Cc: Amsterdam city council

Subject: urgent call to stop cruises on Amsterdam

 

Dear Sir, Madam,

As you know, Extinction Rebellion Netherlands has embarked on a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience to ban cruise ships from Amsterdam. The first cruise line [1] has already announced that they will avoid Amsterdam for this reason and we call on you to do the same.

Below we explain once again why we are asking for this.

1. A cruise ship has the CO2 emissions of 84,000 cars, the nitrogen of 400,000 cars, the fine particles of 1,000,000 cars and the sulphur of 370,000,000 cars. This is a disaster for the climate, the environment and public health. The world is on the brink of a climate disaster [2], partly caused by the immense emissions of your industry. There are no solutions other than to drastically reduce the CO2 emissions you contribute to.
2. About 12,000 people die every year in the Netherlands from the effects of air pollution, according to the Dutch Lung Fund [3]. You are partly responsible for that. So you are, literally, killing us and that has to stop. 
3. Recently, peaceful protesters have been intimidated and threatened [4] by hoodlums associated with the lock workers. Of course, we will remain strictly non-violent an will not give in to intimidation and threats. However, doing so may mean that this conflict will escalate further to the detriment of your image. To be clear, we always stand in solidarity with workers and demand that they can make the transition to sustainable jobs in a just manner.

Should you not change course, we will escalate our campaign further. We will not fail to also inform your customers of the danger they are causing by continuing to support your company as a customer.

Of course everyone is welcome in Amsterdam, but not in this way.

Stop killing us.

On behalf of Extinction Rebellion Netherlands,

Niels Moek

 

Sources
[1] https://www.hartvannederland.nl/politiek/demonstratie/artikelen/disney-cruiseschip-slaat-amsterdam-over-om-xr-demonstraties
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/30/climate-emergency-scientists-declaration/
[3] https://www.longfonds.nl/nieuws/longfonds-luidt-noodklok-voor-gezonde-lucht
[4] https://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/341004/extinction-rebellion-doet-aangifte-na-doodsbedreigingen-uit-ijmuiden