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Monthly archives: August 2009

Action against bottom trawling causes controversy

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greenpeace-drops-rocks
Photo: Greenpeace.

When I was a child, one of the things that made junior school pupils grimace was when we were served cod as lunch at school. But what we perceived as a boring block of dry white fish has become more of an expensive delicacy. Due to overfishing cod is now a rare specie. The total allowable catch for cod fishers has been lowered, but many scientists have called for a total stop in cod fishing.

More problems

Disappearing cod isn’t the only threat to our seas, though. Today the Swedish branch of the environmental organization Greenpeace will drop a large number of boulders in the Kattegat sound between Sweden and Denmark, to prevent bottom trawling and pressure the Swedish government to protect these areas. Greenpeace describes bottom trawling as one of the most destructive ways of fishing, the huge nets swallowing much more than fish, and the metal plates and rubber wheels attached to the nets crushing everything in its way.

Agreement between Sweden and Denmark

Sweden’s agriculture and fisheries minister Eskil Erlandsson is criticizing the action and says it is threatening the bilateral agreement that Sweden is about to make with Denmark regarding a total stop of cod fishing in some of the areas where the cod spawns. In a radio news show this morning I heard a heated debate between the minister and a representative from Greenpeace. It will be interesting to follow the continuation.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 10, 2009

Same feeling — less CO2

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audience-in-vitabergsparken
People watching a theatre play in Vitabergsparken, Stockholm. Photo: Carl Thorborg.

After a dip in the weather, summer is once again reigning over Sweden, with lots of sun and temperatures that makes most of us very happy, although those who have just returned to work after their holidays complain about having to go inside. But even if you are working there are still plenty of ways to enjoy the summer.

Theatre in the parks

The other day I found myself in one of Stockholms parks, a beautiful warm evening, to see the group Sirqus Alfon play a hilarious performance. Standing among the euphoric audience of around four thousand persons, it once again occurred to me that culture is one of the least CO2 intensive pleasures there are.

If there were such a thing as a happiness meter I’m sure it would show the same level among those thousands who in the end of the performance jumped up and down, clapping their hands and shouting in chorus, compared to say somebody who steps on the gas of his or her motorboat out in the sea or feels the airplane touch the ground after a shopping weekend in some big city far away.

Energy-saving during the war

It might sound silly, but I think there are many ways of reaching the same feeling of content, it’s just that some of the so called simpler amusements seem to have disappeared in the shadow of the fancier and often CO2-intensive ones. Here I think culture has an enormously important part to play.

Lots of comparisons can be drawn to what happened already during World War I, when energy was a scarce resource. For example the British government ran campaigns to “Holiday at home” and invested big in local cultural events, such as dances, concerts, boxing displays, swimming galas and open air theatre.
In Stockholm there has been free summer theatre in the parks since 1942 and I know there are many other places, both in Sweden and in other countries, where these events are common. But maybe it should be encouraged even more?

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 7, 2009

Unlocked carbon of the North increases the greenhouse effect

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Lapland, Sweden
The soils of the northern countries contains one third of the world’s organic carbon. Photo: Ove Källström/Norrlandia. www.imagebank.sweden.se

The science journal Nature recently published an article with findings from Abisko in Swedish Lapland, where the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has a research station.

Enormous amounts of carbon dioxide are locked into the ground in the northern part of the world, containing one-third of the world’s soil organic carbon.

In an experiment parts of a peatland in Abisko has been artificially warmed up by one degree Celcius, which is the temperature rise that scientists expect during the next 20 to 30 years due to human caused CO2 emissions. What the researchers found was that the warmed-up peatland releases about 50 percent more CO2 during spring and summer.

What is quite scary with this news is that this is something which humans cannot control. We can stop emitting carbon dioxide, but the increased temperature that we have already caused are triggering mechanisms like this, where CO2 that was previously locked in is released, heating the Earth even more, which will release even more CO2 from the ground, that makes the temperatures rise once again…. etc etc. A self-supporting system that doesn’t care much about politics or agreements.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 5, 2009

A forest full of jam

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blueberry-jam

The blueberry season (or bilberry, to be exact) in Sweden is exceptionally good. In most parts of the country the forests are full of berries. According to some calculations around 500 000 tons of wild berries, such as blueberries, cloudberries and lingonberries, ripens in the Swedish forests every year. Most of them are eaten by wild animals or just rot. Only around seven percent are being picked, which is a pity considering that they are delicious, containing antioxidants, grown in an absolutely organic way – and totally free.
After spending the Sunday afternoon in the forest (with a really nice break at a nearby beach) my fingers are blue and my kitchen table filled with jars of blueberry jam. My goal this year is to become self-supporting on jam until next summer comes. The only disadvantage is the back protesting against bending down over low blueberry sprigs, and itchy rashes from stubborn mosquitos. But when winter comes it’s definitely worth it, being able to taste this blue concentrate of summer.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 3, 2009