...in an Amsterdam court today, as Michal Grygoruk was convicted of resisting arrest after trying to prevent over 20 trees from being cut down on the Uitdammerdijk 16 in the north of Amsterdam. The spontaneous protest took place on May 2 as the demolition crew moved in on the squatted campsite to cut down all the trees probably without permission. A number of the squatters had been bribed by the owner, Successparkeren, to leave. Michal knew nothing of the bribery and has to carry the can. This is an unsafe conviction that sends out the wrong message at a time when Wangari Maathai calls on us to plant more trees not cut them down. This daily incremental carve up of nature has a terrible cummulative effect. Every day species go extinct and nature loses some more of her inventory in a piecemeal silent holocaust. These twenty odd trees are no more. Yet another loss we can ill afford, and a decent man has been criminalised for his conscience.
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way." (William Blake)
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