A children’s show in Amsterdam explains to adults how to defend themselves against the professionals of the environmental whine

A children's show in Amsterdam explains to adults how to defend themselves against the professionals of the environmental whine

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There is a silent, pragmatic, optimistic activism that tends to make the proposal prevail over any form of protest. A useful example, which explains the value of trust in innovation

When it comes to the environment, there are two kinds of activism. There is a gloomy, catastrophic activism, an end in itself, which tends to transform the protest rather than the proposal into news. And then it exists a silent, pragmatic, optimistic activism that tends to make the proposal prevail over any form of protest. The first form of activism is the one that often ends up on the front pages of newspapers and it is a form of activism that tends to pollute the debate on environmental protection with vandalism and soiling. The second form of activism is an activism that tends to transform a real problem, coexistence with a hostile nature and a changing climate, not into an unmanageable drama but into an opportunity to demonstrate the incredible adaptability that an interested society can have to decline more the practice of innovation than the politics of lagna.

A useful example for immersing oneself in the second form of activism could be that of organizing a rapid passage to a European city that would deserve to be crowned on 5 June 2024, on the next “World Environment Day”, as the world capital of environmental optimism: the ‘Holland. It’s a small story, but it’s an exemplary story. And it’s worth a trip. A journey that deserves to start from a white, cylinder-shaped structure located next to the tallest tower in Amsterdam, A’Dam Palace, a few meters from the central station. A structure built by private individuals, with the approval of the government, where the few lucky tourists miraculously managed not to be scratched by bicycles (Holland is the country in the world with the largest number of bicycles per capita in the world) and by the infinite and silent and very dangerous Tesla taxis speeding through the city (the electric car tax subsidies are so generous that they have made it convenient for taxi drivers to buy Tesla cars in bulk) can watch the projection of a three-dimensional show dedicated to children, entitled “This is Holland”. Theme: explaining how Holland transformed water from a threat to its life into an opportunity for its growth.

The premise is what we all know. The Netherlands is so named because 26 percent of its land area is below sea level (and 59 percent of the land area in the Netherlands is subject to flooding). But despite this, Holland loves water and has found a way to demonstrate that it has a vaccine to protect itself both from stepmother nature and from environmentalists who are all talk and diversion: innovation.

The “This is Holland” show, from this point of view, is a perfect manifesto on how to make environmental pragmatism a concrete response to environmentalist whining. This can be done, for example, through the widespread construction of dams (dam in Dutch is written “dam”, a suffix which is not by chance found in many city names). This can be done through the construction and daily maintenance of canals (59 percent of the land area of ​​Holland is still subject to flooding). This can be done through a real bet on the collaboration between the state and private individuals on technological innovation (in the Netherlands there is a system called Hydraloop which makes it possible to collect 85 percent of all the water used in the house for showers, baths, washing machines, air conditioning systems and to reuse it for various purposes, such as flushing toilets, watering the garden, filling swimming pools and cleaning the streets).

“Nature is unpredictable”, suggests the documentary, and to govern it all that remains is to consider man not as the cause of all evil but as the solution to every problem. Innovation, technology, pragmatism and zero alarmism. With a small lesson for children, Holland also offers a valuable suggestion for adults to try to defend the environment without rhetoric and without catastrophism. And with an easy formula: fewer activists, more activism. This is Holland? No: this is future.


  • Claudio Cerasa Director

  • Born in Palermo in 1982, he has lived in Rome for a long time, has been working at Il Foglio since 2005 and has been director since January 2015. He has written a few books (“The chains of the left”, with Rizzoli, “I cannot be silent”, with Einaudi, “Between the donkey and the dog. Conversation on Italy”, with Rizzoli, “La Presa di Roma”, with Rizzoli, and “Ho visto l’uomo nero”, with Castelvecchi), is on Twitter. He is an Inter fan, but above all from Palermo. He’s crazy about Green Days, the Strokes, the Killers, chocolate brownies and frozen oysters. Two sons.

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