Who will save Our Planet?: Recent Episodes
Sophia Stille / Our Only Home
The goal of the Our Only Home podcast “Who will save Our Planet” is to inspire people by presenting projects and initiatives that are carried out by NGOs and civil society to make the world a better place. Watching the news, we often hear about the sad things happening in the world every day and this can easily let one be frustrated about how humanity destroys the planet and its inhabitants. But outside of the spotlight, there are also a lot of inspiring and world-changing initiatives happening at the same time! We want to give these projects, and the actors who drive them more visibility.In our podcast, we talk to NGO representatives and experts to spread the word about the inspiring initiatives and projects they are working on. The first episode is a bit different from the rest since we are introducing the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) mechanism and some inspiring initiatives. The goal is to contribute to positive change in this world and inspire people to become active as well. Since the world is a diverse place and people care about different causes, we cover various areas from animal welfare to human rights and equality in order to reach as many people as possible. By this we want to make it possible for everyone to learn more and invest their energy in a cause close to their hearts.
In our new podcast episode, we had the chance to cover two exciting topics! A new ECI called ‘Fur Free Europe’ and the European Citizens’ Initiative Day which takes place yearly to discuss the ECI-mechanism.
In the first part, we talk to Joh Vinding from the Danish NGO ‘Anima’ about the new ECI called ‘Fur Free Europe’, which collects signatures to ban fur production and imports of fur products in the EU. Fur-farming is already banned in several European countries, while others are peaking in production and leading the world market. The alliance of NGOs and civil society actors coming together through the ‘Fur-free Europe’ Initiative wants to stop this cruel mistreatment of millions of animals each year and ban fur-production in the EU.
In the second part of the episode, we talk about the European Citizens’ Initiative day, which took place in Brussels on the 2nd of June. The day takes place yearly as a forum to discuss and exchange about the ECI-mechanism. Organisers of different ECIs tell about their experiences and discuss together with politicians and civil society to make the mechanism more effective. This year a big topic was the involvement of young people in ECIs and how the general knowledge of ECIs could be increased in the European Public, as less than 3% of people in Europe even know about the mechanism! If you have any suggestions or thoughts about that, we would love to hear them and you can send an email to: sophia@ouronlyhome.eu.
Link to sign the ECI: Fur Free Europe | Eurogroup for Animals
References:
Forening overblik Anima (ouronlyhome.eu)
The Fur Trade - Humane Society International (hsi.org)
In the new episode of our podcast, we talk once again about the ‘Save Bees and Farmers’ initiative. This time, we had the pleasure to welcome Veronika Feicht, who works as an agricultural policy campaigner for the German-based NGO “Umweltinstitut München”. We talk about the main goals of the initiative and how she assesses the current situation of wildlife, biodiversity, agriculture and farmers in the EU.
As Veronika Feicht was involved in organising the initiative, she also shares her experiences about the challenges of collecting signatures during a pandemic and strategies for pandemic-friendly campaigning. Lastly, we learn about how we all can contribute to the goal of saving our biodiversity and supporting farmers who are working to make our agriculture more sustainable.
Our Only Home | Empowering Changemakers
Umweltinstitut München e.V. • Our Only Home
Save bees and farmers
The 20th of May is "World Bee Day", and what would fit better on this day than publishing an episode that matches perfectly with that topic? Sophia introduces the "Save Bees and Farmers" ECI, which was initiated in 2019 and collected more than 1,1 Million signatures. The main demand is to phase-out the use of synthetic pesticides on agricultural land in the EU. Due to the extensive use of pesticides to make our agriculture more and more efficient, biodiversity is suffering while at the same time farmers need to give up their businesses because the pressure from large agribusinesses becomes too large. The "Save Bees and Farmers" Initiative wants to change that. In this episode, we learn more about background information regarding our current system and why this ECI was started to transform it.
Shownotes:
- Save Bees and farmers - sustainable agriculture! (ouronlyhome.eu)
- Initiative detail | European Citizens' Initiative (europa.eu)
- Background – Save bees and farmers
- Europe must transition away from synthetic pesticides (friendsoftheearth.eu)
- SUD-Joint-Statement.pdf (friendsoftheearth.eu)
- Sustainable use of pesticides (europa.eu)
- Impacts of Pesticides on Wildlife — Beyond Pesticides
- Don’t leave biodiversity by the wayside – EURACTIV.com
- Drought and agriculture : A collective scientific expert report | INRAE INSTIT
- An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating | IDDRI
- Biopesticides as an alternative to synthetic pesticides in potted plants (au.dk)
In this episode we discuss the answer of the European Commission to the 'End the Cage Age' ECI with Esben Sloth, who works for the organisation World Animal Protection in Denmark.
In June 2021, the Commission announced that it will initiate quite far-reaching changes in EU animal welfare legislation already by 2027! Esben shares his knowledge and opinions about the answer of the Commission, how realistic it is that these changes will actually happen and what it means for farmers, consumers and animals.
Shownotes:
Erfolg auf dem Weg zum Stopp der Käfighaltung! (ouronlyhome.eu)
European Citizens Initiative on “End the Cage Age” (europa.eu)
End the Cage Age |
World Animal Protection | Move the world to protect animals International
Questions, Comments, Feedback? Send me an Email! sophia@ouronlyhome.eu
In this episode, Sophia talks to Olga Kikou from the animals' rights organization 'Compassion in World Farming' (CIWF) about the End the Cage Age Initiative. CIWF was the initiator of the initiative and Olga explains how the idea came about, how much planning it involves to lead an ECI and which challenges came up along the way.
End the Cage Age Initiative:
Success on the way to stop caged farming in the EU! (ouronlyhome.eu)
End the Cage Age |
Questions, Comments Feedback? Contact me!
sophia@ouronlyhome.eu
In this episode of “Who will save Our Planet?”, Sophia talks to Peter Höffken who works for the animals’ rights organisation 'Peta Germany'. They dive deeper into the 'End the Cage Age' initiative (ECI) and talk about the current standards of keeping animals in the EU, what the ECI wants to change and which changes are realistic for the coming years.Our Only Home | Empowering Changemakers
Questions, comments, feedback? Contact me on sophia@ouronlyhome.eu!
Relevant links:
- First Episode of the Podcast
- End the Cage Age: Success on the way to stop caged farming in the EU! • Our Only Home
- Eurostat: Agricultural production - livestock and meat - Statistics Explained (europa.eu)
- End the Cage Age Website
- PETA Deutschland e.V. (ouronlyhome.eu)
In the first episode of "Who will save Our Planet?", Sophia introduces the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) mechanism. She explains what it is, how it came about and how you can start your own ECI! In the second part, she presents some ECIs that have been successful in the past and some that are currently still open for signature collection so everyone can get inspired.
Our Only Home | Empowering Changemakers
Questions, comments, feedback? Contact me on: sophia@ouronlyhome.eu
Links to the active ECIs:
Green Garden Rooftops: Initiative detail | European Citizens' Initiative (europa.eu)
Environmental Protection in all policy areas: Initiative detail | European Citizens' Initiative (europa.eu)