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In a sense then, Norway is a microcosm of all human civilization. Since the early days of humanity we've burned trees, peat, whale oil, petroleum, whatever we
by lastofthemojito 5y ago
In a sense then, Norway is a microcosm of all human civilization. Since the early days of humanity we've burned trees, peat, whale oil, petroleum, whatever we could, side effects be damned. And for most of that time, there's been no sustainable plan to move away from such consumption. At least Norway is now using their oil wealth to try to plot an alternative course forward. We're not there yet, but at least they're not pumping oil today AND acting like pumping oil is the future as well.
- tpmx 5y agoThis is how good their PR is! Maybe kidding.
- munk-a 5y agoI disagree - it isn't just in recent times that dumping waste into waterways that people consume has been discouraged. For most of human history we've been ignorant on how we're hurting ourselves through pollution, but as we've learned how harmful pollution can be we've worked to minimize it. Dying and leather curing was, for a large part of history, about the most toxic thing you could do and so those facilities were usually forced away from the most dense population centers - and sewers have been a thing for a loooong time. I think the first time folks realized that sending smoke up into the air might actually be harmful is when London started having ash clouds from industrialization, but that's just one sort of pollution. Humanity actually has a pretty good record for cutting in and regulating things that they know are harmful.