This is a really good opinion piece by Dan Haugen on sustainability. It highlights the tensions, the paradoxes and the complexities of sustainability. While it shows that there are certainly solutions and successes there remains a great deal of uncertainty as we embark on the greatest transition ever known to humanity ~ the shift to sustainability.
“From a window seat, the first glimpse of Denmark’s sustainability ambition waves at air travelers as they make their descent into Copenhagen’s airport. Middelgrunden, a row of 20 towering turbines audaciously anchored to a reef more than a mile from dry land, was the world’s largest offshore wind farm when it was built in 2000. Today, along with Copenhagen’s famous bicycle scene, these blades remain among the most visible signs of a decades-long green transition underway in this city, which aspires to be the world’s first carbon-neutral capital in 2025.
“It’s big goals and big investments like these that have helped give Denmark and its neighbors Norway and Sweden an outsized presence in the sustainability world. As it sheds a dirtier, oil-dependent past, Scandinavia has become a mecca for green energy, design and policy, boasting some of the world’s most efficient buildings, lowest fossil fuel use and boldest emission targets.
“Yet, exceptional as these Scandinavian countries appear — and they certainly are above average — each also faces significant questions and contradictions as it attempts to minimize its impact on the climate and planet.
“Denmark, for example, is home to some of the world’s most efficient buildings and best bicycle infrastructure — but it also has the baggage of a wealthy, consuming nation with a per-capita ecological footprint that tops that of the United States.”
Repost Ensia’s article Scandinavian-style Sustainability
Calendar subscribe
I suspect that many will not have the time to read the entire article here. I skimmed through it. It was enough to see that it is a thoughtful article.
The key point that I was able to glean from it was that export and import behaviour needs to be considered when assessing whether a country is sustainable. It is also important to remain in contact with one’s surrounds i.e. other people outside one’s locality. Scandinavia is doing well and other nations would be well served to see what is being done there but the author suggests it is not as green as everyone in the world is making out.
As always, replies are welcome here (Administrator, am I notified if a reply is posted?) and/or to my email address tom.369@hotmail.com
Best regards,
Tom Livanos.