MANAGER
Norway is at the top, i.e. top of the bucket, when it comes to climate denial.
EVACUATED: Two children are evacuated by Greek police from the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens. Photo: AFP / NTB Show more
Editor: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s view. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Published on Friday 28 July 2023 – 07:39
It’s quite strange. The pictures show people fleeing. With suitcases and children in tow, people anxiously look behind them and see black smoke, and perhaps yellow fire, licking towards the sky. It is like a Rembrandt painting of recent times. There are people – including Norwegians – who are fleeing islands in Greece. It is our time, it is now. But the pictures are as if they were from another time, from the end of time, if you will.
Video shows one of the fire brigade’s planes crashing. The aircraft was used to extinguish the forest fires in Greece. Video: Twitter Show more
The pictures don’t lie. Still, the numbers show something quite different from what the pictures do. The figures show that one in four Norwegians does not accept that the climate changes we all see and experience are man-made. Among countries we otherwise like to compare ourselves to, Norway is in a class of its own. We are the worst in the class. A surprising number of Norwegians are climate deniers.
An EU-funded survey carried out last year, which surveys European citizens’ trust in climate science, shows that Norwegians are in a class of their own. Only 61 percent have confidence that climate change is mainly man-made, while 24 percent believe it is not. Among countries where trust in climate science is between 70 and 80 per cent, we find Germany, Great Britain and Poland. And countries where confidence in climate science is higher than 80 percent are, for example, Italy and Ireland. And then – just to repeat it – the figure for Norway is 61 per cent.
This week – while Southern Europe is burning – the report also came out which concludes that the Gulf Stream is about to turn. It could happen in two years, or in 60 – 70 years, but most likely in 25 – 30 years, say the researchers behind the report. And suddenly it will be many degrees colder in the kingdom. Arctic cold at home, and hellfire at the resort in southern Europe. The choice in quite a few years may be a choice between plague or cholera.
Still, a big one a minority of Norwegians choose to equip themselves with blinders in the face of the future. And although the blinders are unequally distributed in Norwegian politics, they are abundantly present in both of the two existing government alternatives. The Progress Party is, as expected, the worst. 57 percent of those who say they vote for the Progress Party believe that climate change is ongoing, but believe that we humans are not primarily responsible. The figure for those who say they vote for the Center Party is also a disappointing 37 percent.
Norwegians never have been better educated, and we are probably better educated than the European countries where trust in knowledge of kilmak is significantly higher than here. Nevertheless, we are on the train. Bean in the bucket. So it is said. Dagbladet has banned the self-righteous Norwegian church.
2023-07-28 05:42:08
#strange
