Milieudefensie (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

for "environmental defense") is a Dutch environmental organisation, founded on 6 January 1971, by a group of scientists in response to a report by the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists ...

. It performs research and brings out its own reports (sometimes requested by the government) but has also developed into an action group, often operating together with other organisations, such as the political party

GreenLeft GroenLinks (, ) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and t ...

, and is the Dutch branch of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

. Milieudefensie is part of the 30 national organisations that

Friends of the Earth Europe Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) is the European branch of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International (FOEI). It includes 33 national organizations and thousands of local groups. The Friends of the ...

represents and unites at the European level. Milieudefensie has approximately 90,000 members and focuses on five main themes: *

Globalisation Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

Climate and energy In the 21st century, the earth's climate and its energy policy interact and their relationship is studied and governed by a variety of national and international institutions. The relationships between energy-resource depletion, climate change, ...

Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

Climate change: "Not with my money"

In recent years,

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

has become a major issue. For example, in 2006 and 2007, Milieudefensie started a campaign called "" ("Not with my money") to stimulate public awareness about the role of banks in climate change. Together, Dutch banks manage a total of 2,700 billion

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

, by which they have a huge influence on which projects can go through and which cannot. According to Milieudefensie, the four major Dutch banks cause CO₂ emissions that are three times that of the Netherlands through their investments. They listed the

ABN Amro ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...

bank as being the "worst", followed by the

ING Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...

bank and Fortis. According to Milieudefensie, the "best" banks in terms of CO₂ emissions would be ASN and Triodos.

Bulderbos

Milieudefensie also uses

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

methods, such as

suing - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the Civil law (common law), civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in re ...

companies and the government. Possibly the most eye-catching action of Milieudefensie was one designed to stop the construction of a fifth runway at

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

airport. For this, they bought part of the land on which it was to be constructed and then sold small pieces of that land to many individuals. As a result, all those people had to disown the land separately. On this terrain, a forest was planted, the Bulderbos ("thunder forest").

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official websiteInvesting in Climate Change
a report on the climate-(un)friendliness of banks (in English)
Friends of the Earth International WebsiteFriends of the Earth Europe Website
Activism Friends of the Earth Climate change organizations Environmental organisations based in the Netherlands Organizations established in 1971 1971 establishments in the Netherlands

Climate change: "Not with my money"

Bulderbos

See also

References

External links