Description
Under the smoke of the polluting petrochemical industry, nature flourishes. That, in a nutshell, is the message of the documentary 'Wild Port of Europe', the opening film of the Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam that premiered on 4 October 2022. Some 25 organisations - including young people, teachers, scientists, healthcare professionals and psychologists - wrote an open letter to the management requesting that this film, sponsored by BP and Shell, be banned from the festival. The letter was published by newspaper AD Rotterdam (in Dutch).
Wild Port of Europe: the definition of greenwashing (from the open letter)
Wild Port of Europe is a nature film about 'the unexpected richness, resilience and dynamism of nature', set against the backdrop of the most polluting port in the whole of Europe. The film follows the lives of animals in a landscape carved out of the ground for the benefit of industry that is destroying nature around the world. The makers write of this film that nature in the Rotterdam port is 'at least as rich if not richer' than nature in our national parks. They speak of an 'apparent contradiction between industry and nature'. So it will not surprise anyone who are the proud sponsors of this film: BP and Shell. These global polluters, in exchange for money, get an advert, which is also being showcased by a respected wildlife film festival. This is a gift to these big polluters. Wild Port of Europe is thus the definition of greenwashing.
BP has even attached a teaching package for schools to the film. With images of hedgehogs against the backdrop of their petrochemical plants, BP slips into classrooms. The implicit message children take away: 'You might read bad things about the fossil industry in the papers, but our industry actually creates more life.' Because the anecdotal sticks better than the abstract, this is a dangerous message. From a festival for nature, we expect urgency that does justice to the ecological crisis, rather than legitimising the destruction by the fossil industry.
