The government wants to do WHATNOW?!
There is a place located in the lovely county of Hordaland which is called Hardanger. It sounds pretty rough, doesn't it? "Hard anger"? Random fact of the day: "anger", or "angr" is an old word for "fjord". This is not the point.
Hardanger has many times been considered the loveliest place in Norway. The mountain plateau of Hardanger is the biggest and highest mountain plateau in Europe. It's a national treasure.
Look at it. It's gorgeous. The Hardanger nature is gorgeous. The Hardanger dialect is gorgeous. The Hardanger bunad is gorgeous.
And what does the government want to do?
Look at the picture above and you'll see something written. Just like it says: "Statnett wants to take a cheap shortcut and build 45 meter tall power supplying pylons straight through our national treasure!"
"What do you think?"
One would think, "well, this isn't the worst anyone's done, and the Bergen areas do need electricity to function", but here's the deal:
They're finding the cheapest way out and destroys an entire area while doing so. They have the oportunity to spend more money for underwater cables that nobody can even see. I can see why they don't want to do this: it costs more, which will make North-Norway have less money to spent on their pylons, and if something goes wrong later it's more difficult to fix a cable than a bloody pylon.
But really? Has the government really sunk this low?
Whatever happened to the windmill option? We even produced a windmill that can float on water and not take up any space on land! Produce some more of those! I even heard something about an "osmosis effect", which some Norwegians were/are working on. I can imagine the situation:
- "Ah, we're finally done building these monstrous pylons all over our loveliest piece of land!"
- "Hey! We've done it! We can finally use the osmosis effect to produce energy!"
- "... we'll just let these pylons stay here and not ever use them."
They're fucking bigger than the goddamn royal castle. Uglier than the turds of the devil himself.
Here's the problem with "nah, we can't make underwater cables, because they cost more": The government will give 100 000 kroner to each of the municipalities that are affected by this monstrous pylons. How about they don't give the many, many municipalities that money and in stead spend them on some fucking underwater cables, huh?! Oh, so it costs even more than that, but what is the cost of Hardanger, which has been like it is for thousands of years without anyone even touching it?! What gives us, human beings, right to tear down every piece of nature we come across just so that we can avoid using up earthly values that can easily be obtained all over again? Nothing, that's what!
I'm beyond sad that Norway has come to this. Had I known that the prime minister would allow such a thing, I wouldn't have voted for him in the first place.
"The people says clearly NO to the monstrous pylons" was the headline of an online article (which I can't seem to find), and yet the politicians are being douchebags. I don't believe that they realise that we can be just as protesting as Americans, although probably with a little less signs and a little more to protest than opposing gay marriage and free healthcare (seriously?).
I believe that if they physically take the trip to Hardanger to start building, protestors all over the country will head the same way and start getting violent. I know for sure that I will. I have never been so angry about something the politicians do. I'm usually the one telling people to stop whining just because the municipality has started to fix up a roundabout which makes it "soooo hard to driiiive, and uuuugh, it's sooo ugly, amagaaaad", because it usually turns up to be better than it was before. I was right about the Tjensvoll roundabout, and other areas that everyone has forgotten ever was rebuilt because they're used to it now. The point of whining does not exist unless it's an actual problem for society. Oh, so you get home 30 minutes later than usual because of a construction site and you get seven and a half hours of spare time rather than eight, big fucking deal!
But this is too much even for me. For some reason even the sight of telephone lines bugs me; I imagine the sight of those monstrous pylons all over my favourite county would kill me. If not physically, then on the inside.
I don't think the people of Norway will let this happen. We will not listen to reason. You need electricity? Move to Oslo. I don't care if you love your rainy city, you can either live without electricity until we complete the osmosis effect, or you can move to a place that actually has electricity.
If the Norwegian people let this happen, I will move away and never return. I will be so disappointed I will change my nationality. I won't even call myself ex-Norwegian. My family members won't be Norwegian, they will be foreigners.
That's how bitter I am.
Being called to work on a Sunday didn't really help my mood particularly.
(Edit: Great, now they're planning to ruin a fjord in Geiranger, too.)
Preserve Hardanger!
Film from Fylkesundet in Hardanger.
The clips are from Fykse, Kastdalen, Simlenut, Botnen and Skåro Fjellgård.
These are areas that will be directly affected by the planned 420 kV "monster pylon" from Sima to Samnanger.
Go to http://www.bevarhardanger.no and support the protests against the power line!
Harding fiddle: Arne Fykse.
The film is made by Håvard Holme and Audun Klyve Gulbrandsen.
Hardanger has many times been considered the loveliest place in Norway. The mountain plateau of Hardanger is the biggest and highest mountain plateau in Europe. It's a national treasure.
Look at it. It's gorgeous. The Hardanger nature is gorgeous. The Hardanger dialect is gorgeous. The Hardanger bunad is gorgeous.
And what does the government want to do?
Look at the picture above and you'll see something written. Just like it says: "Statnett wants to take a cheap shortcut and build 45 meter tall power supplying pylons straight through our national treasure!"
"What do you think?"
One would think, "well, this isn't the worst anyone's done, and the Bergen areas do need electricity to function", but here's the deal:
They're finding the cheapest way out and destroys an entire area while doing so. They have the oportunity to spend more money for underwater cables that nobody can even see. I can see why they don't want to do this: it costs more, which will make North-Norway have less money to spent on their pylons, and if something goes wrong later it's more difficult to fix a cable than a bloody pylon.
But really? Has the government really sunk this low?
Whatever happened to the windmill option? We even produced a windmill that can float on water and not take up any space on land! Produce some more of those! I even heard something about an "osmosis effect", which some Norwegians were/are working on. I can imagine the situation:
- "Ah, we're finally done building these monstrous pylons all over our loveliest piece of land!"
- "Hey! We've done it! We can finally use the osmosis effect to produce energy!"
- "... we'll just let these pylons stay here and not ever use them."
They're fucking bigger than the goddamn royal castle. Uglier than the turds of the devil himself.
Here's the problem with "nah, we can't make underwater cables, because they cost more": The government will give 100 000 kroner to each of the municipalities that are affected by this monstrous pylons. How about they don't give the many, many municipalities that money and in stead spend them on some fucking underwater cables, huh?! Oh, so it costs even more than that, but what is the cost of Hardanger, which has been like it is for thousands of years without anyone even touching it?! What gives us, human beings, right to tear down every piece of nature we come across just so that we can avoid using up earthly values that can easily be obtained all over again? Nothing, that's what!
I'm beyond sad that Norway has come to this. Had I known that the prime minister would allow such a thing, I wouldn't have voted for him in the first place.
"The people says clearly NO to the monstrous pylons" was the headline of an online article (which I can't seem to find), and yet the politicians are being douchebags. I don't believe that they realise that we can be just as protesting as Americans, although probably with a little less signs and a little more to protest than opposing gay marriage and free healthcare (seriously?).
I believe that if they physically take the trip to Hardanger to start building, protestors all over the country will head the same way and start getting violent. I know for sure that I will. I have never been so angry about something the politicians do. I'm usually the one telling people to stop whining just because the municipality has started to fix up a roundabout which makes it "soooo hard to driiiive, and uuuugh, it's sooo ugly, amagaaaad", because it usually turns up to be better than it was before. I was right about the Tjensvoll roundabout, and other areas that everyone has forgotten ever was rebuilt because they're used to it now. The point of whining does not exist unless it's an actual problem for society. Oh, so you get home 30 minutes later than usual because of a construction site and you get seven and a half hours of spare time rather than eight, big fucking deal!
But this is too much even for me. For some reason even the sight of telephone lines bugs me; I imagine the sight of those monstrous pylons all over my favourite county would kill me. If not physically, then on the inside.
I don't think the people of Norway will let this happen. We will not listen to reason. You need electricity? Move to Oslo. I don't care if you love your rainy city, you can either live without electricity until we complete the osmosis effect, or you can move to a place that actually has electricity.
If the Norwegian people let this happen, I will move away and never return. I will be so disappointed I will change my nationality. I won't even call myself ex-Norwegian. My family members won't be Norwegian, they will be foreigners.
That's how bitter I am.
Being called to work on a Sunday didn't really help my mood particularly.
(Edit: Great, now they're planning to ruin a fjord in Geiranger, too.)
Preserve Hardanger!
Click to viewFilm from Fylkesundet in Hardanger.
The clips are from Fykse, Kastdalen, Simlenut, Botnen and Skåro Fjellgård.
These are areas that will be directly affected by the planned 420 kV "monster pylon" from Sima to Samnanger.
Go to http://www.bevarhardanger.no and support the protests against the power line!
Harding fiddle: Arne Fykse.
The film is made by Håvard Holme and Audun Klyve Gulbrandsen.