Milieudefensie

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Milieudefensie (Dutch for 'environmental defense') is a Dutch environmental organisation, founded on 6, January 1971, by a group of scientists in response to the report of the Club of Rome. It still does a lot of 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 Green Left, and is the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth.

Milieudefensie has 90.000 members and focuses on 5 main themes:

[edit] Climate change - not with my money

A bank card being cut for the project 'Niet met mijn geld'

In recent years, climate change has become a major issue. For example, in 2006 and 2007, Milieudefensie started a campaign called 'Niet met mijn geld' ('not with my money') to stimulate public awareness about the role of banks in climate change. Together, Dutch banks manage a total of 2700 billion euro (a fivefold of the Dutch GDP), with which they have a huge influence on which projects can go through and which can not. A research by Milieudefensie showed that through their investments, the four major Dutch banks cause CO2 emissions that are a threefold of that of the Netherlands. The worst bank is ABN Amro, closely followed by ING and Fortis. Rabobank is an intermediate bank and a good choice for those who want to keep their money in a major bank. At the other end of the spectrum are ASN and Triodos, banks that make a point of investing in 'good' projects. Triodos was found to be especially climate-friendly.

[edit] Bulderbos

Milieudefensie also uses legal methods, such as sueing companies and the government. Possibly the most eye-catching action of Milieudefensie was one designed to stop the construction of a fifth lane at Schiphol airport. For this, they bought part of the land it was to be constructed on and then sold small pieces of that land to many individuals. As a result, all those people had to be disowned separately. On this terrain, a forest was planted, the Bulderbos ('thunder forest').