Those ‘stamps of nature’ are precisely an argument to save what is left

The PP party that manages to generate the most attention in the run-up to the provincial elections – through their striking political leader, their expressions in support of farmers, hunters and fishermen, the massive number of BB signs and flags that effectively expose parts of the beautiful countryside and because of the criticism they receive from other parties (and columnists), who themselves say that they were able to fire their marketing employee because every criticism earns them another seat – that party will probably do well in many provinces.

But I doubt whether it will really make BBBeter for nature and climate in this country.

There are some holes in their claim that the oceans are in better shape thanks to fishing. But since they also claim that hunters are having a good time, I doubt I should. Okay, very briefly: a sea in balance can do very well without fishing (according to marine biologist Irene Kingma). The birds that now live on the bycatch that goes overboard will also find another way to survive. Plus: we fish 120 million tons of fish from the oceans worldwide (according to fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly, who is 40 million tons above the official figures, but that is because a lot of fish is illegally caught and therefore not reported).

Polluting killing machines

Big but: I realize of course that fishermen live from fishing and like to keep fishing. Just as I also realize that just regarding everything we humans do interferes with nature, and the balance that generally exists there. When I devoted one tweet to BBB’s dragnet love this week, I received dozens of responses that made it clear to me that windmills at sea are a kind of polluting killing machines that really destroy everything, with their foundations, cables, vibrations and particulate matter.

I noticed that Caroline van der Plas regularly uses the term ‘nature stamps’ in (nitrogen) debates and elsewhere, and that is a clever idea. I assume by the marketing officer, just before she was fired. The image is: small tufts of forest or nature. To protect them, farmers must reduce nitrogen emissions, or ‘the province is locked’, because construction and other sectors are also ‘affected’.

In fact, let’s say since the 1950s, we have managed to achieve so much economic growth at the expense of a great deal of nature, public health and air, soil and water quality. Then it feels at least very unfair to me if you want to continue with what we’ve been doing for so long, because it’s only regarding ‘stamps of nature’. Those stamps are not an argument to continue, but rather an argument to change and save what, thank God, is still there.

Let the farmer farm, the fisherman fish, but please in a way that does not further destroy nature and living environment. We all benefit from that. With one b.

Dolf Jansen is a comedian and writes a weekly column for Trouw. Read his columns here.