25th blog, March 16 2019

The Dutch government issues capital to subsidies for the 'reduction' of CO₂ emissions. As you now understand, this 'reduction' is indeed a reduction of emissions, but not a reduction of the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere. The concentration still goes - albeit slowed - up. If you reduce emissions by 49%, around 51% CO₂ will still be added to the atmosphere. With the aim of tackling climate change, the Netherlands therefore subsidizes all sorts of things that do not work against climate change.

24th blog, March 15, 2019

This is my one of last blogs of a series of 25 on the Climate Agreement concluded in the Netherlands between stakeholders in back rooms without the citizens in the Netherlands - who ultimately have to pay the price – having something to say about it. Because this is one of the last blogs, it will be a bit longer than the 300 words I usually try to limit to.

23rd blog, March 14, 2019

I have worked 16 years continuously to develop and introduce the Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology. Innovation takes a long time and is very expensive. For this beautiful project, our government rewarded us as a National Icon. Together with 6 others, we are allowed to use this title. However, due to the inadequate financing structure for innovative companies in the Netherlands, a number of National Icons have already fallen into foreign hands. We also know many other beautiful companies of genius entrepreneurs who could have meant a lot for the Netherlands, but they were also sold abroad, such as Booking.com. Sometimes it seems like the Netherlands is spreading its business jewellery like Hansel and Gretel spread their bread crumbs.

22nd blog, March 13, 2019

In order to save the banks in Europe, in 2011 - within 3 years after the crisis of 2008 - 4.6 trillion (4,600,000,000,000) euros of support was given. This money came without a tax increase for the citizens.

21st blog, March 12, 2019

For the Netherlands, we only need 12 million hectares of trees to decompose all CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels. That is 2.9 times the area of ​​our country. Compared with the 2 billion hectares we need to make the whole world CO₂ neutral, such a small area is easy to organize. In the United States, approximately 862 million acres of severely eroded land could be restored. Planting this degraded land would offset 5 billion tons of CO₂ per year, which is more than the USA emits. Planting productive trees would make the USA the first CO₂ neutral country in the world, with a money making and job creating business model.

20th blog, March 11, 2019

The tree is an ideal product to plant on degraded soil to solve the climate problem. But it has a big disadvantage: you have to finance planting for a long time, because it takes 5 to 7 years before the tree is productive. So in 2006 I thought 'I will study the Kyoto Treaty so that I can sell the carbon credits from the planted trees'. A carbon credit is the right you sell to someone that allows them to emit CO₂ because you have organized something that reduces CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere.

19th blog, March 8, 2019

In 1987 I placed my first wind turbine for my company. We wanted to produce our own electricity for our cooling stores, and so I discovered that wind turbines can burn lights, but not large engines. They produce almost nothing. In the cooling company we heated the building with the condensers from the cold stores. We did not need heaters in the winter - and therefore no gas. In 2003 I stopped with my flower bulb company and started the company Groasis to help solve the efficiency problem of water consumption in the agricultural sector. Care for the climate has always been my theme.

18th blog, March 7, 2019

The center of the Netherlands – the Veluwe - consists of nature made by man. More than 100 years ago it was a sand plain without trees. They were called 'sand drifts'. If we use that area all over again by creating a beautiful Veluwe city with Palace Het Loo as a town hall, we can shift all nature to the low (partly inhabited) wet areas. They have much more natural value, there are many more (different types) of animals. The man made nature area Oostvaardersplassen has proven that newly constructed nature can be incredibly beautiful. It is so successful that we now slaughter the animals that feel so happy there, since they multiply too fast. It can therefore work, natural displacement.

17th blog, March 6, 2019

For an adult man it is not brave to say 'I am afraid.' But I will tell you honestly that I am. I am afraid of climate change. I am afraid of hurricanes, floods, forest fires and sea level rise. I'm afraid that the unimaginable will happen.

16th blog, March 5, 2019

In the Netherlands, we have the idea that we can do without fossil fuels and that we can actually reduce our CO₂ emissions by 95% by 2050. The question is whether that is realistic. If, in order to neutralize the emissions of our trucks, we need more than 40,000 windmills with a cost of 600,000 euros per truck, how much do we need for the other energy using equipment? How much for Tata, an iron ore melting company? For KLM, our airline company? For our 7 million passenger cars? I read that a ship that visits the port of Rotterdam emits the same amount of CO₂ emissions per day as all the Rotterdam cars together in one day. Aircraft is even less efficient than ships.

15th blog, March 4, 2019

We regularly hear from interest groups a call for a CO₂ levy in the Netherlands. This is thought to work. I would not know what the difference is with the effect of a price increase of the fuels. Whether you make the fuels more expensive or apply a CO₂ levy does not matter for the user of the fossil fuels. There is a big difference in complexity, however: the levies on fuels are a perfectly functioning automated system. An annual increase in excise duties does not cost the government anything extra. A new system of CO₂ levies will cost the government a lot (think of measuring methods, registration, checks, lifting, return, etc.). The companies involved will also have to pay a huge amount of money: consultants, calculation methods, measuring, checking. The introduction of a CO₂ tax will lead to extra complexity, efficiency and high costs.

14th blog, March 1, 2019

Why do we let happen things that, when you start thinking, are clearly harmful to us? Why are we going to live in deltas? Why do we cut millions of hectares of forest every year? Why do we dump plastic into rivers - which then pollute the oceans? Why are we spraying insecticides that kill bees?

13th blog, February 28, 2019

One of the biggest taboos is starting a discussion about overpopulation. Recently we have seen that with a discussion that was started by one of our Dutch parliamentarians - who had the courage to propose to limit the number of children that women are allowed to have. The discussion about the number of children caused so many emotions that it was aborted before he could cause electoral damage to his party. Of course, faith was added to the discussion, as well as the woman's right to self-determination and all kinds of other reasons why everyone has the right to get an unlimited - like flowers or weeds? – number of children.

12th blog, February 27, 2019

The miracle of nature is that by changing the position of atoms it makes new substances with different properties. Look at how beautiful: CO₂ is carbon dioxide, H₂O is water and O₂ is oxygen. In all three molecules is the O atom and by simply linking it to something else, or multiplying it, you get another valuable substance. What a wonder. People came up with the idea of ​​copying that principle of nature and we now call that a 'circular economy'.

11th blog, February 26, 2019

Worldwide, 7.9 million hectares of forest are cut every year, about twice the area of the Netherlands. That is 19 soccer fields per minute. During the last 2,000 years, mankind has made about 2 billion hectares of fertile land - largely covered with trees - infertile. From the Bible we know that the Jews left Egypt for the land of milk and honey. If you go to that region now, you’ll feel like you’ve ended up on the moon. There is no room for cows and bees in Jordan. The upper strip of North Africa was once green and fertile; the lions that were used in the Coliseum came from there. There is now virtually nothing left of it.