Oh guys, here we go again. It is National Climate Week and then the drawer opens in Hilversum that always opens when the sky clouds over and temperatures rise high. Let’s keep it cozy, optimistic, personal and close. Think, think, think. Should we otherwise let a well-known Dutch person do something about the climate?
In Advocates (BNNVARA), Jurre Geluk investigates his lack of enthusiasm to become a climate activist. “I understand the purpose, but it feels so uncomfortable.” The chaining and/or gluing, the screaming and violence. His documentary begins (and ends) with self-examination: “Why is it never in me came up to yourself to take to the streets.” He discusses the matter with his brother and his father, sitting under an umbrella on the beach near IJmuiden. He says: at home it was never about climate or the consequences of eating meat or flying. No, his father says, but that wasn’t the case twenty years ago. If anyone makes more sustainable choices, says his brother Maikel, it is Jurre. No, Jurre knows, he prefers to sit in the bath with a salami pizza – even though he resolves to eat less meat every week. And for holidays, preferably fly as far as possible.
Good, we know where Jurre stands. Now he can emulate the two young activists he speaks to, Sem (23) and Anne (28). Why do they do what he doesn’t do? Sem is a ‘regular climber’ for Greenpeace. He climbs trees, bridges and buildings to chain a banner or himself. No matter how dangerous or secret the action, his father Dim brings him and picks him up. He drives the van, drops him off and picks him up at the end of the day, possibly from the police station. “Sem has been like this since he was four. It started in elementary school, and it never stopped.” Sem drives an electric motorcycle, shops in the organic supermarket, never buys a pineapple or avocado, drinks oat milk, wears second-hand clothes and flying is not even “an option” in his mind. Compared to him, Jurre feels “ignorant as fuck”.
In the parental home of debuting activist Anne, Jurre eats endive stew with a piece of bacon. For the first time, she will participate in a Greenpeace demonstration on the site of steel manufacturer Tata Steel. Jurre follows her on the summer action day, which in Jurre’s opinion is more like a festival than a demonstration. The gate is cut open, she marches through it in orange overalls, but Jurre stops. “Jur, don’t you want to participate?” she shouts a moment later. He hesitates. The “tension and sensation” appeal to him. Only, deep down he doesn’t really feel ‘it’ yet.
Shared suffering
Of Hans Dorrestijn and the earthworm dilemma Omroep MAX leaves the climate issue to incarnate skeptic and comedian Hans Dorrestijn (83). Four evenings in a row this week he discusses how to live and eat more sustainably, and what to do with nature and the polluting clothing industry.
He seems to me to be from the generation that was thrifty before it was called sustainable. We see him making a cup of tea in his kitchen, which has withstood the test of time. Out of habit, he fills the kettle with a measured amount of water and turns off the gas when he hears that the water is boiling. Simplicity comes in many forms, varying in complexity and price. Dorrestijn visits actor Waldemar Torenstra who lives in the ‘most sustainable residential area in Europe’. Clean ship is the name given to the floating district of new-build owner-occupied boats in an industrial canal near Amsterdam. The 150 people share energy, reuse water and ferment their waste. A mini-society, according to Torenstra, where “fun living” goes hand in hand with “doing good for the environment”.
That is a concept that Dorrestijn understands. “Shared suffering is easier to live in.”