Apparently, almost a billion people participated – most of them were women. 47% of the women who answered a WWF questionnaire said they participated in Earth Hour last year, whilst only 39% of the men said the same. Also, 55,3% of women claim to worry about the climate, whilst 42% of the men answer the same. It’s not massive differences, but they’re there and I wonder why… Do men really care less about the environment, or is it just a matter of differences in which kinds of statements it’s legitimate to make in terms of caring? Nina Jensen in WWF states to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet that “it may be related to the situation in the family and values, women think about the future more”. It’s amazing how it’s possible to “naturalize” everything in relation to women’s beautiful built-in values and caring qualities.

In short: by stating that women care about the environment because they care about the future of their children (i.e. genes, but that word is only legitimate to use when you talk about men), you also say that men doesn’t have to – that caring in general is a woman’s job. That’s a fairly dubious path to go down I think.

Since moving to Norway, I think that we probably recycle at least 50% of our waste, and we could probably (and will try to) push that percentage up even further. There are three separate recycling points all less than a 2-minute walk from our apartment – in three different directions (two of them have paper, card and plastic, the other has paper, card, plastic, metal & glass).

This is just over two weeks-worth of paper, plastic and cans, on it’s way to be recycled:

The best part is that in Norway, every supermarket has machines where you can recycle old beer cans and coke bottles for cash. I vaguely recall this happening in England when I was very young, but for some reason it didn’t catch on, and so for most of my life, my cans and bottles were occasionally being recycled, but otherwise, when recycling wasn’t an easy option, they went straight in the bin.

In Norway, a glass beer bottle, a metal beer can, or a coke or water bottle will get me 1 krone (about 10p) and one of those big 1 litre bottles of coke will get about 2.5 krone (25p). After a party, cleaning up all the empty beer cans the next day is literally gathering up the cash to buy your breakfast

The attitude towards recycling extends outside peoples homes in Norway too: every time I have been to the cinema here in Trondheim, there has been a crate at the exit where people can leave their coke bottles, to be recycled. That simply doesn’t happen in England.

In comparison, the situation in England is that there is no national recycling of cans and bottles for cash. Admittedly that requires a large cost up-front to install the machines and infrastructure, but it’s without a doubt the best way to encourage recycling: by paying people to do it!

Having said that, it varies depending on where you are in England. My parents, in rural Yorkshire, have a separate “wheely bin” for bottles, paper, and the rest – but in the Manchester city centre the best I experienced was a (smallish) plastic box that you put all of your recyclable watse in, and left outside your house, in the hope that someone would collect it.

Also, I have never experienced recycling points on street corners in England – they are generally restricted to the carparks outside the large supermarkets – which of course don’t exist in city centres.

As the guides are area specific I won’t quote any of them here, but they’re very useful! The reasons for not eating certain types of seafood varies from overfishing to methods of catching. Something to think about next time you’re buying fish. Also, dear fellow sushi lovers; watch out for scampi and blue fin tuna! The latter is endangered!

You’ll need: motivation, plenty of time, warm clothes, patience, light entertainment, good music, earplugs, a sleep-deprived body, and a good attitude.

Despite big words about travelling less, I still want to see my family occasionally. They live in Bodø, I live in Trondheim, and there is a railway, 729 kilometers long, between the two places. This is not to be taken for granted in Norway – the railway stops in Bodø, it doesn’t go further north. Had WW2 lasted longer, this wouldn’t have been the case as the germans were building away between Narvik and Fauske. Anyway, the train ride takes about 10 hours;  a piece of cake in Norwegian standards. In theory at least.

If you’re rich you’ve got the option of paying for a proper bed on the train. I’m not rich, so I get a chair with the rest of the not-so-rich people. Some of these include a very overweight man sat opposite me, a family with a baby sat right behind me, and next to me a rough-looking girl with greasy hair and white jeans which sent me right back to the pre-puberty Spice Girls-era (not a good thing!). The temperature inside the train must have been around 30 degrees celsius, which is ever so slightly above my preferred temperature for a comfortable nights sleep. But then again the sooner you can let go of the idea of getting a comfortable nights sleep, the better.

With quiet despair I had to keep reminding myself the reason I was on that train; think about environment! Think about how good it would be if everyone travelled by train! Maybe NSB (the national Norwegian Railway Company) could afford to get some new trains and replace these monsters from the 1970s with seats so worn out I almost disappear when I sit down… Not to mention the ventilation. Maybe they could even get faster trains!

Anyway, back to the reality of the journey… I got myself comfortable next to the rough girl, pulled out my iPhone well stocked up on episodes of Six Feet Under, expecting a long, sleepless night entertained by Nate, Claire, Dave and the rest of them. However, at about 1.30am they switched off the light inside the train, and I decided that was my cue to make a serious attempt at sleeping. By then the ventilation had miraculously started working again, and the only disturbance was the baby behind me sobbing. I decided to try to ignore it by putting in my earplugs, pulling out the free fleece blanket they give everyone (made by recycled plastic, I hope) and my pillow, and pretty much involuntarily cuddled up to the rough-looking girl in the seat next to me.

I fell asleep, but was woken up at 3.30 by the girl, asking me in a panick-stricken voice if I knew the time. By the time I’d dug out my phone from my backpack and told her the time, I was awake again, and fully aware of my surroundings. The overweight man next to me was sleeping with his mouth wide open, and his snoring sounded more like an Aliens-monster than a human. I spent about an hour awake, trying to ignore the images that cropped up in my head about how I could silence the man next to me… However, I did fall asleep again, only to be woken up by the rough girl getting off the train and inconsiderately bumping into me as the left – with no apology as is the custom in Norway. After that I slept on until an hour away from Bodø, and the relief I felt when I woke up and realised the trip was almost over can’t be described in words.

Writing this, I am sat in my parents warm and cosy kitchen, waiting for my dinner of fresh, local fish. I just realised that I’ve not even mentioned that the train ride between Trondheim and Bodø is actually absolutely stunning. Maybe a good reason to do it by day next time. Anyway, the moral of the story is that it’s completely possible to survive long, hellish train-journeys in the name of the enviroment… But then again I never really doubted that it would be.

Basically, the article says that large-scale production of soybeans in Latin America, which is where a lot of the soya beans are produced, is seriously harmful on several levels. It contributes to reducing biodiversity, deforestation, destruction of natural habitat through building transportation infrastructure, forcing out small farmers, and concentrating land and income to mention a few things. The reason for this is economic and political – “As long as these countries continue to embrace neoliberal models of development and respond to demand from the globalised economy, the rapid proliferation of soybean will increase, and so will the associated ecological and social impacts“ (Miguel Altieri and Walter Pengue).

However, part of the problem here is the massive demand for soybeans. The authors of the article explain part of this demand: “In developing countries, GM crops are mostly grown for export by big farmers, not for local consumption. They are used as animal feed to produce meat consumed mostly by the wealthy”. Therefore, the problem may not be the soybeans as such, but the ever increasing demand for cheap meat for example.

The question is then, is it better to eat local meat (where the animals may or may not be fed soya products, in addition to local stuff) or to eat soya products? To me, there’s no doubt that moving further down the food chain is beneficial, and that includes eating soybeans. Put simply, it takes a lot more resources to produce meat and dairy products than vegetables. That’s the basis of my argument for cutting down on meat and dairy products.
However, I do see the point of the article, and for a while I’ve been aware that soy products may not be the best alternative as it needs to be transported quite far to get here, and that it’s very water-demanding (to mention a couple of things). However, I’d like to know more about where the kind of soya products I actually use come from, and what impact it has on the local surroundings. I’ve got in touch with Alpro who claim to be co2-neutral, only using soybeans that are not from GM-crops, and that are not grown on deforested rainforest land. I promise to let you know when (if?) they get back to me.

To move on… I prefer that my food hasn’t travelled half way over the globe before reaching me – which is another reason why soya products may not be the best option in Norway, and why oats are better. The oats milk I use (from Ica, their own brand) is produced in Sweden which I don’t think is too bad.

Generally I think it’s important to gain knowledge about your food (which is why I appreciate any enlightening comments or links!), as well as using common sense. Move down the food chain, eat as little processed food as possible (i.e. more vegetables, beans etc. as close to their “natural” state as possible), and eat local food in season whenever possible. I don’t claim to be able to do all these things all the time, but at least I try. Another thing which I think is important to bear in mind is that there’s not necessarily any consensus among clued-up people (read: scientists) on what is the best approach to eating, farming, organic vs. non-organic and so on…

Basically, our goal with this blog is to learn how to live more sustainably. I don’t claim to be an expert, and part of the point of this blog is to shed some light on our trial-and-error approach for other people to (hopefully) learn from, and also to get a discussion going. I’m not claiming to have the final truth about any of this, but then again I don’t think you need to know everything to try to make some changes. Gaining knowledge by writing about it, researching and discussing it will allow us to make better and more informed decisions in the future.

Although I am off to a bad start, with regards to my recent purchase of a HP MediaSmart Home Server, even with an always-on device such as that, there are power-saving optimisations to be made. Firstly, there is a nightly sleep time. By default it is configured to be always-on. The screenshot below shows my settings, configured to sleep between 1.30am and 8.30am (while I sleep!).

Secondly, when buying hard-drives for the home server, I discovered that there is a set of green hard drives from Western Digital. This range of hard-drives consume less energy than standard disks, and Western Digital claim that running one of their disks compared to another disk is “the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 14 days each year” – a big claim, I guess, but then that assumes you use your hard-drive 24-7 all year round, and drive a small, eco-friendly car! Still, every little helps.

Every little helps indeed. My power-hungry television has a setting for brightness. Knocking it down from 8/10 to 6/10 doesn’t ruin the picture, and makes a small saving on power.

Same for my iPhone, and laptop computer. Same thing goes for switching off my monitor on my PC at work when I go home (unlike most of my colleagues!). Making sure the kettle isn’t full to the brim for a single cup of tea is a saving. Switching the light off when you’re done is a saving.

In fact, there are small reductions in consumption to be found on almost every piece of technology I use.

Another good idea which could be applied to any type of possession is swapping-parties. Everybody brings their old stuff (CDs, clothes, records, books, kitchen equipment, films, furniture, magazines, electrical equipment, food, facebook-”friends”…and so on) and swap! To make it more fun, add some food and/or alcohol, some decent music and make a proper party out of it.

Alternative options: borrow, steal, buy used, get rid of the need for new stuff altogether.

There’s a discussion about meat here (in Norwgian) and an article (in English) about livestock impacts on the environment

Another thing I’ve discovered is that it’s really hard to get hold of organic food in normal supermarkets here in Trondheim (and I would guess it’s the same all over Norway). I know the Norwegian Coop is quite good at stocking organic fruit and vegetables, but the shops around me certainly aren’t. Because of this, I went to a shop in town that only sells organic stuff. The problem is that everything is at least double the price, and on a student budget that either means I have to eat half as much (like that would happen), or simply not buy the organic version of all the food I eat even if it’s available. I mean, a packet of apricots which normally costs about 15 NOK (including that dodgy stuff which makes the dried apricots orange when they should be brown), cost about 40 NOK for the organic version. There’s also been disputes about to what extent growing organic food actually makes a difference. Personally, I do think it matters, but writing this I realise how little I actually know about these kind of things…

I suppose part of this challenge is to learn more about for example organic food and meat production in order to make informed decisions.  Thus – as mentioned before, any links, tips or opinions are welcome!

So far, so good. At least on my part. Not eating meat or farmed fish isn’t, and won’t be hard. I’m pretty much a vegetarian already (with a few circumstantial exceptions), and although finding non-farmed fish may be a bit trickier than just buying any old farmed salmon fillet I definitely think it’s worth it. At least I’ll still be buying stuff, which is my key point in this post.

What may prove more difficult is simply not buying things. My goal for 2010 is not to buy anything I don’t absolutely need (as stated in the goals in our last post). I don’t buy much stuff as it is, but it struck me the other day when I walked through the local shopping centre to get to the supermarket that not popping by the record shop to browse for new films will actually be really hard (even though I’ve probably got five films at home that I haven’t seen yet, not to mention what’s available for free in the library). Not buying a new coffee-maker will be hard (even though we can still make coffee in the espresso-maker). Not replacing my favourite worn-out t-shirt will be hard (even though I’ve probably got another 20 t-shirts). Basically, buying new stuff is such an obvious thing to do to get the immediate satisfaction for every created need, that it’s hard to even imagine not doing it. We’re constantly bombarded with ads, the magazines we read tell us to get this-and-that to achieve certain satisfactions (“Ten gadgets you can’t do without this spring” or “Ten accessories to spark up your winter outfit”, not to mention “SALE!!!!”). Besides, there’s so much cheap stuff! Most of us can afford at least some of it! But very few asks how an H&M-jumper can possibly be so cheap. Very few seem to see beyond the smooth, shiny surfaces of wax-dolls dressed up in the latest fashion.

Part of the problem is that we’ve got an economic system which at the moment can’t seem to be combined with considerations for the environment – or put simply, a profit-driven society can’t be combined with less consumption which is needed in order to cut down on co2-emissions. I won’t rant on about this any longer, but there should be no doubt the battle against climate change also requires rethinking the economical systems. I’m talking about big things here, stuff that may prove very difficult to change . However, the way I see it that’s even more of a reason to do something ourselves.