arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Climate change is happening now.More rain,heavier rain, more severe storms but also more heat and greater drought. People cause climate change - the warming up of the earth. People have to stop this. We have to stop this as quickly as possible. That 's why we are here today to build a dike. The longer we wait, the bigger the problems will be, in the rich countries but even more so in the poor countries.

The people who cause the problems should solve them. This is a very simple wisdom. You can also say "Everbody should clean up his own mess". That's of course also the case with the emission of greenhouse gases. The wealthy western countries are by far the most resonsible for limate change. So in these counties must make the largest reductions in greenhouses gases.
This is where the turnaround needs to be made. This means different methods of production, different lifestyles and we have to start with that right now.

We built this dike today because we believe that one should clean up his own mess. It can be done. New techniques are there to be used. We have to switch to solar and wind energy which can replace the use of fossil fuels. This is not easy and will cost a lot of money, but the costs of climate change, the heavier rainfall, the droughts, and sea-level rise are many many times more costly. Today we build the dike because we choose clean energy.

Nuclear power is being propesd as a solution to climate change. But I cannot believe this is possible. Solve one problem by creating another? This is an unacceptable safety risk which won,t be resolved by creating radioactive waste. Today we build a dike because we don,t want nuclear power.

It seems that the Netherlands will not meet their Kyoto demands - as research has calulated. Especially the enormous growth of traffic is a huge obstacle. Mobility is not fun (as Minister Netelenbos says it is) because it only exacerbates climate change!

The Netherland have to practice a credible climate policy. Prime Minister, Kok, and your Ministers: today we build a dike because we urgently need extra measures to stop further increases in emissions from traffic.

Minister Pronk is an ambitious chairman. But Minister Pronk: not every deal is a good deal. What we need is real reduction in the rich countries. It is also your task to get rid of the fake reductions.

We have been talking about the reduction of greenhouse gases for ten years. The deal at Kyoto was a small break through. Three years have passed since then and the emissions gave grown even more. We have run out of patience. Or let,s put it this way: we wille have one more week of patience. We will stay alert this coming week. If it has to be, we will come back to the Hague.

People cause climate change. People have to stop climate change. We built this dike today to stop climate change.

Wijnand Duyvendak
Director, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)