Greta

January has started the new year with several inspiring climate and environmental contents for us to get motivated by. One of them is the documentary “Greta”.

NRK recently published “Greta” where we follow Greta Thunberg from the early protests outside the Swedish Parliament, through the sailing trip over the Atlantic Ocean to speak at the UN climate summit in New York. This is a very close portrait of a very courageous girl who you have to admire. If more people were like Greta when it comes to the environment and climate, the world would be an even more extraordinary place.

It has been wonderful to follow her journey these last few years to see her message, which is amplifying what the climate scientific community has been trying to tell decision makers and leaders for years. However, it should not be necessary for someone to do this job. Decision makers and leaders should listen to climate scientists regardless of how it impacts their popularity or reelection opportunities. This is what separate politicians from true leaders. When I was 19, I attended the COP in Copenhagen. We used to say “Politicians talk, leaders act”. This is true in 2021 as well. We need action on behalf of the climate and environment for all living beings.

Positive climate news!

The EUs New Green Deal is finally escalating the green shift we’ve been waiting for. One of the many good things happening is that new investments will be marked as sustainable or unsustainable.

Unsustainable industries, like the petroleum industry, will therefore be less desirable to invest in. Norway will not get the stamp of sustainability on our petroleum industry, and henceforth have an added incentive to fully support renewable energy sources like wind, solar and water.

This may sound like a formality, but where the money flows, policy and action will follow. Christmas came early for the climate.

5 year anniversary of the Paris agreement

Yesterday marked the 5 year anniversary of the Paris agreement where over 180 countries committed to keep the global temperature 2 degrees and aim for 1,5.

This year we should have had a meeting in Glasgow to increase the ambition level, but because of the pandemic, it was postponed until 2021.

Instead there was a one day digital meeting where only those delegates who had news would get speaking time. The EU announced that the union will cut emissions with 55 percent by the end of 2030. Norway promised the same already in February this year.

These news, in addition to the happy news that the new US president Joe Biden will get the US back into the Paris agreement as soon as possible is some much needed good news for the climate!

Nordområdemeldingen

I regjeringens Nordområdemelding som kom ut rett før helgen legger regjering frem sine fremtidsplaner for Nord-Norge. Under punkt 5.11 står det: "Regjeringen vil: Legge til rette for lønnsom produksjon av olje og gass, blant annet gjennom forutsigbare rammevilkår og videreføring av dagens praksis med jevnlige konsesjonsrunder på norsk sokkel for å gi næringen tilgang på nye letearealer". 

Ordet «olje» kommer opp 68 ganger i dokumentet. Ordet «klimaendringer» kommer opp 37 ganger. Ikke en eneste gang er disse to knyttet til hverandre. 

Det står mye om ønske om mer forskning og kompetanseheving, men den forskningen vi allerede har som sier at vi ikke har råd til å forbrenne arktisk olje hvis vi skal nå Parisavtalens 1,5 C mål blir ikke nevnt. 

Med tittelen «Mennesker, muligheter og norske interesser i nord» som tittel er spørsmålet - muligheter for hvem? Ikke de som kommer etter oss tydeligvis.

I en fremtidsrettet nordområdemelding, som tok hensyn til det vi vet om klima og miljø ville jeg ønsket meg en gradvis nedtrappingsplan for oljeindustrien og ekte løfter om å satse stort på fornybart i nord. En grønnere fremtid er mulig, men vi er nødt til å snakke om den for å visualisere den og skape den. Ikke bare gå i våre gamle fotspor og gjenta gårsdagens feil. 

Light a candle for the Climate lawsuit

Today, at 18.14 people all over the world are invited to show their solidarity with the Norwegian climate lawsuit. We light a candle at 18.14 to symbolise the Norwegian Constitution that was written in 1814. We believe that Norway is breaking article 112 in the Constitution that states;

‘Every person has the right to an environment that is conducive to health and to a natural environment whose productivity and diversity are maintained. Natural resources shall be managed on the basis of comprehensive long-term considerations which will safeguard this right for future generations as well. The authorities of the state shall take measures for the implementation of these principles’.

Norway has opened up for oil drilling in the Arctic. The burning of this oil will cause more climate change that WILL NOT help future and living generations to a safe and sustainable climate. If you agree, you are hereby invited to show your solidarity. Light a candle at home, use the #klimasøksmål and #peoplevsarcticoil and follow the lawsuit in Supreme Court from tomorrow via Klimasøksmål Arktis Facebook.

How Big Oil won access to the South-East Barents Sea on false economical promises

"...the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy asked the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to remove the information that oil drilling could become unprofitable from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s annual resource report for 2013 and asked the Directorate to withhold any reference to it from Parliament while they were considering opening the area." (see the full article here on Greenpeace website)

This is how powerful the Norwegian oil lobby is. Absolutely atrocious. It puts all our green initiatives to shame.

Hopefully with the climate court case, which is now coming up in the Supreme Court in less than two weeks, will we see that the government must be held accountable for their complete lack of environmental concern. The time period of Big Oil is over.

Picture borrowed from Greenpeace. Follow the climate court case via their Facebook page.

The extinction of species

In September 2020, this years Living Planet Report was published with the devastating key data:

• The 2020 global Living Planet Index shows an average 68 % fall in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016. Species’ population trends are important because they are a measure of overall ecosystem health.

• 75 % of the Earths ice free surfaces is already significantly changed.

• Most oceans are polluted

• 85 % of the wetland areas in the world has been lost

• 84 % decrease in the animalpopulatioz in freshwater

• One million species (500.000 animals and plants and 500.000 insects) are in danger of extinction.

While writing this, we are still living with a pandemic that in large part was caused by the destruction of biohabitat, making the living conditions for animals severely worse.

However, there is still hope!

Sir David Attenborough released the documentary ‘A life on our planet’ where he presents the great challenges we have caused ourselves for our common Earth, but he also presents us with the ways in which we can combat it.

I can wholeheartedly recommend that you watch the documentary on Netflix, as it is more visually beautiful and impactful than written word, but for those of you who do not have access to Netflix, here are the key takeaways in an infographic from the WWF Living Planet Report:

The last half hour of the documentary, Sir David Attenborough discusses the ways we can prevent a future of further destruction:

• We must rewild nature to prevent further loss of habitat and biodiversity. I have previously written about the project “Rewilding Europe”. Rewilding means to give back land, by protecting it. This we must do both on land and in the ocean. We must vote for politicians who are ready to take this great responsibility to protect the foundations for our livelihoods.

• We must eat less meat, simple as that. If a higher percentage of the humans meals were plant based, we would need less land to produce the food and it would have a significantly lower carbon footprint. Changing your diet away from meat is one of the things we as consumers can do that have the highest impact on our carbon footprint. The EAT Lancet report can give you more indebt information about why this is better for both your health, and the Earth.

• The human population must stabilise, and the way to do this is by raising people out of poverty, giving all access to health care and enable girls in particular to stay in schools as long as possible. The way to raise the standard of living for all people in this world, without increasing our impacts on it, is by truly investing in renewable energy sources like solar, wind and water power.

Here you have the facts, but in order for this to make a lasting memory and to remember why the Earth is worth fighting for, I really recommend that you watch the documentary to see for yourself just how wonderful and vulnerable the Earth with all its life truly is. We are here together, right now, and the power is within our hands whether to protect it or not.

Again, as always, thank you for caring for our one and only common Earth.

The Amazon is burning - again

In 2019, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil had a record year of fires with 73.000 in total. The fires were so massive that they darkened the city of São Paulo in the middle of the day - several thousand kilometers away. 2019 was the worst year of deforestation in 13 years, and this year is set to be even worse.

Mato Grosso is the area in the Brazilian rainforest with the most fires so far this year, with 4437 so-called “hot-spots” between the 1st of January to the 13th of July, according to data from the INPE, Brazilian Space Research Institute. In the first two weeks of August there has been an alarming 15.000 hot-spots.

Even more alarming knowing that fires are not allowed at all in this area between July and September - making all these fires illegal. These fires are not accidents, or natural. Landowners and farmers set fire to the rainforest in order to free up more areas for cattle and industrial farming. According to this study, cattle ranching in Brazil is not even an economical sound investment, the productivity is notoriously low, and the people who want to eat the cattle live far away from where it is produced, making it an all around bad investment.

More important is the lives that are being lost, and the livelihood that won’t come back. A recent study confirmed what indigenous people has said for a long time - they are the best guardians of the rainforest - as long as they are fully protected by the property laws stating that they own their territories. But the indigenous are being forced out of their areas with fire in order to make space for more deforestation. In the Munduruku indigenous land, there was an increase of fires of 78 per cent from only last year.

So what can we do? Right now, a massive free-trade deal is being negotiated between the Mercosur countries Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - and the EFTA countries Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg. It is vital that we use this trade deal to come with demands on behalf of nature and the Paris-agreement. Until the deforestation is stopped, this trade deal can not happen. Please use this link and sign Greenpeace’s petition urging Norway to take responsiblilty

The Amazon has a unique and irreplaceable ecological system, vital in both stabilising the climate and water supply for the entire region. It must be preserved. This wild behaviour can not be allowed any longer. The Amazon are Earths green lungs and without our lungs we can not breathe.

Styrofoam in ocean

I was recently on a little island at sea where bits of styrofoam had washed up. The bad thing about styrofoam is how it can multiply into so much micro-plastic and potentially be eaten by our friends 🐠 in the ocean

I was lucky since the styrofoam were still in fairly big bits, but it’s very scary to see how long it lives. The bits I found looked old, but styrofoam can actually live for 50 years in water (source: World Economic Forum)

After the styrofoam reach the water, it would start to break down into smaller pieces, creating the problem of micro-plastic. As you can see, it is better to pick the plastic before it breaks down, and hopefully before it enters the water all together

So please take with you your plastic, and also other peoples plastic, specially if places near water, as it can do so much damage there.

Mauritius oil spill emergency

This is the oilspill in Mauritius where a ship carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil, ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on 25 July. 

The need for help is urgent. Fridaysforfuture.mauritius says Mauritan Wildlife Foundation is where we can donate money to help in the oil spill recovery! Go to their homepage and donate if you can, the situation is urgent and still not resolved: https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/home

Update: There’s also these two organisations that I got recommend who works with the Mauritius cleanup:

1. http://SmallStepMatters.org

Small Step Matters is a social fundraising platform for organisations (NGOs / Foundations) and individuals who wish to promote social and environmental projects in Mauritius or for Mauritians. Small Step Matters is a non-profit organisation whose primary purpose is to bring together project promoters and benefactors who wish to donate funds or time and to hereby contribute to the progress of the Mauritian society today and tomorrow.

https://www.smallstepmatters.org/en/projets/environnement/ref105991-ansampounoulagon-wakashio-un-desastre-ecologique-mobilisons-nous/?fbclid=IwAR30DfQEGMfFHj_O0uImk8Nsnm3EKsa6AQhbRQ5SyfTQORfBHTpsA2PsYuo

2. Eco-Sud crowdfund

Eco-Sud is an environmental NGO created by the citizens of Blue Bay-Mahébourg over 20 years ago in order to protect the environment and the biodiversity of Mauritius for the generations of today and tomorrow.

https://www.crowdfund.mu/mauritius-oil-spill-cleaning-2020-mv-wakashio-306.html?fbclid=IwAR0mA8QCglF4nCKxiHkxS5AQnVgnNKVRDPBDBbwt0tJZUhx3KPT-xAzVwwk

NoDAPL!

Celebratory post!! 🎉 Finally the #dakotaaccesspipeline was stopped by a US federal judge due to environmental reasons! 

🎊 As long term readers will remember, in 2016 the protests started for the right to have clean drinking water. But a massive oil pipe were built right through the Missouri River, on the border between North- and South Dakota, right through the Standing Rock Sioux reservoirs. 

People all over the world protested and ‘checked in’ to #standingrock via Facebook to show solidarity and stop the use of Facebook to target those protesting. I was one of the ones checking in October of 2016, and by very happy circumstances, I got to work for Greenpeace the following year and meet a wonderful female delegation representing the Standing Rock! This I am forever thankful of! ❤️ 

Therefore I am so happy today to celebrate this victory! Clean drinking water is a right everyone is entitled to through the UN! This was always a fight worth fighting and it shows that it’s worth fighting for what is right for the planet! 🌎💚 #nodapl #stillnodapl

Gruveutbygging i Repparfjorden

På bildet ser dere Repparfjorden, en fjord i Hammerfest kommune i Troms og Finnmark.

Her har selskapet Nussir ASA fått konsesjon til å bygge en kobbergruve i Kvalsund. Nussir ASA har fått utslippstillatelse til å dumpe 250 millioner tonn avfall i Repparfjorden.

Havforskningsinstituttet har frarådet dumping av gruveavfall i fjorden. Fjorden har også status som Nasjonal laksefjord.

Den vil være i Reinbeitedistrikt 22 Fiettar, og både distriktet, Norske Reindriftssamers Landsforbund, og Sametinget har protestert kraftig mot etableringen av gruva. Det er vår-, sommer-, og høstbeite i distriktet, og over 8000 rein er gjennom området i løpet av et år.

Dette prosjektet er en alvorlig miljøkriminalitet, og derfor har over 4500 personer sagt seg villige til å lenke seg fast for å beskytte fjorden. Du kan melde deg på nu.no hvis du også vil være med!

World Ocean Day - and crisis packages during Covid-19

Monday this week, on World Ocean Day, I celebrated the ocean in a kayak with my sister. Experiences like this should not be taken for granted.

The covid crisis has taught us many things, as how connected we all are and how much we depend on each other - and a living nature.

As CO2 emissions are estimated to go down with 4 to 7 percent this year as a consequence of the covid crisis (Source: Global Carbon Project) If we are to reach the 1,5 degree target set in the Paris-agreement , equivalent reductions must be made every year this coming decade (source: IEAs Global Energy Review).

However, national authorities have made economical crisis packages that will affect the climate in the coming decades with increased CO2-emissions.

In Norway, the oil industry has gotten tax leave for up to 100 billion NOK in order to keep investments up. The equivalent rescue packages for a green transition is set to 3,6 billion NOK.

Scientists says this is an attempt to breath fresh life into a dying industry. Norway knows the transition must and will come, the only question is if it’s one we regulate by making real investments that matter in the green transition, or continuing falsely like we have with one foot in each camp. It’s time to chose a side Norway. The climate can’t wait.

Kayaking in World Ocean Day

Two happy climate news!

Two amazing and wonderful things for the climate and the environment has happened these past two days so this is a celebratory post in honour of Earth day 2020, the 50th year anniversary of Earth Day!

First - yesterday the Norwegian court agreed to take the climate court case I used to work for to the Supreme Court in Norway! This is rare and it’s an extraordinary opportunity to finally make oil policies that is in line with what our common world needs.

The second great news is that XR Sør has collected 300 signatures from residents in Kristiansand (myself included) to ask the commune to declare ecological and climate crisis!

And all this on the yearly Earth Day! Now more than ever we need good climate and environment news! I celebrate this with a close up of my samoyed Kit!

Kit, celebrating nature every day.

Use this time to mend your clothes

A nice and constructive activity to do these days is to repair your broken clothes. Usually it doesn’t take more than a few stitches and that hole in your favourite t-shirt is mended, or that button that’s loose is tightened or that hole inside the bottom of your winter coat - now is the time to fix it.

You’ve probably heard: reduce, reuse, recycle - but did you know that these are actually in prioritised order? So if you feel like you need a new item of clothes - you should remember the first R - reduce - do you have a similar looking item already in your wardrobe? (Chances are quite high for yes) then go to the next R - Reuse.

But what if it’s broken you say? I would say - either way mend it. Then you might start liking the item again, and you remember that loved clothe slast - or you go to the next R - Recycle - and you give the item to a charity that will make sure it gets a new life!

Because we should remember that it’s not just the thread and fabric that went into making this piece of clothing - someone made that item for you. When we have that perspective with us from the start, maybe we make better decisions before we buy fast fashion because fast fashion sucks.  it’s not good for the planet and ultimately it’s not good for us either.

So find your needles, a pair of scissors and some thread it the right colour and maybe put on a podcast to keep you company while sewing. So far, I’ve mended the broken arm velcro on my old jacket, and the holes in a sweater. Good luck fixing and being a green everyday hero! You can also look up @fash_rev on Instagram and find inspiration under #fashionrevolutionweek #fashionrevolution .

Velcro that needed mending

Plastic in the ocean - during covid-19

I still want to pick plastic found in nature or the water during this pandemic.

It’s just important not to touch your face before you have washed your hands.

A good tip that I read on how to achieve this is to always keep your hands under the height of your elbows when outside.

So instead of thinking about the thing you are not supposed to do (touch your face) you can think about where you should place your hands (below the height of your elbows).

I hope you are all healthy and safe and find purpose in matters close to home during these times.

Plastic bottle I found floating in the water

Climate during the corona crisis

In these corona times there is also news about how wild animals reappear in city landscapes.

If we can learn anything from the corona crisis I hope it is that humans, nature and animals are so connected. We can not mistreat 2/3 (nature and animals) and expect us humans to be unaffected.

My hope is that we finally see that we must live in balance with nature and animals.

We are so dependent of each other. I hope you are all safe and follow the guidelines from the authorities so we all can help stop this crisis. 

The climate journey

One of my colleagues recently reminded me that we are all on different stages in our environmental and climate journey. Some of us are maybe just waking up to several of the facts that the climate crisis is causing. Some of us are looking into the power we have as consumers. Yet others are turning their attention to the big polluters as big oil companies. 

None of these approaches are wrong. The only thing that is wrong is to deny the fact that the climate is changing, humans has caused it and humans need to alter their ways in order to sustain a liveable planet. 

Recently, a Norwegian Facebook group of climate deniers has grown rapidly, and their main cause is a joint irritation towards those of us who tries to do something about the climate crisis. 

Therefor my message is simple; if you hear someone speaking about climate related topics, or someone saying they want to do more - support them! We don’t need to be polarised within the climate movement. ‘Who is the best’ and ‘Who does the most right’. We need everyone on board and we must acknowledge that we really are on different stages in our journey, but seeing this, we can still all help. 

When I joined the climate movement, I was 16 and at a high school with roughly 800 students, we were a group of maybe 6 coming to the local Nature and Youth meetings. We were a small group, but we were part of a bigger network within both Norway and within Europe. 

Now, luckily, the climate cause is not such a niche. And that is wonderful! ✨ Let’s all do our part by speaking to someone who we think might be interested in this, and definitely support those we already know care.

COP25

#Cop25 started today, and it’s one of the more important COPs. I’ve been following them for over 10 years now, sometimes physical, sometimes online. In my experience, it’s quite effective to use Twitter to keep yourself updated on what’s happening in the major meetings.

The reason why this COP is more important is because in the #parisagreement in 2015, all members came together and decided that every fifth year, each country needs to be more ambitious with how much emissions they will cut. The EU is talking about a #newgreendeal . This is worth following. We are talking about our shared Earth. That’s what’s at stake.

You are not too old to join in on the climate cause, and you are not too young. You are just perfect, right now, today. All you need to know to become a climate advocate is the knowledge that temperatures are rising at an alarming high rate, and that we humans need to turn these graphs the other way.

So, what can we as ‘civil society’ (as they call it in the UN 🇺🇳 lingo) do when #COP25 is happening? We can help our climate delegation by putting pressure on our elected politicians and tell them if they are not being ambitious enough! We must call out lies, as Norway 🇳🇴 right now, saying ‘it’s not an emergency’ yet. It’s not an immediate emergency for main land Norway, read Oslo, right now, with the heat, but there are evidence even here with more extreme weather like floods. However if you look towards the #arctic , the temperatures has risen 5-6 degrees here, which is the fastest warming place on the globe! And that is worth calling out the crisis for!

Also, the #globalsouth is already experiencing the #climatecrisis directly today. This is why the climate crisis is also about solidarity. You don’t have to wait until your own home is on fire to do the right thing. 🔥🌍

I sincerely hope this years COP will dare to be as ambitious as the world needs it to be, and that this week, when worlds leaders are gathered in Madrid, they use this opportunity to actually talk about ways to solve the climate crisis, not ways to buy themselves out of it, in order to continue doing business as usual, as Norway famously has done with its rainforest initiative in order to keep drilling for oil that we know is harming the climate.

This years COP needs to solve how countries divide emission cuts. It has been suggested that a country can pay for emission cuts in another country, in order to reach their targets. However, both countries can’t take credit for these emission cuts. Then, it would look like the world was doing double of what it is actually doing. Needless to say, there is lots of work to be done these next two weeks, and I invite you to take part in it in what ever way you can.

Link to UNFCCC where you can watch livestreams and follow the different debates https://unfccc.int/cop25

Soon COP season is upon us!

Quick reminder that we soon enter into an exiting time of the year; #cop25 is soon upon us!

Follow @cop25cl and @unfccc for updates, and stay tuned and ready to hold your country’s delegation accountable. 💪🌍💚

It’s the future of our common Earth that is at stake. 🔥Illustration from this weeks snowfall here in Norway. ❄️

Stay optimistic, and stay informed! 💚🌱