Monday 13 August 2012

Ecology: "Parkveld", a personal threshold

The reason why I posted nothing last week was because of the Climate Action Camp in my hometown. We were stationed on a location called Parkveld (translated: Park field). This is a field normally used only for agricultural purposes, yet somehow it got sold to a company who wants to build housings and industrial buildings on it. This without asking the opinion from the neighborhood. There isn't much green left in Leuven and yet they keep building and building and building... 

Besides that, this isn't just any farmland, it's part of the place I grew up and therefore I consider it a part of myself. I do not want to see the land that I grew up on being reduced to a slab of concrete with some ugly industrial buildings on it. This activity was more to me than a random ecological activity. It was something personal.

So this is to all companies, politicians, etc. who are willing to step onto the land I grew up on and do whatever they please without asking the local community what they think: 

This is land that belongs to the local community, which I'm part of because I was born and raised here. I do not care what rules have been made up that give any individual or collective the right to take away this land and use it for purposes that have a negative impact on the community and nature. If these were rules that would have a positive impact I would happily comply, but that just isn't the case here. These rules are made up by only a very small fraction of one of the millions of species on this entire planet. None of the other species EVER agreed upon these rules. Even the majority of our own species haven't agreed upon it, yet we act like these rules are made by God himself. These rules are made by man and can by changed by man. I do not care who made these rules, but I do know one thing: You do NOT have the right to remove people from the land they dwelled upon for hundreds of years. You do NOT have the right to remove rare species, or any species for that matter, from their territory. You do NOT have the right to remove our precious nature, from which some trees are even way older than you.
You have gone too far and now there is at least one extra activist you have to deal with. I will undertake whatever actions necessary to protect the land I grew up on and its people, using all my skills and all my contacts. See you at the green front line.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Food: It's a good day to go vegan!

After my post yesterday about vegetarianism, I felt like I had enough knowledge about that to take it to the next level: going vegan. There are more than enough arguments to become vegan and I'll certainly post them here when I have the time. The only reason why I still considered myself vegetarian was because of the eggs I eat. Milk and milk products I cut out of my diet a long time ago, even before I became a vegetarian. I still have to do some research on vitamins and minerals and such, though.

So this post is also a call out to all my vegan friends. Can you help me with becoming vegan? ;) Things I need most are simple recipes and nutritional information. If you happen to know any good websites for this, please share!