Worldlog Esther Ouwehand 6. studenoga 2018

With our party leader Marianne Thieme on sick leave, I now act as deputy Chairperson of our Lower House faction and will therefore also take over the Worldlog. Like Marianne, I have been a Lower House Member for the Dutch Party for the Animals for nearly 12 years now, and I am looking forward to using this Worldlog to interact with people around the world who share our passion for this beautiful planet and the animals living on it. After all, it is essential to deal with the major problems of our time across borders.

And it is happening. Around the world, young people take it upon themselves to stimulate their governments to act against climate change. In countries such as the United States, Colombia and Pakistan, children are suing their governments, which are still conserving the status quo despite the consequences for the planet and for younger generations.

My heart made a little jump when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden single-handedly changed the course of the Swedish election campaign, by going on a ‘school strike’ outside the Swedish Parliament. Rather than going to school, she took her protest sign to the parliament building every day, showing politicians that they should take the necessary climate action. Her campaign was picked up by the national and international press, unleashing a global action of young students going on strike outside their own parliaments in favour of the climate. Our own youth wing PINK! soon began its climate strike outside the Dutch Parliament, attracting much attention for the climate and the necessity to listen to young people, rather than the fossil industry and industrial agriculture.

Greta Thunberg with Esther Ouwehand and PINK! members outside the Dutch Parliament

On Friday, 5 October, Greta joined the student strike in the Netherlands, and I was very honoured to take her inside and have her take her place on the rostrum of our parliament. After all, the voice of the next generation, begging for a sustainable future and a healthy planet, must be heard. “We cannot save the world if we keep playing by the rules, because it is precisely those rules that need to be changed,” she said – and she is absolutely right!

Always remember that you alone can start a great movement by standing up for your ideals. Because of the actions of one 15-year-old girl from Sweden, there have been school strikes for the climate in the Netherlands, Germany, Great-Britain and Belgium. At the moment young people are on a strike in Australia and on 30 November, they are organising a mass strike across the country, in protest against their government’s mismanagement. Go Team Planet!

Last October, a judge in the Netherlands agreed with all these young people for the second time by ruling that the Dutch State is taking insufficient action against climate change and is thereby acting unlawfully. A historic victory for our planet and all its inhabitants. The tilting moment that the climate really, really needed. Hopefully, many similar verdicts will follow in other countries.

In the meantime, the call from scientists is also growing louder and louder: stop breeding and killing animals, or it is goodbye to the climate. It is vital that this message is taken seriously by people around the world. That is why I recently visited a packed university room in Moldova at the invitation of animal rights lawyer Ion Dron, to give a lecture on the necessity of compassion and sustainability as a starting point for all policies, but especially the agricultural policy. This was the first time a lecture on animal rights was held in Moldova, and the interest was overwhelming. Amazing!

Moldova has all the essentials to deliver the food of the future: fertile lands and a great variety of crops, making it possible to cultivate a natural resistance against insects and plagues. Agriculture without overfertilization and the use of agricultural chemicals, producing plenty of plant proteins for human consumption: that is what Europe needs. But at the same time, the lobby of foreign companies aiming to expand industrial livestock farming in Moldova is growing. Now that the western livestock industry is in crisis and western people no longer tolerate the industry destroying their living environment, the industry sees opportunities to relocate its polluting practices to Eastern Europe. This would be a disaster for Moldovan nature, animals, people and environment.

Esther Ouwehand in Moldova

Luckily, even in the poorest country of Europe there are still people who are brave enough to oppose the lobby. I had the honour to speak to some of them: from emerging animal-friendly politicians to local animal campaigners, from a farmer to an organic crop farming expert. The world is in dire need of people like them.

If there is anyone who needs to face the fact that intensive livestock farming is violating the rights of animals and endangering the planet, peace and safety at the same time, it is the United Nations policy makers. If we don’t drastically reduce the consumption of animal products, many of the UN’s good efforts – combating hunger, tackling climate change, maintaining peace and security – will have been for nothing. At the end of October, when I joined the Dutch socio-political delegation on a visit to the UN headquarters in New York, I seized the opportunity to put the absolute necessity of eating more plant-based foods on the agenda. I confronted the UN policy makers with the inconsistency of their policies: although reports of UN bodies clearly state that we have to drastically reduce our meat consumption, there is nothing in their policies that takes this fact into account. Worse still, it is mainly meat and diary that is served in the UN headquarters. Absurd.

As a side event to my official visit to the UN, I screened the ground-breaking Australian documentary Dominion. I wanted to start the debate, not only on the violence done to animals in livestock farming, but also on the threat livestock farming poses to peace and security in the world.

Esther Ouwehand in New York

In addition, I gave a lecture at New York University on animal rights and the need for political action. Visiting Central Park with American activists, I called for an end to the horse carriages in New York, which forces horses to work under appalling conditions. Thanks to the Party for the Animals, horse carriages will soon be illegal in Amsterdam.

In New York I received a warm welcome from our American sister party The Humane Party, who in 2015 participated in the Presidential elections as the world’s very first completely vegan candidates. On 6 November the senatorial elections will take place, and two members of The Humane Party will participate. Both candidates are concerned with increasing the role of science, compassion and social justice in politics. They therefore focus on the abolition of livestock farming – or, as one member put it: “You cannot discuss climate change without discussing the livestock sector.”

In the meantime, our own rich country continues to engage in animal suffering and pollution. Time after time structural injustices in the livestock sector come to light: the animals are slaughtered at, quite literally, a murderous pace, they are mistreated and abandoned to their fate in the farm fires which happen nearly every month. Environmental limits are exceeded, supervision fails and whoever speaks up is silenced. And still, the established political parties remain in a state of denial and bury their heads in the sand. This injustice has to stop.

We can turn the tide if we choose a fundamental system change: a system that is more plant-based and more sustainable, without the use of agricultural chemicals or chemical fertilisers and without the large-scale exploitation of defenceless animals. As November happens to be Vegan Month, I just want to say: take up the challenge!

Worldlog Esther Ouwehand 6. studenoga 2018

Zbog bolovanja naše stranačke načelnice Marianne Thieme, preuzeti ću od danas Worldlog kao zamjenica naše predsjednice parlamentarne skupine. Ja sam kao i Marianne skoro 12 godina članica parlamenta za nizozemsku Stranku za životinje i radujem se na ovaj način stupiti u interakciju s ljudima iz cijelog svijeta koji dijele našu strast za ovaj prekrasni planet i životinje. Uostalom i neophodno je za zjedničko rješavanje glavnih problema našeg vremena, preko granica.

I to se također događa. Svugdje u svijetu, sve više mladih ljudi se trudi da pokrenu svoje vlade za poduzimanje klimatske akcije. U zemljama kao što su Sjedinjene Američke Države, Kolumbija i Pakistan djeca pokreću sudske postupke protiv svojih vlada koje održavaju status quo postojećih interesa na štetu planeta i mlađih generacija.

Moje srce je gorjelo kada je 15-godišnja švedska Greta Thunberg sama izokrenula švedsku izbornu kampanju na svoju ruku, započevši ˝školski prosvjed˝ za klimu ispred parlamenta u Stockholmu. Umjesto da ide u školu, išla je svaki dan ispred zgrade parlamenta sa svojim prosvjednim natpisom, da izjasni kako političari trebaju poduzeti za klimu potrebne mjere. Njezino djelovanje su pokupili nacionalni i međunarodni mediji i tako je pokrenula globalnu akciju školaraca koji su prosvjedovali za klimu pred svojim parlamentima. Nakon toga je naša organizacija mladih PINK! odmah organizirala vlastiti prosvjed za klimu kod našeg parlamenta, što je također privuklo puno pažnje za klimu i potrebu da se mladi poslušaju, umjesto naftnih poduzeća i industrijske poljoprivrede.

Greta Thunberg, uz Esther Ouwehand i mladi iz PINK!-a ispred nizozemskog parlamenta

U petak, 5. listopada Greta se pridružila školarcima prosvjeda u Nizozemskoj, a meni je bila velika čast povesti je unutra i dati da zauzme mjesto iza govornice našeg parlamenta. Jer glas naredne generacije, koji moli za održivu budućnost zdrave zemlje, se mora čuti. “Mi ne možemo spasiti svijet igrajući po pravilima, jer su upravo ta pravila koja moramo promijeniti”, kaže ona – i tako je!

Nikad ne zaboravite da vi, kao pojedinac koji stoji za svoje ideale, može pomaknuti veliki pokret. Zato što je jedna djevojčica od 15 godina u Švedskoj započela, školske prosvijede za klimu su organizovali mladi u Nizozemskoj, Njemačkoj, Velikoj Britaniji i Belgiji. Trenutno prosvjeduju također australski mladi i 30. studenog organiziraju diljem Australije masovni prosvjed u znak protesta protiv lošeg vođenja njihovih vlada. To Tim Planet!

Nizozemski sudac je svim ovim mladima u listopadu po drugi put dao zapravo, i zaključio: Nizozemska država čini premalo protiv klimatskih promjena i s tim protuzakonito djeluje. Povijesna pobjeda za naš planet i sve njegove stanovnike. Ključni momenat prevrtanja koji je klimi bio potreban, vrlo potreban. Nadamo se da će mnoge izjave poput ove slijediti u drugim zemljama.

I dok se ovo događa, zvuči i poziv iz znanosti invazivno: zaustavite uzgoj i ubijanje životinja, inače se možete pozdraviti s klimom. Vrlo je važno da se ova poruka pokupi svugdje u svijetu. To je razlog zašto sam nedavno – na poziv odvjetnika za prava životinja Iona Drona – posjetila Moldaviju, gdje sam održala predavanje u prepunoj sveučilišnoj dvorani o potrebi da suosjećanje i održivost bude temelj za svu politiku, a posebno poljoprivrednu. U Moldaviji je prvi put održano predavanje o pravima životinja, a interes je bio izvanredan. Odlično!

Moldavija ima sve što je potrebno za budućnost hrane: plodno tlo i širok raspon usjeva, što omogućava kultiviranje prirodne otpornosti na insekte i štetočine. Poljoprivreda bez prekomjerne gnojidbe i poljoprivrednog otrova, s obiljem biljnih bjelančevina za ljudsku potrošnju: to je ono što Europa treba. No, tu je i rastući lobi stranih tvrtki za proširenje industrijskog stočarstva u Moldaviji. Sada kada je na zapadu stočarstvo u krizi, i ljudi na Zapadu sve manje toleriraju da industrija uništava njihovo okruženje, industrija vidi prilike da pomakne svoje zagađivačke prakse u istočnu Europu. To bi bila katastrofa za moldavsku prirodu, životinje, ljude i okoliš.

Esther Ouwehand u Moldaviji

Čak i u ovoj najsiromašnijoj zemlji u Europi, na sreću, postoje i hrabri ljudi koji se usuđuju suprotstaviti ovom lobiju. Imala sam čast razgovarati s nekima od njih: od nadolazećih političara za dobrobit životinja i lokalnih zaštitnika životinja, do farmera i stručnjaka na području ekološke poljoprivrede. Svijetu su ovi ljudi trenutno jako potrebni.

Ako netko brzo treba priznati da intenzivna poljoprivreda krši prava životinja, i istovremeno donosi planet, mir i sigurnost u opasnost, to su donositelji odluka unutar Ujedinjenih naroda. Ako drastično smanjimo potrošnju životinjskih proizvoda, mnogi dobri napori UN-a (borba protiv gladi, rješavanje klimatskih promjena, čuvati mir i sigurnost) bit će uzaludni.

Kad sam krajem listopada s nizozemsko društveno-političkoj delegaciji trebala posjetiti sjedište UN-a u New Yorku, odmah sam iskoristila priliku da se stavi apsolutna nužnost biljne hrane na dnevni red. S tim sam suočila političare UN-a sa njihovom proturječnom politikom: s jedne strane izvješća UN-ovih tijela potvrđuju kako našu potrošnju mesa trebamo drastično smanjiti, a s druge strane, se ništa s tim ne čini u UN-ovoj politici. U sjedištu UN-a uglavnom se poslužuju meso i mliječni proizvodi. Apsurdno.

Kao popratni događaj na službenoj posjeti UN-u predstavila sam revolucionarni australski dokumentarac Dominion. S tim sam pokušala ne samo otvoriti raspravu o nasilju koje se farmskim životinjama nanosi, već i raspravu o prijetnji koju stočarstvo čini za mir i sigurnost u svijetu.

Esther Ouwehand u New Yorku

Nadalje, održala sam predavanje na sveučilištu New Yorka o pravima životinja i potrebi političkih akcija. Tijekom posjete Central Parka s američkim aktivistima, pozvala sam da se ukinu konjska vozila u New Yorku, gdje konji pod užasnim uvjetima rade svoj posao. U Amsterdamu, konjska vozila uskoro će biti zabranjena zahvaljujući Stranci za životinje.

Isto tako me je u New Yorku srdačno dočekala američka sestrinska stranka, The Humane Party. U 2015. godini je stranka po prvi put u svjetskoj povijesti izabrala veganske kandidate za predsjedničke izbore. 6. studenog ponovno će biti izbori i sudjelovat će dva člana iz The Humane Party. Oba kandidata žele donijeti više znanosti, suosjećanja i socijalne jednakosti u politiku. Stoga se usredotočuju na ukidanje stočarske industrije. Ili, kako jedan od kandidata kaže: “Ne možete govoriti o klimatskim promjenama, a ne govoriti o stočarskoj industriji”.

U međuvremenu, naša vlastita bogata zemlja i dalje sama sebi nanosi krivnju za patnju životinja i zagađenje. Svaki put iznova se javljaju strukturalna zlodjela iz stočarske industrije: životinje se doslovno vratolomnom brzinom kolju, zlostavljaju i prepuštaju svojoj sudbini gotovo svaki mjesec u požarima farmi. Ograničenja okoliša se krše, nadzor ne uspijeva, a onima koji izgovore svoje mišljenje se ušutka glas. No, uspostavljene političke stranke i dalje negiraju i stavljaju glave u pijesak. Ta nepravda mora prestati.

Možemo preokrenuti trend birajući temeljitu promjenu sustava: moramo zelenije, dugoročnije, bez otrova, bez gnojiva i bez intenzivnog iskorištavanja bespomoćnih životinja. Studeni je posvećen veganstvu, pa bih rekla: prihvatite izazov!