed out their cards to shareholders at the entrance of the Shell shareholders' meeting. The accountants from the firm 'Thorough & Co' have discovered a number of unpaid environmental bills in Shell's annual accounts. Milieudefensie demands that Shell spend a portion of its more than 25 billion profit in 2006 to limit environmental damage in places such as Nigeria. Costs for cleaning up the environmental damage in Nigeria alone have been estimates at billions of dollars.
(2 minutes)
Shell, stop gasflaring in Nigeria!
May 3, 2007 - On the day that oil giant Shell's quarterly earning report was made public, Milieudefensie lighted a 15-metre high flare in front of the headquarters of Shell in The Hague, the Netherlands. Milieudefensie calls on Shell to immediately heed to court order to stop gas flaring in Nigeria by 30 April 2007. This deadline expired and the flares are still burning.
(4 minutes 34 seconds)
Giant EU clean energy flag
March 7, 2007- People across Europe are calling on their governments to stop climate change. They are fed up with their energy coming from dirty and dangerous sources. EU leaders met in Brussels on 8th-9th March 2007 to seal the fate of Europe's energy future. Friends of the Earth were right outside the summit, demanding clean, safe energy now, before it's too late. A giant installation of a mock EU 'energy' flag was erected outside the meeting.
Other movies of this action:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXG46oB6qqk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNhaoc5rr0A
Shell the octopus
June 28, 2005 – Representatives of local communities speak with Shell's CEO Jeroen van der Veer in just before the shareholdersmeeting. The communities suffer from severe health and environmental damage from Shell's activities. They confront Jeroen van der Veer with their problems and tell him to take his responsibility.
(9 minutes)
Palmoil: profit with great loss
What's the connection between energy, soap and margarine and the destruction of tropical forest and the living conditions of indigenous peoples? This movie answers the question.
(10 minutes)
Climate change: overconsumption is our problem
Have a look in the SUV of a not quite imaginary Western family.
More or less hilarious videoclip, 55 seconds.
General information about Friends of the Earth Netherlands
Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie) is a national environmental organization that has approximately eighty local groups. Milieudefensie was founded in 1971 and has gathered more than 90,000 members and supporters since then. Jongeren Milieu Aktief (JMA), the independent youth department, has several thousand partners.
The Netherlands are densely populated and it is a built up country. This largely defines the scope of Milieudefensie's campaigns. Examples are the campaign for the legal protection of green and less populated countryside, because quietness, space and fresh air have become scarce. The sky over the Netherlands is among the most polluted in the world. Therefore Milieudefensie campaigns against the construction of yet more roads while we plead in favour of cleaner cars and better public transport. Moreover Milieudefensie wants to restrain the busy and extremely polluting air traffic.
Dutch intensive agriculture is notorious for its pollution and animal unfriendly production methods. On top of that it makes heavy demands on the environment in other parts of the world, for example on the Amazon area which is partly cut down in order to produce cattle feed for the Netherlands. That is why Milieudefensie wants to switch to animal friendly agriculture that is ecologically sound. In order to reach that goal a popular initiative is presented to the Dutch Parliament (2007). The parliament will be obliged to discuss it; a fact unparalleled in Dutch history.
The Netherlands should actually take the lead in the battle against climate change as it is a rich country of which about 50 percent is situated at or below sea level. We make efforts to induce large banks to make more climate friendly investments, for example.
But the remit of our organization does not stop at our borders. FoE Netherlands has a long history in campaigning for the conservation of tropical and virgin forests. We have been successful in actions against Dutch companies that do not protect the environment in other countries – for example when Shell caused serious oil pollution in Nigeria some years ago. One of our campaigns is concerned with the adverse effects of the liberalization of the world market and is aiming at international legislation for multinationals.
Measures that have no public support hardly stand a chance. Therefore our members have a say in the changes that we bring about, and we always make sure that we are supported by as many people as possible. A well-tried method.
