Personal Energy Outlook

Ethan Gilbert med en klar oppfordring til Statoil.

Jeg har tidligere ikke hatt nevneverdig kontakt med Greenpeace. Nå som jeg har flyttet til Tjøtta, i Alstahaug kommune, har jeg derimot fått god kontakt med en skikkelig kjærnekar fra Vermont (USA). Ethan Gilbert har akkurat skrevet artikelen Personal Energy Outlook til Greenpeace sine nettsider. Denne har på norsk blitt oversatt til Ta det personlig. Artiklene på Greenpeace sine sider er noe forkortet, men under er den engelske versjonen gitt i sin helhet (med norske lenker). Det er herved duket for første gjestespaltist på habitat-tellus!

Personal Energy Outlook, by Ethan Gilbert
Admittedly, it had been a while since I had bought a new book, but on a recent slow rainy day in Oslo, I thought it was about time for a good read. I decided on one by leading climate scientist, James Hansen, knowing his work as being internationally renowned. However, it was really its futuristic warning-sign title that caught my attention, Storms of my Grandchildren.

Back home I read the first few chapters, with a picture and ode to the author's granddaughter, and his concern for her future in a time of climate change. Knowing I was in for an interesting read, I set the book down and picked up that day's newspaper to find an advertisement for the Norwegian state-owned oil company, Statoil, and their celebration of their recent discoveries in the North Sea. The ad read, 'The new big oil finds will make many happy. Not least, our grandchildren.''

The irony could not have been more blatant.

Yet there in front of me were perhaps the two most important clashing ideologies of our time. The scientific and environmental side citing data and looking for solutions to climate catastrophe, and industry's logic that our economy and lifestyle must be met with more fossil fuels, and thus, conveniently, more profits.

This same clash was revealed to me in Stavanger a few years ago, outside Statoil's headquarters, where I was campaigning against their development of the Canadian tar sands which is now widely known as one of the most environmentally destructive projects on the planet, poisoning watersheds, human health, and releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses.
I was explaining this to an employee on his way to work, and, when urging him that Statoil had the ethical and moral responsibility to pull out of their projects in the tar sands, he calmly looked at me and said in that devastatingly practical Scandinavian tone, ''But that’s where the oil is.''
I was eerily reminded of the famous American bank robber, Willie Sutton, who, when captured, was asked why he robbed banks. He answered calmly, ''Because that's where the money is.''

I have always been optimistic of human potential and adaptability. History has proved this. And it was proved again to me that same rainy day in Oslo with yet another clash of ideologies from the day's newspaper. DagensNæringsliv, Norway's business news, published an article that Ola Borten Moe, Norway's oil and energy minister, on a visit to Canada, had determined a European climateinitiative 'unscientific' and stated that the world economy could not survivewithout the development of the tar sands.

Interestingly, a small article in that day's Aftenposten also showed some astonishing facts. Due to last year's unexpected and abnormal electricity prices, 50% of Norwegian households had made at least one type of concerted effort to drastically reduce their energy use before the coming winter. This included installing efficient wood stoves, energy-efficient light bulbs and shower heads, and insulating doors and windows.

While electricity in Norway does not directly involve tar sands, the fact remains that given certain pressures, we as people can change our habits. If something ignites our will, we can reduce our energy consumption and live efficiently, as well as comfortably. Given rising prices, as well as rising temperatures, could a concerted global energy revolution prove Ola Borten Moe wrong?

A few months ago on a research vessel in the high Arctic I came face-to-face with a number of polar bears. It was also at that time that the NSICC released their findings that the extent of the Arctic ice this past summer was the lowest ever on record. I wondered, if these trends continue- as scientists predict they will- and our culture's fossil fuel consumption accelerates further climate change, will our grandchildren ever have the possibility of seeing a polar bear outside of a zoo? If not, what will they think of us?

Passing on a secure future is certainly a noble goal of humanity. Native cultures in North America used to base their decisions on how their actions would affect those living seven generations in the future. But extravagant pension funds for our grandchildren is no excuse for burning up the last remaining fossil fuels on the planet. Highly educated civil societies should be intellectual enough to agree. Every sector of society, from the individual to the political must now act to establish renewable energy infrastructure that can secure future economies, as well as environments.

Only then can our grandchildren truly weather any storm.