Jurre Antonisse and Jasmijn Twilt live with their son in a Tiny House in Delft. Their choise for this life-style is driven by ecological reasons. “Sometimes goals and means are swapped. People go for the cute and nice designs instead of focusing on less emissions and a sustainable future.”
Marjolein Jonker is a Dutch pioneer and among the first to live in a Tiny House in The Netherlands: “And look at where we are now? A challenge is the scarcety of ground and to find a permanent place to stay. But in the past few years we have achieved so much: municipalities increasingly take us serious and the movement is still growing. With the Covid-19 crisis I expect tiny house living to become even more attractive. Sustainability and independence of the system are core-values for many.”
Jan-Willem van der Made founded the Tiny House Academy where he is teaching students to design their own tiny house and how to live off-grid in The Netherlands. According to Jan-Willem “minimalist, ecological and economical values are intertwined in the tiny house lifestyle. If you are not fully committed, you can’t make it.”
Karin Prins, mother of two, lives in a 24 m² tiny house in the forest in Zeist. “Dutch laws provide strict guidelines on the safety, construction and usage regulations that homes must meet in order to obtain permanent residence. However, when municipa-lities see we are just normal people stretching the rules, they often give us a temporal residency where we can stay 5-10 years.”
Elvie Kromwijk lives with her partner in a tiny house in Delft. “We live in a privileged society but the younger generation especially are starting to question traditional values like the current economic model. People asked me if it was difficult during the confinement period, but we have so much space outside.”
After being on the waiting list for three years, young couple Moritz and Katja Hubl managed to have a Schrebergarten since half a year. They are obliged to use at least 100 of the 400 square meters in total for the production of vegetables and fruits.
ECF Farmsystems produces fresh basil to be sold to retailers in the Berlin area. People can also come to the shop on Thursday to buy fresh fish and basil directly from the factory.
Hanna Burckhardt is the coordinator of the educational activities; runs guided tours and workshops and helps with events and communications at the Prinzessinnengarten.
After Tempelhof Airport closed in 2008, it has been converted in a large public leisure park. Within the Tempelhofer Feld, as the area is called, a community garden is constructed with recycled materials.
After Tempelhof Airport closed in 2008, it has been converted in a large public leisure park. Within the Tempelhofer Feld, as the area is called, a community garden is constructed with recycled materials.
Nora Binnig, co-worker at the City Lab, demonstrates how citizens can adopt and water the Berlin trees, in front of the City Lab Berlin.
“BirthStrike was founded to ring the alarm. As long as the system does not change, we will stop having children. So it is a statement to show politicians and the world how bad the climate is actually. It is an appeal to take action," said 34-year-old Blythe Pepino, founder of #BirthStrike.
“It is sad that my decision is inevitable. I always saw myself as a caring father figure, but I don't think I can provide a safe place for my children. Within a decade, we will be faced with hunger and water shortage, leading to the collapse of societies. It will lead to conflict and wars and I don't want to expose my children to these horror scenarios.” - Nathan Nuckir, 26.
“It is impossible for me to bring a child into this world; a world that does nothing to change itself. Young people have not yet become entangled in the cynicism of life, so they still have the strength to fight and believe in change. Birthstrike shows the human side of the climate crisis” - Daze Aghaji, 19 years old.
Adam Ley-Lange and Jessica Johannesson is a Birthstrike couple. They had also just decided to start having children when the IPCC report came out. "The report examines the disastrous consequences of global warming of 1.5 and 2 degrees and the differences between them. We are heading for a climate disaster," explains Jessica.
Amy Caitlin, 36 years old. “I wanted to have children with my last partner, and I still have not given up hope, but I would need very different conditions. The realisation that we are in a massive crisis and no politician doing anything, makes my decision not to have children. I cannot give them a safe future.”
Ecovilamat is an eco-village in progress. With the heritage of his father, Didac Sanchez-Costa, managed to buy a 70 hectare land within a National Parque, including the ruins of a former factory. With the money he managed to restore one of the buildings. His utopia is that the other ruins will be rebuild and inhabited by like-minded people and start an eco-community.
So far Didac is living alone in the village, with 40 animals. He has strong ideas about politics, the Catalan independence, anar-chism and searches for people who combine anarchism with hippie-ism, and who have money to rebuild the other houses.
In summer people can come to camp in nature around his house and he rents out a room in his house. He wants to share the place with other people, and give people the opportunity to enjoy his little eco-paradise. “It looks all very idyllic, but it is also hard-work to live off-grid. I want people to experience this before they decide they want to stay.”
Didac is a convinced anarchist, believing in collectivity and freedom and a theoretical thinker. “Maybe it is an utopy. Where to find people who have the same anarchist ideas, who have a hippie lifestyle, but who also have money? I hope one day we will be a more or less self-sufficient community.”
Donkeys sleep in one of the ruins of the village. They walk freely around the property, sometimes causing problems since they like to enter the community kitchen and eat the trash.
The impending climate crisis is not something unknown or under-covered by the mainstream media. Countless international summits, national plans and local action can be seen in every corner of the continent and the globe. However, a lumbering political system has struggled to turn discussions and even promises into meaningful action. In response, a swell of citizens has taken action into their own hands. Some furiously ring the alarm bells, others innovate eco-solutions, and some change their lifestyle altogether. While the approaches differ greatly, their message is clear and unified. Change is needed now . We explore four powerful citizen-driven initiatives based in Europe to understand why these individuals have taken action into their own hands, and what we can all learn from them.
The Tiny House Movement in the Netherlands focuses on sustainable housing, urban gardening in Germany focuses on healthy and ecological food that is cutting the supply chain. In the UK, Birth Strike pledges to abstain from having children aiming to be a catalyst of system change. In Spain the phenomenon of eco-villages is popular. These citizen-driven responses to climate change across various countries in Europe show together an international trend. Presenting some interesting questions; have citizens become the agents of change in response to the climate crisis, and what are their motivations, goals and limitations?
The project was partly funded by a Reporters in the Field Grant of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. A collaboration with cross-border journalist Luke Ambrose.