Search Results

Det er ikkje så lenge sidan Inger Fure Grøtting og co. oppretta ein underskriftskampanje for unge sunnfjordingar som ser heile Nordic Mining sitt såkalla rutileventyr som eit slag i trynet og som meiner dette gjer at det er mindre sannsynleg at dei vil flytte heimatt til Sunnfjord. English version. Sidan eg då berre var 39 år gamal drista eg meg til å ymte frampå om å få lov til å signere eit brev frå ungdommen. Det sa Grøtting ja til, og eg signerte. Fordi eg kjende på kor vondt i kropp og sjel det gjorde berre å tenkje på å skulle flytte heim til Naustdal og Sunnfjord med slik miljøkriminalitet like utanfor stovedøra. Les meir i Firda, 8. juni (krev abonnement). Ja, miljøkriminalitet. Mellom anna fordi selskapet skal sleppe ut 112 kilo kvikksølv i året. 112 kilo! Det er nesten ti gonger dei samla årlege utsleppa av kvikksølv i norske fjordar og vassdrag. Ifølgje Aftenposten sleppast mellom 12 og 15 kilo ut kvart år. Men det er altså langs heile Noregs kystlinje på 100.915 kilometer, medan 112 kilo skal sleppast ut på éin stad i éin fjord. Ti gonger meir kvikksølv på ein eksepsjonelt liten del av området. No har Noregs såkalla klima- og miljøminister Tine Sundtoft altså sagt ja til 112 kilo. Og det gjer vel strengt tatt at det ikkje lenger er kriminelt. Sidan selskapet har fått lov. Det høyrest nesten ut som ein stor løgn-taktikk. Så kolossalt mykje kvikksølv at ingen ville tru at nokon (og aller minst ein miljøminister) ville vere frekk og uforskamma nok til å tillate noko så fælsleg i ein av våre fjordar. I ein nasjonal laksefjord, i ein fjord med oppdrettsnæring, i ein fjord med yrkesfiskarar, i ein fjord med dykkarar. At heile prosjektet i naturvernforbundskretsar er kjend som “ein av dei største forureiningsskandalane i nyare tid” seier vel kanskje sitt. Ja, for kiloane med kvikksølv er berre ein brøkdel av 300 millionar tonn med forureina gruveslam som skal dumpast i Førdefjorden dei neste 50 åra. Så, kva gjer vel 5-6 tonn med kvikksølv frå eller til? At Klima- og miljødepartementet til Sundtoft sa ja til galskapen same dag som statsminister Erna Solberg var i Vietnam og på Dagsrevyen smilande gav ut smaksprøvar av sunn norsk laks frå dei reine norske fjordane til alle som ville smake gjorde ironien fullkomen. Men nok om det. De har fått med dykk dette før. Eg signerte altså på eit brev der eg nærast lova å ikkje flytte heimatt. Men no har eg tenkt meg litt om. Eg vil ikkje at prosjektet skal kome så langt at det vert aktuelt for driftige folk utan ferieplanar å i det heile planleggje lenkegjengar, at dei fastbuande rundt fjorden må begynne å abonnere på prozac eller at husmødrene og -fedrane rundt Engebøfjellet treng å kjøpe seg hørselsvern til kjøkenbruk. For å stoppe det heile vil eg nytte eit lovleg middel. Eg vil nytte lokaldemokratiet. Eg vil røyste i Naustdal, og eg har no meld flytting til heimkommunen min. For å røyste for eit av partia som jobbar mot fagre løfte frå eit “gruveselskap” med tre tilsette på eit kontor i Oslo og kroner null i kassakreditt, men som like fullt klarte å overtyde fleirtalet som sat i kommunestyret i Naustdal for fire år sidan om å godkjenne forureininga. Godkjenning vart gitt lenge før konsekvensane var tilstrekkeleg synleggjorde for både politikarar og veljarar. Det har dei først blitt dei siste månadane, mellom anna gjennom media lokalt, nasjonalt og internasjonalt. At eg flyttar tel berre éi røyst, men eg vonar at du, tanta di i Sogn, den tidlegare kollegaen din frå Hordaland og/eller naboen blir inspirerte til å gjere det same. Røysterett har ein der ein er busett 30. juni, og med ei vekes sakshandsamingstid er det berre tida og vegen. Fjorddeponimotstandarar over heile landet er velkomne til å skrive eit lite stykke sunnfjordshistorie. For fjorddeponimotstandarar i heile Sunnfjord er det eigentleg ingenting å lure på: Den vesle kommunen skal uansett slåast saman med andre kommunar i Sunnfjord, så du treng ikkje ein gong å flytte attende. Dermed vert dette også historias siste kommunestyre i Naustdal. Gjer ditt til at det vert 21 minneverdige representantar og at minst 11 av dei er mot fjorddeponi. Logg på altinn.no og meld flytting til Naustdal i dag. Kvar neirøyst tel i det viktigaste ja/nei-valet i Noreg sidan EU-valet. At eg har meld flytting til Naustdal påverkar ikkje jobbsituasjonen min. Eg vil halde fram med å jobbe for NRK si distribusjonsavdeling og i Nitimen på NRK P1 i Oslo, og pendle ved behov. Det kan du også gjere. I alle fall om du bur nærare enn seks timar med bil slik eg gjer. Om andre enn meg verkeleg meiner at dei er imot å dumpe 300 millionar tonn i Førdefjorden, då. Og det må det vere. Til saman har tusen personar protestert mot prosjektet i Oslo og Bergen medan endå fleire seier at dei vil lenkje seg fast for å prøve å stoppe heile prosjektet. Det er sivil ulydnad og kjem kjapt på rullebladet om politiet må fjerne dei fastlenkja. Med tilhøyrande konsekvensar. Som om ein liten prikk på rullebladet har noko å seie i denne samanhengen. Kva med å heller melde flytting til Naustdal, pendle til/frå jobb eller studiar ein periode og vere med på å gje eit veldig sterkt signal til politikarane ved å sikre eit nei-fleirtal på kommunestyret? Eit nytt kommunestyre kan t.d. omregulere fjorden til friluftsområde. For meir info, sjå nettstaden flyttforfjord.org. #flyttforfjord #stemnei #Naustdal

And it is official. Norway will switch off FM in 2017, as the first country in the world. The government, represented by the Minister of Culture, announced today. The replacement? Digital Audio Broadcasting, usually referred to as DAB+. That makes today a day of celebration for the broadcasters. They have long been working with listeners, the government, retailers, the car industry and each other to achieve five demands set up by the government in 2011. All five had to be fulfilled by January 2015 to ensure a 2017 switch-off (see bottom). They were all delivered upon by good margin, yet it was up to the government and the Ministry of Culture in partiuclar, to formally decide. Today she did. – The digitization of radio opens up for a far larger diversity of radio stations that will benefit listeners all over the country. To listeners this means more diversity, a more differentiated radio offer, noisefree reception and a range of new functionalities. The digitization does moreover open up for greater competition and increased possibilities of innovation and development. Where the FM network can only accommodate five nationwide radio stations, DAB already offers 22 nationwide radio stations with room for another 20 or so. Over half the population does furthermore already have a local offering on DAB, with a big potential for many new local radio stations, Thorhild Widvey said in a press release today. She is Minister of Culture. The press release also pinpoints that FM costs are eight times higher per radio station than for DAB. And Widvey could witness that as many as 57% of Norwegians listened to digital radio daily in this year’s first quarter, up from 56% in January/February. – This is an important day for everyone who loves radio. The minister’s decision allows us to concentrate even more of our resources on what is most important, namely to create high quality and diverse radio-content to our listeners, said Thor Gjermund Eriksen who is Director-General of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in a separate press release. Cars are important DAB now covers 99.5% of the Norwegian population, and 94.9% of roads. FM cover the same population, but only 88.5% of roads (the average of two coverage models are being used for road coverage figures), according to Norwegian Communication Authority (NKOM). – Most people can now access digital radio, and it is about time to introduce modern technology for this media too, as we did for TV in 2009. Given that the other demands have been met, Norway is ready to switch off FM, Torstein Olsen said in a statement following the launch of the official measurements. He is General Director of NKOM. A switch-off is important to consumers before upgrading to DAB. 51% of car owners said in a recent study initiated by Digital Radio Norway that they will not install a DAB adapter in their car until FM is actually switched off. 23% of radio listening in Norway happens in the car, and it is important to cover all the long road tunnels with DAB too. The Road Authority or the police can in case of emergencies override all the radio stations in the tunnel in question to provide potentially life-saving info. The Road Authority is currently installing DAB in all tunnels longer than 500 meters with a certain amount of traffic, including Lærdalstunnelen, the world’s longest road tunnel with its 24.5 kilometers. Enough simulcast The switch-off in 2017 eliminates an additional two years of simulcasting in both FM and DAB+. In Norway, to do so is a costly affair. NRKs 2,000 FM transmitters alone cost tens of millions of Euros a year to run. The switch-off will happen geographically according to a plan agreed upon by the radio industry and approved by the Ministry. The county of Nordland will switch-off first on January 11, 2017, whereas the northernmost counties of Troms and Finnmark will be the last ones to lose FM on December 13, 2017. But who cares, anyway? Radio listening is declining. Right? Wrong. Radio listening has in fact not been higher since 1991. Every Norwegian now listens to the radio for 100 minutes daily, up from 90 minutes last year. A lot of that can be contributed to more radio stations, better tailored radio stations, better coverage and clearer sound. Those countries that have not yet started digitizing radio might want to reconsider. The five criteria 1. NRK needs to have the same coverage via DAB as Norway’s biggest radio station NRK P1 has via FM. All NRKs 13 radio stations now reach 99.5% of the population, the same as NRK P1 via FM. All other FM stations have less coverage. 2. Commercial radio broadcasters need to reach over 90% of the population via DAB. They now reach 91.8%. 3. There must be extra digital value. A lot of extra radio stations ensure that. Additional digital services such as broadcasting of photos, playlists and info on programmes further ensure that this criteria is reached. 4. There must be technically satisfactory and inexpensive solutions for car radio available, and half of the 428 municipalities and all 19 counties must have an offer of retrofitting adapters. All counties and at least 80% of the municipalities deliver on this criteria and the Norwegian Media Authority is happy with the selection of available car radio solutions. They say that there is a wide range of DAB+ adapters on the market, that prices have declined and that there are several new features. 74% of new car models are available with DAB+. 5. At least half the daily listeners must listen to radio digitally. 57% do.

It is quite rare to see Bedouins come to Northern Europe looking for patches of sand to explore. Just about as rare as seeing Norwegians travelling to the Middle East to go skiing. But amazing conditions in Iranian mountains ought to change that. Skiing conditions in Norway are great and slopes are plentiful. And Norwegians are even born with skis on their feet, or at least that’s how the saying goes. That is however clearly not the case with Wanja Buanes, a friend of mine from back home in Naustdal. She is 35 years old, yet has never skied. – You should learn to ski in Iran, I told her. She thought I was crazy. A lot of people do, given my travels to “strange” or less known countries. But I meant it, and she actually decided to come along with Øystein Djupvik, another friend of ours from our home village. Øystein Djupvik. Yeah, the guy who has driven to more countries in the world in 24 hours than anyone else. I was lucky enough to be designated map reader. But enough about Europe. Dizin and Shemshak Iran does in fact has several amazing skiing slopes with incredible conditions and complete with lifts, hotel complexes and a fantastic scenery second to none. The skiing villages of Dizin and Shemshak are located in breathtaking and beautiful 3-4000 meter high mountains only two hours’ drive from Tehran, the capital. Rather surprising really, given that you will land at an airport in the desert. Wanja did indeed learn how to ski, through her own local skiing instructor. The 18 year old seemed older than his actual age, and came with vast amounts of experience. – I am a skiing instructor. My dad is a skiing instructor. And my mom is a skiing instructor, he told me at 3,150 meters above sea level behind big skiing glasses. I could see my own refelction in them. His bright coloured skiing gear was a lot more impressive than mine. I wore some knackered running trousers and a big black jacket over three layers of wool and cotton. The best part was that his eminent skiing services cost less than 80USD for a full day. Renting skis and a lift pass each cost half that. Such a moderate price level pretty much saved Wanja her entire ticket to Iran, as opposed to have learned how to ski at home. Cheaper flying to Iran than within Norway Then again, flying from Oslo to Tehran only set us back 370 USD per person for a return flight. Not bad, given it’s a 10 hour journey via Istanbul. To have flown the 50 minutes to the skiing slopes on the Norwegian West Coast – on a direct flight with a 50 seat propellor plane – would have cost each of us 495 USD. Not to mention much higher prices for renting equipment and a ski instructor – in much lower mountains and shorter slopes. We had great days skiing in the mountains surrounding Dizin. And from the very top of the slope, we could even see Mount Damāvand, the highest in the country with its 5,610 meters. The only downside was that Øystein broke a rib while snowboarding. – The conditions were just too good, so I was tempted to jump higher than I should have. It’s been 10 years since last time, so I am out of practice, he explained. Luckily the pain killers in Iran are much stronger than in Europe, and much cheaper. He ate a few of them the following days. The after-ski doesn’t quite deliver Skiing in Iran might be world-class, but the afterski options – the parties at the bottom of the slopes – are certainly not. The muslim country does not allow the sale of alcohol, so the options are to bring your own from abroad, to buy it illegally on the black market or to locate somone who makes their own wine or liquor. We met some local Iranian snowboarders who had purchased imported vodka. They passed a bottle around to us, every time we took one of the seven ski lifts. – This is our way of protest the government, they said and explained that the government should be changed. Young people are certainly not too happy with the current leadership and the rather strict rules on everything from drinking to dress code. Quite a few girls we met had ditched their mandatory hijabs, or head scarfs, while skiing. – Luckily, the religious police do not know how to ski, so I feel free like a bird up here in the mountains, one of them told me. And put on a big smile. That is certainly not unusual in Iran. But that she did so without covering her long flowing black hair certainly was. Her sense of dress didn’t in any way indicate that she was Iranian. What she wore was probably picked up in London, New York or Tokyo. She could afford to travel a bit. How about experienced snowboarder Øystein – would he prefer skiing in Norway or in Dizin? – After-ski in Norway, the rest in Dizin, he quipped and laughed. Traffic hell On our way back to Tehran we got to experience the infamous traffic. Six lanes of cars challenged the three lane road to the limit, as the traffic very slowly moved towards town. No wonder perhaps, in a city that has 11 million people during the night, and 18 million people during the day. That is how many people commute, primarily by car and busses. The capital has quite a young population, and we meet several students. They are protesting too, on Facebook and other social media. Most of them are blocked, but they have no problems getting access through the use of VPN. There the girls dress rather daringly, if at all, in their photos. Hijabs are certainly not at all used. Maybe the country is in for a second revolution. The young population seems to want one. The last one was in 1979, the year Wanja was born. Too bad about the stubborn and conservative old religious and political leaders. Which pretty much amounts to the same in Islamic Republic of Iran. They ought to hit the slopes and have some fun. They might realize what being young is about. And possible even smile again. A little.

The question following any plane crash, especially in the so called industrialized or western world where flying “should be safe”, does however usually come out as quite the opposite. Whether it is asked to gray haired colleagues over lunch, to your sofa hugging husband while watching the 7 o’clock news or entered in the search box of Google. Whether it is asked in fear or anxiety or just out of innocent curiosity. – Is it dangerous to fly? There is no doubt about the answer. Or, at least, there shouldn’t be. No, it isn’t. – But how could that Germanwings plane crash like that? Over France, even? And Air Asia? And Malaysian Airlines? There is always a follow-up question. And it can only be answered properly by looking at the numbers, doing the maths. 2014 was the first year in aviation history that saw over 100,000 commercial flights every day. Or 37.4 million flights altogether. I have gone through Wikipedia’s list of fatal air crashes involving commercial aircraft and counted fatalities since 1990. I have left out cargo flights and people killed on the ground, including people killed in hijacked aircraft by security forces on the ground. 1985 deadliest yet The deadliest year in aviation occured almost 30 years ago. A staggering 1,987 people died back in 1985. That is 370 more than in 1996, the worst of the last 20 years. 2013 was on the other hand an extremely safe year, with “only” 186 deaths through 8 fatal accidents. The tally increased manifold the next year, in large parts due to Malaysian Airlines’ annus horribilis. 920 people died in 7 commercial passenger flights, one less accident than in “the best year ever”. 2014 did in other words see among the lowest number of fatal accidents in a year, but the average size of the accidents were much bigger than average. One year can in other words differentiate quite a bit from another. Looking at five year averages give us a better picture. The number of fatal accidents remain relatively stable.It has varied between 7 and 17 since 1990, but is averaging at 11.2 both throughout the entire 25 year period and during the last five years. The numbers of aviation deaths are however declining. Just over 11 crashes a year means just under one per month. Or one in every three million flights. 18,647 people have perished in just over 25 years. That gives an average of 738 per year, and an average of 65.7 deaths per accident. But there is a positive trend. The average annual number of fatalities per five year period is going down from 793 in 1990-1994, via 900 in 1995-1999, 730 in 2000-2004 and 724 in 2005-2009 to 540 in 2010-2014. The number of deaths or number of accidents in any given year or any given five year period still does not give us the full answer. We also have to take into consideration the number of flights. Given the increase in flight numbers, flying is becoming even safer year on year. Safer and safer There were 37,4 million flights in 2014, the highest number ever. Given the low number of fatal crashes that year (7), you would statistically have to fly 5,342,857 times for every accident. The average of 2010-2014 is lower, but still better than any five year period before; One fatal crash per 2,925,000 flights. That means a 0.000034% risk. You have never been less likely to fly on a plane that will crash and experience fatalities. Safer than ever, but not guaranteed. Nothing is in life. Compared to deaths caused by shotguns, airplane accidents barely registers. As many as 396,270 people were killed by guns in homicides world-wide in 2012 alone, according to UNODC. And while we are at it, let’s compare with another mode of transport. At least 1,240,000 people, are killed every year in accidents on the world’s roads, according to Wikipedia. Your odds of dying from other causes (in the US) are much higher, according to The Economist: Walking: 1 in 54,538 Fire: 1 in 104,524 Alcohol: 1 in 150,681 Falling down stairs: 1 in 157,300 Biking: 1 in 340,854 Storm: 1 in 2,271,454 Flying on a commercial airline (worldwide): 1 in 2,925,000 Lightening: 1 in 10,495,684 Dog bite: 11,273,142 Bee/wasp sting: 1 in 26,364,571 Fireworks: 1 in 50,729,141 Asteroid impact: 1 in 74,817,414 Or, let us look at leading causes of death per 100,000, worldwide. Heart and blood vessels diseases is worst by far with 268.8 deaths per 100,000 followed by infectious and parasitic diseases (211.3 in 100,000), ischemic heart disease (115.8 in 100,000), cancer (114.4 in 100,000) and stroke (88.5 in 100,000). Other selected causes of death, per 100,000: HIV/AIDS: 44.6 Tubercolosis: 25.2 Malaria: 20.4 Suicide: 14.0 Road accidents: 19.1 Measles: 9.8 Violence: 9.0 Falls: 6.3 Drowning: 6.1 Poisoning: 5.6 War: 2.8 Deaths caused by crashes on commercial airlines occur 0.019 times per 100,000 passengers (2010-2014). Five year periods and used data 2010-2014 Deaths: 2,700, an average of 540 per year Fatal accidents: 56, an average of 11.2 per year 2010-2015 (until March 28, 2015, including Germanwings flight 9525) Deaths: 2,912, an average of 554.7 per year Fatal accidents: 58, an average of 11.05 per year 2005-2009 Deaths: 3,619, an average of 723.8 per year Fatal accidents: 64, on average 12.8 per year 2000-2004 Deaths: 3,649, an average of 729.8 per year Fatal accidents: 48, an average of 9.6 per year 1995-1999 Deaths: 4,501, an average of 900.2 per year Fatal accidents: 57, an average of 11.4 1990-1994 Deaths: 3,966, an average of 793.2 per year Fatal accidents: 57, an average of 11.4 per year Sources: http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/pub_2307_ch12.pdf http://adg.stanford.edu/aa241/intro/airlineindustry.html https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/IATA_Economics_Briefing_Impact_of_Recession_Dec08.pdf http://www.statista.com/statistics/185373/us-total-performed-aircraft-departures-since-1990/ http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2014/07/travel/aviation-data/ http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1543&context=njilb https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/IATA_Economics_Briefing_Impact_of_Recession_Dec08.pdf .

Name a continent. All of them have a human history going back thousands and thousands of years. Except for the only uninhabited one. Antarctica was first discovered around 1820, and the South Pole wasn’t visited until December 14, 1911 when my fellow countryman Roald Amundsen skied in and narrowly beat British Robert Falcon Scott to it. Antarctica is still rather hard and costly to visit. But. It. Is. Totally. Worth. It. How to visit There are several ways to visit as a traveller, but only during their summer which occurs late October-mid March. I first tried a so-called air cruise in November. I was supposed to take a cruise ship there from Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city in Argentina, and fly back to South America five days later. To get from Oslo to Ushuaia can be a hassle. It took my over 30 hours to get there. Upon landing I was greeted by a phone call. It was the tour operator. – A military cargo plane has crash-landed on the Antarctica airstrip and it is likely to be closed for at least a week. They have no heavy equipment top move it. Bummer! The trip was in other words cancelled, and I had to spend a week in Argentina. Not that Argentina is a bad holiday destination, just not when I want to go elsewhere. The second option is a full cruise. It will take 9-20 days, and you are not even guaranteed to set foot on land. Around a third of cruise passengers do not actually enter the continent, they only see it from their ship, according to the BBC. You can of course also hire your own yacht or airplane, but those people likely to do so typically read Luxury Travel Magazine, not garfors.com. I decided to go for yet another option, and returned to South America a month later. This time I would fly both ways and spend two days on the unexplored continent. Finally there From Punta Arenas in Chile. I arrived there an hour before the information meeting any traveller bound for Antarctica is required to undertake. We were to leave four hours later. But there was heavy fog on King George Island, and not enough visibility for planes to be able to land. So the flights was cancelled. Again. And again. And yet again. I was starting to lose hope. Frequently checking the airport’s webcamera didn’t exactly help either. There was indeed fog. There was indeed no visibility. I was indeed frustrated. Until the fourth day when I woke up by a 7 o’clock phone call. – Please meet in the reception in an hour. Weather forecast looks good. And it must have been. My group, which also counted two Russians and three Americans, was airborne a few hours later. In an old British Aerospace 146. We landed without problem two hours later. Zero degrees Celcius. Minus 20, with the chill factor taken into account. Luxury no more Antarctica does of course not have facilities for tourists, and I did not expect luxury or comfort. I was not positively surprised. We had to walk from the airstrip to the nearest research base, a Russian one, where we were offered instant coffee and chocolate snacks. People on a gourmet mission should bring own food. Actually, anyone should bring own food. We had 6 airplane meals during the two days in Antarctica. Yes, airplane meals, served on typical airplane trays even. After two days in storage, then microwave heated, not exactly a winning recipe. Awful! I would have brought my own food, had I had the faintest idea. Decent Chilean red wine compensated. Somewhat. Next up was a peek into Chile’s naval commando center where all ships in the area are monitored via satellite and radar. They have responsibility for any rescue operations in the area, and are of course manned 24/7. Their post office is not. It is open one hour a day, so time it carefully if you want a unique stamp on your postcards. It will cost 2USD a piece to send a card, letters are not accepted. And you have to bring your own postcards, none are sold here. Likelihood is however that you will get back home before your cards do. – Logistics here are difficult. Expect that it will take 30 days before your cards aare delivered, the postal worker said. Alejo Contreras Staeding, our very experienced guide, would take us to the Uruguayan base over a small snow-covered and roadless mountain in a bright yellow carrier, some sort of a bus on belts. He has skied to the South Pole and conquered Mount Vinson, the highest peak on the continent, 16 times. But even Alejo got stuck in the demanding summer conditions with rotten snow and hidden water lagoons. Half an hour of shovelling didn’t help either. Our guide picked up his ancient Nokia phone. Battery life beats functionality here. – Solidarity is very strong in Antarctica. Everybody helps everybody. The Uruguayians are on their way to pull us out, Alejo told me upon hanging up. Amazing penguins An identical carrier, only red, was with us within an hour to give us a ride to the Uruguayan base. We were invited into their common room with a kitchen, a television corner as well as pool and table tennis tables. Our carrier was salvaged the next day, after 4 hours of shovelling. Of course I cannot leave out the penguins. The funny, charming and trusting birds that will give you photo and selfie possibilities of dreams. Thousands of penguins live on Ardley Island, but you will also see 2-3 on random beaches around King George Island. If they don’t make you smile, giggle or laugh, nothing will. Just be sure to also observe them in the water. I have never seen more able swimmers. And I am from Norway, where fish was practically invented. Tour operators You will have to go through a tour operator in order to visit Antarctica. The cheapest prices you can expect to find are as follows: Air-cruises: 4,000 USD (5-9 days) Cruises: 4,750 USD (8-20 days) Return flights: 5,500 USD (1-9 days) But, you can still shop around for last minute deals. One option is to check the websites below, although you are unlikely to find cheap flights to Ushuaia if you order your cruise at the last minute. A better option is, given that you have time and feel like hanging out in Patagonia for a while (not a bad idea, by any means), to window shop at the tourist offices there. The less central ones tend to give bigger discounts. The companies are not happy about leaving any beds or cabins empty, so you can save 1,000-2,000 USD off the normal prices by just coincidentally being there and trying out your negotiating skills. Chances are of course that no cruise ships at all are available. And of course, your trip to Ushuaia or Punta Arenas and back, comes in addition. Some tour operators Victoria Adventure Expeditions Antarctica Bound Antarctica XXI Expeditions Online Adventure Smith Explorations Ushuaia Turismo Or go straight to the airline, Aerovias DAP, the only one that flies scheduled flights from Punta Arenas to King George Island.

I don’t write about religion, I write about travel and media. But here we go. I have met thousands of people from every country in the world, from every imaginable religion. And some unimaginable ones. Islam is the world’s second biggest religion, after Christianity, and I have naturally met and befriended Muslims from a range of countries, partied with Muslims and been to Muslim weddings. I have discussed life, faith and religion with them, been impressed by their religious conviction, yet we have disagreed on a number of issues. With neither me nor them becoming upset with or losing respect for each other. Muslims are my friends. The last couple of years we have seen a rise in people who claim to be Muslims, who claim to be the only real Muslims, even. They might call themselves islamic extremists, jihadists or fundamentalists. But the moment they cross the line and start punishing, raping and killing in the name of Allah, they are no longer Muslims at all. Rather the contrary, doing so is blasphemy. Surely Allah would want to hold people accountable to him for their deeds on judgement day. Not by proxy. Not in advance. What we see is groups using “Islam” as an excuse to kill, rape, pillage and plunder. Extremists that “take religions hostage” by committing heinous and totally non-religious acts in their names. They seem to have found a loophole, so to speak, in order to rightfully and with confidence spread their deluded, deranged and senseless propaganda, which in turn recruits people to join their seemingly legit, and “Muslim” mission. But. Real Muslims don’t kill. Real Muslims don’t rape. Real Muslims don’t plunder. Real Muslims don’t fear education. Real Muslims don’t fear free speech. Real Muslims don’t keep sex slaves. Real Muslims don’t make kids blow themselves up. Real Muslims don’t brainwash followers. Real Muslims don’t [fill in here and Tweet it]. Terrorists do.

Yes, so I fly. A lot. Does that make me a bad person? The reason why island nations around the world are “sinking“? One of the most wanted people alive for crimes against climate? No. But some so-called environmental activists take pride in claiming so. Why? Well, flying is an obvious target. Everyone can see the exhaust on the sky, planes are noisy and aviation is booming. 2014 was for instance the first year in history with over 100,000 commercial flights. Per day. But let us look at the numbers. I am using Ecofys’ flowchart of emissions from 2010 (the last one available) plus some other sources. Numbers tell us that the total output of emissions was 48,629 million tons. A number so high it is pretty much only beaten by the US national debt. Do note that to get totally accurate numbers is impossible, as figures are from various reports made at different times, and that some only look at CO2 and not at the other less know greenhouse gasses. The overall picture should still be fairly representative, although not scientific. 1. The Industry 29% The industry is the worst perpetrator, as far as emissions go, contributing by almost a third. Probably not surprising to most. And aviation is not considered an industry, in this case. But the internet is. The ICT industry emitted 830 million tons of CO2 in 2013, according to Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET) and Bell Labs. And let us not forget pets. They pollute a hell of a lot more than you might imagine, although there aren’t much info on this available. There are a billion cats and dogs on the planet, I won’t even start to try count canary birds, turtles and hamsters. German Bild refers to a report by Climate Partner, saying that each cat emits 2.2 tons of CO2 every year, a dog a little less, while The Guardian compares dogs to much driven Land Cruisers (dogs are worse). Let us be conservative and say that pets account for half of this, given that many of them live in developing countries and that they are not fed industrialized pet food. That is still over a billion tons of CO2 a year. Selected industries, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Non-metallic minerals: 6.0% Iron and steel: 4.8% Chemical and petrochemical: 4.3% Pet industry: 2.2% Non-ferrous metals: 1.4% Internet (ICT): 1.7% Food and tobacco: 1.1% Paper, pulp and printing: 1.0% 2. Buildings 18% Next out, number two on who to blame for global warming, are buildings. Yeah, you know, those places where we live and work. To keep them warm (heating), cold (air conditioning), or just about average (heating and air conditioning) takes a lot of energy. Almost a fifth of all emissions, in fact. Which means that we have already isolated almost half of emissions. Buildings. split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Residential buildings: 11% Commercial buildings: 7% 3. (shared) Land-use change and Transportation 15% each Third place is shared between transport and emissions from land-use change. Both contribute to 15% of emissions. Land-use change includes deforestation and emissions from agricultural soils. Whereas transport naturally includes planes. Aviation accounts for 10% of all transport emissions, almost half of that of shipping, whereas road transport is to blame for 70% of transport emissions. The remaining is divided between others mode of transport, such as rail. You can of course argue that there are many more people travelling by road than by air, and that ships transports much more goods than planes, but it just isn’t realistic or even feasible to transport people and goods everywhere without planes. Those of us that travel a lot may not even have a car. I don’t. Land-use change, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Deforestation/Afforestation and Land Use CO2: 10.3% Agricultural soils: 4.4% Transportation, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Road: 10.5% Shipping: 2.7% Aviation: 1.5% 5. Energy supply 13% To get hold of that oil, gas and coal, not to mention processing it, takes a lot of energy on its own. And there is a fair amount of losses too. Energy, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Energy industry own use & losses 8.3% Oil and gas extraction, refining and processing 3.1% Coal mining 1.8% 6. Agriculture 7% Yes, those nice cows, elegant horses and cute pigs do fart a lot. To eat steak pollutes a lot more than you think. Do also take into account that the meat must be processed, kept cool and transported to you too. Agriculture, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Livestock and manure: 5.5% Agricultural energy use: 1.4% 7. Waste 3% Getting rid of everything that has contributed to emissions won’t help either. Landfills emit a lot on their own. So does waste water. Waste, split up (percentages in total of all emissions): Waste water and others: 1.6% Landfills: 1.3% I will repeat some of these, to better pinpoint and compare various emission sources that are familiar to most. Road transport: 10.5% Livestock and manure (meat production) 5.5% Maritime transport: 2.7% Pet industry: 2.2% Internet: 1.7% Aviation: 1.5% Food and tobacco industry: 1.1% Paper, pulp and printing industry: 1.0% Airplanes still the worst? I do certainly fly a lot, and I don’t mind being verbally attacked by wannabe environmentalists over it. Unfortunately many of them are hypocrites, being much bigger contributors to emissions than me. Of course maybe they just forgot to look at the numbers before seizing the opportunity to criticise a frequent flyer and globetrotter. Or perhaps they didn’t have time in between driving their car, feeding their pet, enjoying a delicious steak, surfing the internet or buying groceries or food produced in a country far, far away.

Det er enkelte bokmeldarar som har fått med seg at eg har skrive mi første bok, “198 – Mi reise om alle verdas land”. Dei fleste av dei hevdar å like kva dei las. Men ikkje alle. Ikkje Helge Baardseth i Vagabond, ei slags guidebok som no og då kjem ut i magasinform. Eg har treft han ein gong, då vi vart intervjua om verdas beste reisemål av Camilla Flaatten i Aftenposten. Ho skreiv saka “Her er stedene globetrotterne mener du bør dra neste år“. 70-åringen frå hovudstadsområdet verka tilsynelatande hyggjeleg, kanskje noko eksentrisk. Men han stakk tidleg frå intervjuet, og eg høyrde aldri frå han att. Før bokmeldinga han hadde skrive om boka mi “198” elektronisk tikka inn til telefonen min frå ein lesar. Totalslakt (med unntak av nokre artige geografilister bakerst)! Då er det utruleg kjekt å sjå at lesaren har teke seg bryderiet med å kommentere fleire av Baardseth sine kommentarar. “Finn 15 feil i årets mest surmagede bokanmeldelse” er tittelen på biletet. Sjå slaktet av slaktet, under. Slaktaren Baardseth hevdar å ha lese heile boka. Han om det. Og så vart han sanneleg sjølv slakta. Nokre gonger berre leverer internett. Dei andre bokmeldingane finn du her.

Øystein is my brother. Or one of them, at least. I have three brothers and three sisters. Øystein Garfors (born in Hammerfest, Norway in 1976) is working for Flora Upper Secondary School where he teaches entrepreneurship, performs guidance counselling and manages a development project in Malawi. While not at work he likes to spend time travelling, freediving, mountain hiking and hang out with his family. He is married to Benedicte and they have one son. The family lives in Naustdal in the county of Sogn and Fjordane. Contact Øystein via email.

The radio listening figures for the last three months made Ole Jørgen Torvmark a happy man. Over 50% of Norwegians now listen to digital radio daily. That means that all the government’s requirements have been fulfilled in order for a switch off of FM to happen in Norway 2017. Torvmark is CEO of Digital Radio Norway, an organization that represents the Norwegian radio industry. 51% of Norwegians listened to digital radio on a daily basis in August-October. Torvmark announced the numbers at the General Assembly of WorldDMB today, and received loud applause from the biggest turn out ever, at the conference in Rome. Not only are the numbers good, they are also very much on the rise. Only relatively low August numbers are rumoured to have brought the average down to just above the required 50% threshold. The sales of digital radios is increasing rapidly, and DAB+ radios are expected to be one of the biggest Christmas gifts in 2014. That will help boost numbers even more. 52% of all Norwegian households now have a DAB radio, according to todays’s press release. Measurements are now published monthly, and the final survey is set to take place in January 2015. The government will announce the final plan for FM switch-off in March. Given that all five criterias have now been fulfilled, the announcement is unlikely to be a surprising one.

Hurrah! The top travel list of Lonely Planet is out for next year, and my country is on the list! Oh, wait. There isn’t only one list. There are several. No, I mean many. As in loads! Yeah, welcome to the world of social media. Big corporations or organizations are using you to get publicity. Like Lonely Planet, the most famous travel guide on Earth. And no, you are not the only one being used. So are huge media companies like the BBC, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (or NRK for short in Norwegian, and coincidentally my employer), CNN, Australian News.com.au and Today in Singapore. I hope that makes you feel better. Four of six inhabited continents already jumped on the bandwagon to scream and shout about the travel lists. And Africa and South America are usually not that far behind. Why do I even care? Well, I have travelled a bit, and there is nothing ruining the genuine travel experiences more than world famous travel publications telling everyone where they should go. Because people do actually listen. So when Norway, Samoa, Tunisia are on the list, more people will go there. To experience the unique, the quiet or whatever makes a place stands out. Well, isn’t that a good thing? Yes, it might be. More people will actually go to places they never even knew existed. Places they would never otherwise have ventured to. This generates more money, boosts local economies and creates an atmosphere for more openness and understanding. Or does it really? It might merely reduces travellers to “bags of cash” instead of being potential friends, enriches the few locals that are anyhow well off and increases the walls between the poor locals and the rich and spoiled visitors. Prices will go up and places get more crowded. Which means that any genuinity that might have been around, is out the window. The problem is that the lists of a popular guide book series like Lonely Planet are self-contradictory. That not too many people visits a place is often what makes it special. The question one might ask is whether Lonely Planet out of kindness is making these lists to guide people to where they actually want to, or can afford to go. Or whether they are influenced by big tourist countries and just aim to maximize the number of countries listed. In order to maximize the world-wide publicity. And yes, that was a retorical question. The only bit of good news in all of this, to those of us interested in exploring places less visited, is that so many destinations are listed that there is a limit of how many people can actually visit each destination. That will actually limit the damage. I have always longed for places not usually visited by tourists. Luckily Tuvalu and Nauru are not on any of the Lonely Planet lists. But it is probably only a matter of time. Unless they sink first. Or run out of cash. So, how many countries are actually listed? And how many lists have Lonely Planet produced for 2015? Let me start with the latter question. There are 19 of them (listed at the bottom of this post), with 10 entries in each. That should mean 190 recommendations, although a couple of them cover more than one country. And I have then left out “North Africa”, one of the biggest regions in the world. 67 countries, more than a third of the 198 countries in the world, are covered. Plus outer space, Antarctica and an ocean cruise. So, 34% of the countries are “best in something”. How convenient for marketing purposes. But how accurate is it? Such lists can of course not be objective, so there is no right answer to the question. Let me just observe that amazing countries such as Ecuador, Guyana, Madagascar, Tonga, Bhutan, Federated States of Micronesia, Sri Lanka, Belarus and Dominica are not listed. Neither are any of the “Stans”, the 7 countries ending with stan. And I presume that Sierra Leone might also conveniently have been left out due to the Ebola scare. So which countries are represented? All continents are on at least one list, by the following number of countries: Europe: 25 of 47 countries. Africa: 10 of 55 countries. Asia: 15 of 47 countries. Oceania: 3 of 14 countries. North America: 6 of 23 countries. South America: 7 of 12 countries. Antarctica: Yes. But which country wins the list war? It will come to you as no surprise that the top 14 countries (those with at least 4 entries) are all rather big when it comes to tourism. The winners are, as follows: USA: 26 listings UK: 16 listings China: 11 listings Australia: 7 listings France: 7 listings Norway: 6 listings Canada: 5 listings India: 5 listings New Zealand: 5 listings Japan: 4 listings Namibia: 4 listings South Africa: 4 listings Turkey: 4 listings United Arab Emirates: 4 listings How odd. The winners are already rather famous tourist destinations. They also put a lot of money into marketing their countries (and, yes, my home country Norway is among them too). Just might any of them have influenced Lonely Planet? The US is not surprisingly on top with 26 listings. That makes the lists very US biased, in my opinion. But, hang on, what about the UK? It is number two with 16 listings. So what? Well, the US does after all have “only” one listing per 352,000 square kilometers. The UK has one listing per 15,180 square kilometers! That is 23 times as many as the US, compared to land mass. The average for the entire world, with 190 listings, should be one listing per 784,000 square kilometers. So maybe the lists are actually very UK biased, after all. All in all, these lists are pretty much rubbish, and designed for PR purposes (to sell travel guides) more than anything else. And PR they will get. Of course, pretty much anyone on one of these lists will use it for what it is worth. Which, it turns out, isn’t really that much. Enjoy your next trip. May I suggest that you go somewhere not mentioned on any of Lonely Planet’s speculative lists? To the the 25 least visited countries in the world, perhaps. Or maybe you’re up for the 15 hardest countries to visit? Lonely Planet’s lists are listed below. They can also be found here. Best cities Best regions Best countries Best value destinations The world’s most illuminating experiences. The world’s best places to get a ‘yes’ Top 10 unforgettable family travel experiences The best free things to do in 2015 Stimulating hot drinks to break your coffee addiction The world’s best places for extreme eating The royal wee: the world’s best bathrooms The most gay-friendly places on the planet Special anniversaries in 2015 Top places to feel like you’re in the future Top 10 wonders of the small-screen world Top 10 sheepish travel encounters for the Chinese Year of the Sheep Top 10 wonderful workouts around the globe Top 10 literary walking tours of the world Bait a hook: top 10 fishing spots around the world Disclaimer: My counting may not be 100% accurate, but there are unlikely to be any big inaccuracies.

Det høyrest ut som rein desperasjon. Og det er det. Men nauda lærer naken kall å selje tjall. Boka mi “198” kom ut 18. september. Det er over ein månad sidan. Og berre éi norsk medieverksemd, magasinet Reiseliv, har lese boka og vidareformidla sine tankar om ho i ei bokmelding. Som faktisk resulterte i terningkast 5. Det er eg kjempenøgd med. Men ingen andre? Sidan eg er rastlaus, utolmodig og dårleg til å slappe av prøver eg med dette på ufint vis å drastisk auke talet på slike. Det skal ikkje mykje til, berre ytterlegare éi bokmelding vil gje ei auke på 100%. Ei heil dobling. Det er sjølvsagt risiko involvert i å gjere noko slikt. Med ytterlegare fem bokmeldingar risikerer eg å gå ned frå eit nokså fint femmarsnitt til under to. For 5+1+1+1+1+1 = nesten 1,67. Litt må ein satse. Og femmaren gjev meg unekteleg sjølvtillit. Eg vil seie at det er usannsynleg å få fleire enn 50 bokmeldingar i Noreg. Sjølv om alle 49 andre gjev terningkast 1, så endar eg likevel opp med eit snitt på 1,08. Altså framleis over éin. (Det er ikkje lov med karakteren 0.) Om du driv ei medieverksemd er det berre å ta kontakt, så skal du får ei heil bok heilt gratis. Ho er på heile 500 sider, inkludert omslaget, og altså ganske omfangsrik. Det gjer at du i verste fall får gratis ved. Du har ikkje peisomn, seier du? Då skal du få ein rundbrennar med på gåva. Han hentast på Bislett. I hovudstaden. Det einaste eg ber om er ei bokmelding i retur. På ein eller annan allmenntilgjengeleg plattform som medieverksemda di publiserer til. Panikk? Hugsa eg å seie at eg i denne samanheng reknar publiserte bloggar, Twitter-meldingar og Instagram-bilete som medieutputt? Ja, sjølvsagt har eg panikk. Som ikkje-prisvinnande forfattardebutant er det ei neglebitande oppleving å gje ut bok. Den vanskelege førsteboka. Eg har ikkje peiling på korleis dette fungerer. På kva som skjer etter lanseringsturné til alle Noregs fylke på éin dag og etter boklanserings-frukost, -lunsj og -fest to dagar seinare. For å så oppleve det forlaget omtalar som eit bra opningssal. Men det hadde dei vel sagt uansett. For ikkje å risikere å trigge eventuell suicidal åtferd, tvangstankar eller nok eit besøk til alle verdas land. Og så viser norske boklesarar (dei som må ha stått for det gode opningssalet) seg så sjenerte eller høflige at dei ikkje seier kva dei meiner om det dei har lese. Skjønt det er kanskje heilt vanleg? Om du les eitt kapittel om dagen, så er du trass alt først ferdig med boka sånn cirka 4. april. I 2015. Nøl ikkje med å fortelje kva du meiner. Eg tåler det meste. Etter å ha jobba på slakteri og spelt fotball med Robert Holmen. Og mot grossistar av raude kort. Berre hugs emneknaggen #198mireise. Og om du legg ut eit Instagram-bilete av boka på ein spennande stad, med denne emneknaggen, så kan du vinne eit reisegåvekort på 1000 kroner frå forlaget mitt Samlaget. Eg har ti bøker å gje vekk. Men berre ein rundbrennar. Be om gratis bok her. Bokhandelen har óg bøker, om du ønskjer meir enn éi. Eg er usikker på rundbrennarar. Og om du ikkje driv noko mediemerksemd eller vil publisere noko bokmelding så vil eg gjerne høyre kva du tykte om boka likevel. På Twitter og Instagram (@garfors) eller via epost.