Tag Archives: Community

Plastic diet – for a toxin-free life – No026

2016-07-06 admin Leave a comment

There is a rising awareness of the effects of toxic chemicals in our lives and it is making people act. Tellus Think Tank speaks with Madeleine Norman, one of the pioneers in the growing “Plastic diet” movement. Members of the plastic diet movement want to rid their lives of toxic chemicals and perform “plastic diets” in their homes. Read more…
Text: Domi, Tellus Think Tank Photo: Madeleine Norman & AnnVixen

Plastic diet – rid your life from toxins

In Tellus Think Tank’s last article we met Åsa Arrhenius, PhD in Ecotoxicologi at the University of Gothenburg. We learnt about the hundreds of thousands of chemicals in our lives and we are getting exposed to them through what we buy and bring home; food, clothing, furniture, body products and household chemicals. Chemical substances like PVC, Phthalates, Bisphenol A are either carcinogenic, affect human fertility or cause allergies.

Ecotoxicology - Åsa Arrhenius Photo: AnnVixen — Read the Tellus Think Tank article about the toxins in our lives.

Public awareness is still low, or latent, and most people still lack awareness of the effects of the chemicals overflowing their lives and homes.

A new movement is slowly dawning and some of the pioneers can be found in the Facebook group “Plastic diet” (the actual Swedish name on Facebook is “Plastbanta”) where members share ideas on how to reduce the amount of plastic in their homes. For English readers the equivalent groups are the “No Waste groups”.

Madeleine Norman is one of the active plastic dieters in the group and has soon plastic dieted her entire home. For Madeleine it all started with a lecture in Environmental Sciences at Linköping University, five years ago.

Pregnant and toxic living

Madeleine was pregnant during her studies in Environmental Science and attended a lecture on biology, chemistry and climate change. After the lecture, she broke down in sobs under the weight of her newly found knowledge about the toxins in

Madeleine is one of the pioneers in "Plastic Dieting". — Madeleine is one of the pioneers in “Plastic Dieting”.

her everyday life. She was struck by an overwhelming worry of how the chemicals could be effecting her yet unborn child.

The lecture Madeleine attended had covered the subject of Bisphenol A’s effects on male fetuses. The chemical increases risk for male children to be born with damaged genital organs and can seriously affect men’s sperm production.

The realisation that this chemical and other harmful chemicals like PVC and Polyethylene Phthalates are to be found everywhere in our everyday lives became too much to bear and Madeleine began researching how she could adjust her life to contain less toxins.

Toxins everywhere

Madeleine’s quest started by finding out where the harmful chemicals, such as Polyethylene Phthalates, could be found. One unexpected place was in textile rainwear. The plastic in rain clothes has been hardened and normally doesn’t release plastic particles. However, when heated in a washing machine, the toxins are released into the water.

Modern water and waste treatment plants are not able to distinguish micro plastic particals from the water. In the first step the micro plastics are rinsed out into our lakes and seas. In the following steps of the ecosystem they are eaten by plankton, then fish, birds and humans. Madeleine says her University studies in Environmental Sciences taught the students about the increased amount of cancer found in fish.

The start of the Plastic diet

Toys are not made of plastic in Madeleines home. Photo: Madeleine Norman

Madeleine began with her plastic diet and says that she originally wanted to throw out all the plastic in her life. She and her man where just in the beginning of creating a home so they replaced all the plastic things that they could afford.

– “We googled everything. The bedroom was most difficult with the foam mattress and polyester quilts. Down comforters are a good alternative. We bought an organic mattress filled with a mixture of coconut and cotton from Green Interior. Jysk has pillows with cotton filling”, says Madeleine and continues, “for toddlers one can find mattresses stuffed with buckwheat shells. Friends of mine ordered Japanese futons stuffed with cotton. All options are relatively expensive compared with IKEA. ”

Madeleine shares insights from a survey performed by the Swedish Emergency Services which showed that IKEA furniture, during a fire, emits both formaldehyde and water toxins. She continues to tell me that she thinks IKEA does mostly good things in sustainability and highlights a good example where IKEA is offering a whole collection made of cork.

-It is good when large companies are motivated to increase sustainability, she says, because it affects so many!

Toxins in body care products

Homemade shampoo Photo: AnnVixen TellusThinkTank.com — Catch Madeleines recipes on homemade shampoo…

Another hurdle that Madeleine found was difficult to overcome were toxins found in various body care products. Nowadays she only uses “No’poo” products.
(“No’Poo” is a non-toxic movement, the name shows the combined struggle of “Not using shampoo” and reducing chemical crap in one’s life.) She often washes her hair in home-made mixtures of eggs, honey and baking soda (see Madeleines recipes). Madeleine also mentions organic shampoo cakes from LUSH. More on Madeleines homemade shampoo here…

Toxins in food and food packaging

Glass and metal dominates in Madeleines kitchen. Photo: Madeleine Norman

Grocery shopping often means bringing home an array of toxic plastic. Supermarkets often pack their foods in plastics containing Bisphenol A and almost all vegetables are placed in thin plastic bags to ease weighing and transportation. Paper bags are seldom available as an alternative.

Madeleine washes her fruits and vegetables as soon as she arrives home and keeps them in glass or metal containers. The downside with this practise is that the food doesn’t last as long as in plastic but that is a trade-off that she is willing to make. Madeleine prolongs the life of her cucumbers by storing them in a stainless steel container with a lid. In the summer she grows her own cucumber on the balcony, to avoid the plastic packed cucumber from the supermarkets.

Madeleine’s home and advice for people who want do their own “plastic diet”

Madeleine shares some advice to those who are interested in doing their own plastic diet. She recommends to start ones plastic diet the kitchen. She especially recommends changing out plastic wear that is heated – as this is when plastics emit particles and toxins. The first thing she recommends to remove are the pans with Teflon, plastic spatulas and the like.

-Buy Cast iron boilers or boilers in stainless steel or carbon steel. Ikea has sustainable alternatives. Replace your plastic water kettle with one made in stainless steel, says Madeleine.

She shares advice on cooking in the microwave oven. Many people heat their food in plastic containers. It is better to put the food on a china plate and to stop using the plastic splash guard all together.

In Madeleine’s home there are no plastic toys to be found. They use a lot of porcelain and glass. Food is stored in steel, glass and porcelain. We learn that her linoleum floors don’t contain plastic when looking this up in the book “Rumsrent”. According to this book linoleum contains linseed oil, rosin, wood flour or cork flour.

Much of Madeleines furniture is made of solid wood and has been purchased at flea markets. She guesses that the wood might have been lacquered with epoxy varnish, often containing Bisphenol. If a piece of furniture has been varnished Madeleine won’t remove it as the dry coat of varnish doesn’t release particles. However if she needs to treat a piece of furniture, she would rather use linseed oil than paint or varnish.

Plastics difficult to replace?

Vegetables are washed and placed in glass, porcelin or metal containers. Photo: Madeleine Norman — Vegetables are washed and placed in glass, porcelain or metal containers. Photo: Madeleine Norman

Madeleine says that it has been difficult for her to replace the foam mattress of her bed and they have still not been able to afford to do so.

It is certainly difficult to live without plastic altogether and Madeleine takes up the world of health care. Plastic tubes containing Bisphenol A are used for feeding premature infants, as the chemical soften the plastic probe. So far there are no alternatives to the Bisphenol softened plastic probes but Madeleine finds their use preferable as they make it possible to save the lives of infant children.

Madeleine reveals that she underwent surgery at age seven and was given a plastic implant. She reasons that if the plastic implant gives her cancer at the age of 50, it has nonetheless given her 40 years extra to live. Sometimes it is very easy to choose the plastic option.

Innovative plastic dieters impress

Socially Madeleine moves in circles where knowledge of the effect of plastic is high and several persons have done the plastic diet treatment on their homes. She guesses that the general public is less knowledgeable about the over-exposure to toxic substances from plastics and other stuff in our lives.

We discuss the “Plastic Diet”- and Zero Waste groups – on Facebook and Madeleine says that she is impressed and fascinated by how innovative people are. Some avoid paper handkerchiefs if in plastic packaging. Others buy their food in bulk to avoid plastic wrapped food (this is hardly possible in Sweden). There are also individuals that crochet their own cloths in linen to avoid micro fiber cloths.

How do you think Sweden should adapt its legislation on plastic?

-Sweden has a well developed system for waste collection, says Madeleine.

She still has a couple of improvements to suggest, such as that the public waste collection stations also should be open to more plastics than just plastic packaging. She is sure that this would give some quick improvements.

Most countries could stop plastic at its source by banning disposable plastic items like bags and packaging. (See article on Rwanda’s plastic ban)

Photo: AnnVixen — Read article about the admirable plastic ban in Rwanda…

A plastic ban of this kind would bring significant savings to municipalities. It would save costs from having to gather plastic garbage from streets. The large amount of plastics having to be handled in waste plants would be reduced. A plastic ban would also bring better public health.

What advice, in addition to the above, you want to give to people just starting off with their plastic diet?

-Don’t panic. I tried that when starting out with my plastic diet and it made me feel pretty bad. My advice is to use the plastic stuff that you have at home until it’s not fit for its purpose anymore. Make the better, plastic free choice next time. Change takes time! Smiles Madeleine Norman.

In Tellus Think Tank’s next article we meet Fäviken that has been awarded two Guide Michelin stars. The Fäviken food policy strives to serve locally produced food. Tellus Think Tank will sort out if that works when being located in the Northern wilderness of Sweden get notified when the article is available!

For a Sustainable Future Tellus Think Tank TellusThinkTank.com — © Tellus Think Tank

Challenges, Featured article, Inspiration

Australia and its sustainable population No021

2016-04-11 admin 2 Comments

A sustainable population. At the beginning of 2016 Australia reached a population of 24 million and worries where cabled over the Internet on how to handle the large population. It intrigued the team at Tellus Think Tank because the Australian continent, in size, is equal to the USA, Europe and China (with populations of 320 Million, 740 Million and 1,3 Billion). Why worries about the meagre 24 million? Text: Domi. Featuring photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg. Photo’s in article: Annika Hals Molnar & Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

We where lucky to get in contact with Sandra Kanck, President of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) for an on-line interview that turned out to be very interesting and enlightening. Tellus Think Tank normally strives to share inspiration on sustainable happenings around our globe, to be able to help people and societies chose a more sustainable path.

Our interview with Sandra showed challenges, some still without solutions – which can be inspiring to problem solvers. So let’s hope this interview shares some enlightenment and helps enhance problem solving in that force of friendly individuals that we know exists around the world!

Read more: The Growing Population of Earth.

Sandra Kanck, President of Sustainable Population Australia, March 2016.

Sandra, where were you brought up and what brought you to where you are today?

I grew up in Broken Hill, a rural city in outback Australia, and was the oldest of seven children. I learnt early on that my school friends who all came from smaller families had more money to go round. In my early 20’s I became involved in the anti-nuclear movement, and from that progressed to the peace movement and wider environment movement. From there it was a matter of joining the dots and finding the right group to join.

Australia has a arid and hot climate. Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

How was your connection to nature in an early age? Do you have any specific memory that sticks out?

Broken Hill was a town of 30,000 people surrounded by arid lands, where kangaroos and emus were common outside the city limits. The dry climate meant I occasionally experienced fierce dust storms, and I was brought up to understand the importance of conserving water.

You are the national president of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
What kind of an organisation is SPA and what does SPA stand for / aim for?

SPA was formed almost 30 years ago. We are not a political party, although a significant number of our members belong to at least seven different political parties to my knowledge. We are registered with the Australian Federal Government as a Registered Environment Organisation, which allows people who donate to us to claim tax deductibility for their donations. Our specific aims are set out in our constitution as follows:

SPA visions a relationship between humans and the natural environment which ensures the integrity and sustainability of the Earth’s life support systems, the on-going evolution of natural living systems and the well-being of every person in a sustainable population.

One of SPA's objectives is to promote urban and rural life-styles and practices that are in harmony with the realities of the Australian environment, its resource base and its biodiversity. Photo: Annika Hals Molnar — One of SPA’s objectives is to promote urban and rural life-styles and practices that are in harmony with the realities of the Australian environment, its resource base and its biodiversity. Photo: Annika Hals Molnar

The mission of SPA is to establish Australia as a global model of, and to assist other nations toward, a sustainable ecological life-support system, retention of species diversity and human wellbeing, by influencing public debate and policy with particular emphasis on population size.

How did you get engaged in SPA?

Sandra tellus us: Senator John Coulter employed me. We had worked together in the Conservation Council of South Australia prior to his being elected to parliament. He gave me a membership application form.

The country of Australia is equally as big as the USA (population 320 Million) and China (population 1.3 Billion) and Europe (population 740 million). The population of Australia has just reached a population of 24 Million. SPA and others in Australia are wording worries about the 24 million population of the Australia being to big.
Why is the, in comparison to demographics of other regions on Earth, small population of Australia something to be concerned about? Australia is still very sparsely populated in comparison?

Kangarou in Walpole with Artur Kurancinski 12662678_10153497494344220_5775926924040925267_n — The human footprint wreaks havoc on the natural Australian wildlife. Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

Sandra Kanck:
While Australia’s land mass is relatively large, so too are the environmental constraints:

Only six per cent of Australia’s land mass is capable of producing food, and that small amount is being trespassed on by urban sprawl as a consequence of population growth.
The climate is overall arid to semi-arid and impending climate change will exacerbate that.
The average altitude for the whole country is 330 metres, meaning that there are only a few areas where snow falls with subsequent spring melts.
Deserts predominate in central Australia where drought is the norm
Drought is the norm in many parts of Australia. Photo: Annika Hals Molnar

with no potable water sources.
Geologically, there has been no major uplifting, land building or glaciation for millennia, and the consequence is highly infertile soils with a very low soil profile of no more than 7cm in arid areas.
The poor soil has been extensively over-grazed. Introduced species such as cats, rabbits, foxes and cane-toads wreak havoc on the natural wildlife.

So Australia is a very arid country, has it not always been dry?

Yes, and to give an idea of the water problems facing Australia, it’s important

Lake Menindee in 2016, the grey-brown areas used to be the lake. Photo: Sandra Kanck

to understand that drought is the norm in most of the country. Droughts used to occur once in twenty years, but they now occur in six out of ten years. Major flooding used to occur once every 5-7 years, but now occur every 14 years.

Australia’s major river is actually a cluster of 23 rivers in what is known as the Murray-Darling Basin. By European standards it is little more than a stream. Although the basin and its tributaries spread over one-seventh of the continent, the annual flow is equivalent to less than a day’s flow of the Amazon. Of the rain falling on the basin 94% evaporates. The basin still produces 40% of Australia’s agricultural produce.

But while Australians are so very dependent on that river system, a 2014 study from Australia’s major science organisation, the CSIRO, predicted a worsening of this situation with a reduction of rainfall in this region of up to 70% by 2070 because of climate change.

Meanwhile, at the present time in Australia, a 400 km stretch of the Murray River has been subject to an algal bloom due to slow-moving water and high temperatures, making that water toxic for human and animal consumption. The algal bloom normally resolves with cooler weather but each year the algal bloom outbreaks are more frequent, more extensive and last longer.

At the same time the southern-most state of Tasmania, which has long prided itself on being energy self-sufficient by using hydro-electricity, has found itself in a crisis situation where the dams that feed the water to produce electricity are at less than 17% of their capacity.

What is the root cause of the sustainability problems in Australia – is it only the growing population?

Melbourne 12321246_10153613879719220_6622038748227765337_n — Australia has a fragile environement…. Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

Sandra gives us some facts: Basically the problem is a fragile environment, which can sustain no more than 23 million people according to The Australian Academy of Science. Some estimates set the sustainable level at a much lower figure of 7 million. Whichever of the two figures is correct, at a population of 24 million we have gone beyond Australia’s environmental limits.

What is the main reason for growth of the population?

Over more than a century, successive Australian governments have actively campaigned to increase Australia’s population, and particularly to increase immigration. Until very recently, 60% of the population growth has come from immigration and 40% from natural increase. In the last two years that has altered to a 55%/45% ratio, due in part to a pro-natalist policy introduced a decade ago called the ‘Baby Bonus’.

What would happen if the population of Australia grows, according to some forecasts, to 33 million by 2050? What problems would be directly visible due to the population growth? And indirectly?

Sandra tells it as she sees it:
Directly attributable to population growth:

If global warming continues saline waters might make its way into estuaries and fresh water rivers of Australia. Photo: Hanna Sjöberg.

Increased demands for water. Lowering of water tables. Reduced water flow in major rivers including an increase in algal blooms. Increased demands for food production. Declining fish stocks. An increase in the infrastructure deficit. Shortage of affordable housing. Enormous waste management problems. Ingress of saline waters into estuaries and rivers. Increased urban traffic congestion with associated reduction in air quality and an increased demand for fuel. Loss of open space and biodiversity habitat. Urban pressures on agricultural land.

Indirectly: the backlog of infrastructure maintenance will further increase; social dysfunction and political instability related to economic inequalities; possible racial tensions

How will Australia have to do cope with problems arising from a growing population…

The business lobby has convinced the two major political parties that growth

is good, and so they do not see problems arising, and therefore have no solutions.

What would SPA prefer to be the current (year 2016) action?

Acknowledgement from government that there will be big problems in the future has to be first step. Until that happens a conversation about what we need to do is all but impossible.

According to some people – SPA is a racist organisation – what would be your response to this?

I would tell them they are speaking nonsense. SPA has consistently called for a significant increase in our humanitarian (refugee) intake, cutting our immigration intake to allow this to happen. The source of refugees is generally from politically unstable areas in the Middle East and Africa. If we were racist we would set out to exclude them rather than encourage an increase in their numbers.

If the global warming continues it has been predicted that large movement of people over the globe would become a reality, as many will be in search of better living conditions with fresh water etc. If the climate warming continues would people be moving to or from Australia do you think?

Sandra shares insights from the region:
Leaders of some Pacific nations have already indicated that they will want to

The Pacific Nations of Micronesia according to truepacificdotcom. Hold about 40 million inhabitants incl Australia and NZ and Papua New Guinea. — The Pacific Nations of Micronesia according to truepacificdotcom. Hold about 40 million inhabitants incl Australia and New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

move to Australia. The Australian Government announced at the COP-21 climate change talks that is has allocated $1bn to Pacific nations for adaptive purposes. I believe they think by doing this it will stop them from emigrating. One other choice, in the region, would be New Zealand, as I do not expect they would want to move to another developing nation such as Papua-New Guinea.

Examples of Pacific Nations in trouble because of Global Warming are the Pacific Nation of Tuvalu, with a shrinking population. Inhabitants are emigrating to avoid effects such rising sea-levels, cyclones and high waves. The highest ground on the islands is 4 meters (12 feet) above sea level.

Do you have a view on how the world in general should be handling
The Global increase in population and the increase in migration between regions on earth – due to Global Warming making living regions useless to live in due to the climate change?

In the BBC documentary How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? Sir

Read more about vertical greenhouses... — Read more about vertical greenhouses…a technology for a sustainable future.

David Attenborough commented: “humanity needs to reduce its impact on planet Earth urgently. And there are three ways to achieve this. We can stop consuming so many resources and we can change our technology. We can also reduce the growth of our population. We probably need to do all three.”

I think that says it all, the question is how to make governments recognise this and act accordingly.

3 Articles on tech and lifestyles that can enhance sustainable living:
Greenhouse Skyscrapers Cars and traffic of the Future About alternative ways of living.

SPA is lobbying the Australian Government to redirect more funds to family

planning and contraception in its foreign aid budget. We believe there is nothing more crucial than directly intervening to provide this particular form of assistance to the millions of women in developing nations who seek it.

While we agree with aid organisations giving priority to the education of women and girls, we keep working to get these groups to understand that this method will take a generation to bring about the necessary changes, whereas contraception and family planning almost immediately empower women.

Environmental refugees are not recognised in the Refugee Convention, and the UN should be looking at this. Without that recognition, no signatory countries would have any obligation to take in environmental refugees.

Do you see any light in the tunnel?

Is there hope in the tunnel? Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg — Is there light in the tunnel? Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

What hope do you see for the world? What can globally be done to increase the possibility of living in better harmony with nature?

SPA members are very pessimistic about what the future holds. We see a

A Malthusian future ahead... Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg — A Malthusian future ahead… Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

Malthusian future ahead of us given that so many indicators of collapse are coming together at the same time such as population increase, climate change, peak oil (and other resources) and economic instability and with no forward planning by governments.

US environmentalist Ernest Callenbach’s four laws of ecology state: “All things are interconnected. Everything goes somewhere. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Nature bats last.”

Nature will assert itself, we will be given little say, and it will not be kind.

Tellus Think Tank thanks Sandra Kanck for helping us understand

Help Tellus Think Tank share sustainable ways to the future. Photo: Hanna Isabelle Sjöberg

the challenges of Australia and how they are interconnected with the challenges of the Pacific Nations and the rest of the world. Tellus Think Tank, being for a sustainable future, is hoping solutions will be found that will help handle the growing population on Earth. Do you have any ideas or sustainable happenings that you would like to share, send us a message!

Next article: We meet a Swedish animal breeder and farmer – with 50 years experience of building an “eco-dynamic” practise. Click here to be notified…

Picture 100 autonomous self driving volvo cars on streets soon No020

2016-03-23 admin Leave a comment

Autonomous cars. You might be wondering why Tellus Think Tank, wannabe world saver, is caring so much about the future of vehicles? Currently cars pollute our air, cause huge carbon dioxide emittances, are loud and limiting to lively outdoor urban communities. The Tellus Think Tank team looks towards the future of vehicles to find a better more people friendly way of conducting our daily traffic. We are visiting Gothenburg – a city soon equipped with 100 self driving autonomous cars! Text: Domi, Tellus Think Tank. Photo: AnnVixen

More inspiration on moving lives and communities of our planet into sustainable boundaries!

What is the big deal with autonomous cars?

Self driving autonomous cars may seem weird or scary to some and inspiring and exciting to others.

Imagine some of these scenarios of what could be possible for the future of transportation – when only self driving autonomous cars are in traffic:

It’s 08.00 and you are getting ready to leave home to go to work. You ask your mobile wrist phone to send a car, tell it how many people will be travelling and where you are going…you are going to work, on your own and want the fast, cheaper and comfortable commuter train to take you the largest part of the way.
The central traffic system sends you a message that an autonomous taxi for one person will arrive at your doorstep within 2 minutes to take you to the commuter station. This is exactly what happens. You arrive at the station with two minutes margin and easily catch the quiet commuter train to the city and arrive at work on time.The cost of travelling is deducted from your account. When you left the car at the station drop-off zone the central traffic system sent the car directly to a new assignment. There are no visible parking spaces around the commuter station but you feel at ease with that as you will have an autonomous taxi pick you and your spouse up at the commuter station on your way home.
Your 12 year old twins and four neighbourhood children have football practice this
Future scenario: No cars in streets – more room for children. Foto: AnnVixen

evening and at their request an autonomous electrical minibus picks them up to take them to the field together.
You and your family of 5 are visiting your parents, about 1.5 hour drive from your home. The autonomous taxi gets you there safely, cleaner and faster to your destination by joining a car convoy on the autonomous-only highway. You and your family are using the travel time to engage in the game of monopoly that you brought with you for the ride.
Road signs were taken down years ago, as autonomous traffic relies on online data
Future scenario: Traffic signs have been taken down… Photo: AnnVixen

from the central traffic system. There are no cars parked in the streets. Your community is discussing if the overcapacity of the local streets could be turned into a community urban farm, make room for a new sportsfield or more houses. Or would all three options be possible?
It is even cheaper to use the autonomous self driving local buses, they run silently, fast and safe. Even though it is raining you don’t mind walking 5 minutes to the indoor bus station where the buses come in with a high frequency, and you enjoy the ride down to the supermarket or to the gym down the road.
You dare send your 5 year old across the street to ask for a cup of sugar, it is safe as the autonomous cars that might be passing will be aware of your child’s presence. Before dinner your children will be biking in the street for an hour, playing with their friends.
Traffic is quiet. You stand on your toes and peek over the high fence at the back of
Peeking onto the quiet self-driving motorway of the future. Photo: VincentVixen

your garden to look out over the peak hour traffic of the motorway – hundreds of cars are passing and you didn’t hear them once – forgot they were there, did you?
You normally sleep with your windows open and are woken only by the song of the birds.

I hope that these scenarios give an insight as to how important electrical and self driving cars are – and what all the fuss is about – they will shape our future way of living.

So what is being done to move society towards the traffic of the future?

Is the car industry on track to making the future happen?

The ascent of the autonomous car might be the descent of the larger car industry and the car producers are keen to be in the first line of the autonomous car development as the earliest marketed autonomous cars might be the market winners of the future.

Many of us have heard or read about the Google Car trials in fair weathered Mountain View in California. In my online research I find that Google is also performing trials both in the hotter climate of Austin in Texas and in Kirkland, a suburb to the rainy and snowy city of Seattle in Washington state – all three trial areas are found in the USA.

You might also have read that the United Kingdom is requesting that Google Cars are introduced to trials in the streets of London.

Exactly how Google is planning to commercialise their car trials is not clear yet however John Krafcik, former CEO of Hyundai and TrueCar and by some called a “car guy”, was recently recruited to the role as CEO of Google Cars.

Marcus Rothoff is the Autonomous Driving Program Director and head of implementation of Volvos self driving cars. Photo: Volvo Cars

I turn to Swedish run Volvo Cars as they are planning the largest real customer trials with 100 autonomous cars running on real streets in the urban area of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Taking the seven scenarios of self driving cars into consideration Marcus Rothoff must currently have one of the coolest jobs in the world – Autonomous Driving Program Director and head of implementation of Volvos self driving cars. He smiles and nods in agreement and humbly says it is very inspiring to be able to work in an area that might just change the way we live in the future.

According to Marcus all major car manufacturers are currently looking at the autonomous car development, to mention some: Audi, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW, Tesla, Nissan, Toyota, Renault, Ford, GM.

Online rumours say that Apple are doing something too, as they are hiring one thousand engineers in the area of autonomous cars, but nobody seems to know exactly what they are up to.

The eight scenarios above of fully autonomous traffic is still far away. How far down the autonomous track will the first cars on the market reach?

DriveMe is an autonomous car project run in cooperation between Volvo Cars, Gothenburg City, Swedish government agencies and Chalmers University of Technology

Lars-Bertil Ekman, CEO of the City of Gothenburg. Photo: City of Gothenburg

The Swedish DriveMe trial is a project built on a unique collaboration between parties that CEO of Gothenburg City, Lars-Bertil Ekman, calls academia, industry and community.

The parties are Gothenburg City, the Swedish Transport Administration (vägverket), Chalmers University of Technology, Autoliv and Volvo Cars.

Marcus Rothoff is also Götethe project manager of the DriveMe project and plans to be placing 100 self driving cars on trial on the streets of Gothenburg in 2017.

-The city of Gothenburg is participating in the DriveMe-project as we want to remove the overpowering amount of cars from the city core, says Lars-Bertil Ekman.

We want to find better parking solutions for the city and clear public spaces such as streets and squares from cars and make them available to bicycles and pedestrians which will make streets more lively. Read more about this urban trend: Stockholm turns traffic pyramid upside down.

The quay's of Gothenburg are filled with parked cars. Photo: AnnVixen — The quay’s of Gothenburg are filled with parked cars. Photo: AnnVixen

Lars-Bertil talks about keeping cars in the city center but adjusting parking to the pre-requisites of the autonomous self driving cars. Autonomous cars could be packed tighter than today in buildings with lower ceilings, less lighting and wouldn’t need to be located in the very centre or even above ground as humans would very seldom would be entering the parking building.

Lars-Bertil’s parking vision for the city is still far away though, especially as the DriveMe-project will initially not be running cars in self driving mode in the city but rather on the motorways.

Volvo Cars asked drivers what part of the driving they liked the least and would wish to be rid of. The almost unanimous answer was commuter driving in queues to and from work. The DriveMe-project is therefo

Drivers like commuter traffic the least. Photo: AnnVixen — Drivers of Volvo cars like commuter traffic the least. Photo: AnnVixen

re focusing their first autonomous trials on motorways so that drivers can do other things when travelling.

Marcus and I engage in what happens when the human driver hands over the control to the car. Marcus says it has to be very clear who is in control and that there should be no unclarity here, either it is the driver or it is the car. The biggest risks are when handing the control back and forward it seems. Marcus gives me a morning scenario:

“You get in your Volvo and tell the navigator your destination and start the drive to work. You manoeuvre the car up on to the motorway where you ask the car to take over. It considers circumstances like weather, reported traffic incidents and checks that the road is equipped with a barrier between you and meeting traffic and then takes over. The car informs you that it would like to give the control back to you in eight minutes which gives

Volvo Self-Driving panel. Photo: Volvo Cars

you a two minute margin to take over before you arrive at the motorway exit by your workplace. During these eight minutes you pick up your computer, read, send a few emails and are ready to take back the controls when the car says it is time”.

I ask what happens it the driver doesn’t take over when the car requests to hand back the control and learn that the car then goes into “safety mode”. The car manoeuvres itself to the closest safe parking space so that you can take over the controls again when it suits you.

Autonomous cars, here and autonomous volvo. — Go ahead and read a document, as the self-driving car gets you closer to work. Photo: Volvo Cars

This gives you time to finish sending your emails or your phone call.

Volvos first autonomous self driving cars will be Plug-in Hybrids with an electrical range of 40 kilometers, the fuel part will be petrol fuelled. Marcus says that most people have their workplace within 40 kilometers of their home. It will also be possible to choose when to run the car on the electric drive or petrol. All Volvo Cars are built on fuel efficient 4-cylinder engines since a couple of years back and have even won prizes such as the Volvo SUV that was appointed SUV of the year in US, 2015.

The trial, where Volvo will lend 100 real customers a self driving car, will be running on real streets in the Gothenburg region from 2017. Marcus says it is important that the 100 trial drivers use the cars differently but frequently so that as much data as possible can be gathered during the trial period. Google Cars already communicate having 1 million miles of test data.

The period up until the start of the Volvo DriveMe trial will focus on developing the most

The City of Gothenburg if supporting Multi-disciplinary projects to enhance traffic of the future. Photo: AnnVixen

safe self driving car possible and the trial itself is considered to be a period to gather evidence that the car is really safe.

We hope to have the first self driving Volvo cars on market by 2020! Says Marcus Rothoff. And 2020 is also the year that Volvo has set as a goal for their vision of zero lethal accidents in a Volvo car which I find to be a very inspiring goal, lets hope they make it!

Multi-disciplinary traffic systems

Often when talking about the development of the future we understand that by mixing disciplines we can go much further than if we did not – read about Plantagon – planning Urban Farming of the future.

When introducing self driving cars on roads they will not only be self driving at times but guided by information from a central traffic system.

The City of Gothenburg, Volvo Cars and buses, Autoliv, the Swedish Traffic Autorities are cooperating in different constelations to enhance traffic of the future. Photo: AnnVixen — The City of Gothenburg, Volvo Cars and buses, Autoliv, the Swedish Transport Administration and Chalmers University of Technology are cooperating in different constellations to enhance traffic of the future. In frame, the Gothenburg Bus Rapid Transit test. Photo: AnnVixen

Developing self driving autonomous cars and central traffic systems to guide them will include disciplines like technical development, digital development, human psychology, interaction between humans and machines, artificial intelligence, community development, traffic statistics, incident- and accident statistics, safety, legal systems to mention a few.

The high complexity of multiple disciplines when introducing self driving autonomous cars and developing the traffic systems of the future is a very good reason for this not to be an area solely developed by car manufacturers, or only by men (which is often the case today).

The most challenging period is still ahead. It will be when two traffic systems (manual driving and autonomous driving) have to be run in parallel. The current traffic system is based on humans driving cars with guidance from signs etc. In parallel autonomous cars will be on the street, not needing street sign guidance, but will have to deal with them too. Double systems will mean double costs for a period. Driving might first become more expensive before it gets cheaper. Hopefully society can make a fast transition by phasing out “the old system of manually driven cars”.

Watch film on the coming autonomous self-driving cars by Volvo

The DriveMe project, as Lars-Bertil Ekman told us, is unique. There are many parties cooperating in developing a future traffic system for the Volvo self driving cars. The Swedish Transport Administration, one of the parties, is also involved in both national investigations and an international cooperation with the purpose of laying the foundation for future international traffic guidelines for autonomous self driving cars.

Another party involved in the DriveMe project is Chalmers University of Technology that runs about 20 sub projects with articulately defined deliveries, fitted in size to fit PHD students heading towards a doctor degree.

We have seen that cooperation between community, industry and academia can be very successful – check out the four Tellus Think Tank articles on Newcastle – which makes me believe that the Volvo DriveMe project will be laying some very important parts for the foundation of the traffic systems of the future!

Next week: We start an investigation on organic food, first talk will be with a passionate breeder of pigs, if your are interested in what you are eating you might find this article interesting!
Click here to be notified when Tellus Think Tank’s next article is available – investigating inspiring sustainable happenings around the world!

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The green car fleet of Stockholm City is on descent – making the city more sustainable No017

2016-03-02 admin Leave a comment

Stockholm is the largest city in Sweden and its population is estimated to grow by 15% during the next 8 years. The City Council is, in spite of the population growth, decreasing its vehicle fleet and still planning to keep the inhabitants happy! Read more about the plan…

Stockholm city has a population of 900 000, in the 1,8 million Stockholm county. The city employs over 40 000 people to provide the service needed by Stockholmers and companies and owns 800 cars!

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK…read

The current traffic situation is already strained and inhabitants of the county are daily squeezing in subways, commuter trains and car queues, the region is undergoing rapid expansion. According to the prognosis Stockholm city will be

Stockholms green car fleet. Photo: AnnVixen

growing by 15% in the next eight years. By 2024 the city will have another 140 000 citizens, also in need of transport, putting further strain the city traffic situation.

Stockholm politicians are aware and cooperating to make a change. The current City Hall majority, a coalition between the Social Democrats, the Green Party, the Left Party and the Feminist Initiative have ambitious plans for a more sustainable city – see last week’s article in Tellus Think Tank.

Johan Seuffert is Fleet Manager for Stockholm City and responsible for the vehicle fleet strategy of the city. Johan says that Stockholm City is positive to growth but that many new residential homes need to be added to an already dense city. He says that it will be an important task to adjust the cityscape to the growing population.

-Car traffic is becoming a question of democracy, he explains, as a car needs at least 6 square meters compared to public transport busses with 40 passengers that only need 40 square meters. Busses are very seldom parked and don’t cram city streets.

Johan Seuffert, Fleet Manager for City of Stockholm. Photo: AnnVixen

Johan Seuffert reasons in similar lines as Stockholm City Traffic commissioner Daniel Helldén, when saying that it could be considered unfair that cars are covering the cityscape at the cost of public transport, cyclists and pedestrians. Read more.

There are several reasons that the City wants to prioritise pedestrian-, cyclist- and public transport traffic:

Cars take a considerable amount of the cityscape, space that could be used to more sustainable traffic such as bicycle lanes, bicycle parking, sidewalks, bus lanes or even more residential homes.
The cost of parking spaces when building new homes are making both streets and new residential quarters more expensive.
The environmental reasons as equally important, fossil fuelled cars emit greenhouse gases and poisonous particles from fumes and tyres. They are the reason behind much of the sound pollution of the city.

Stockholm wants to increase the sustainability of the city. Johan Seuffert, what plans do you have for the 800 cars in the city vehicle fleet?

Stockholms city has several ambitious targets!

100% environmentally classed cars in the fleet

This target is not new and today 98 % of the 800 cars can be sorted under the Swedish national definition of

Park your car on top of the induction charger and be ready to go within three hours! Photo: AnnVixen

environmental vehicles.

There are some exceptions that have had to be made, Johan tells me, and mentions some emergency vehicles as the lake ice-plough used to clear snow for skaters. It has an emergency exit in the roof!

Johan Seuffert tells me that Stockholm, in all other cases try to adjust the fleet to the national environmental definition which the city, undeniably, has succeeded well with!

Tellus Think Tank has in earlier articles written about research that led to the sorting of diesel emissions under carcinogenic substances. Read more in the article about Urban Foresight. The Swedish national environmental definition still includes diesel fuelled cars as it has not been adjusted for a couple of years. However, Stockholm city only keeps a small amount of diesel fuelled vehicles in their fleet of 800.

The Stockholm City environmentally classed car fleet is allocated like this:

Petrol fuelled 2.5%
Diesel fuelled 5.8%
Plug-in hybrids 7.3%
Electrical / fuel hybrids 9.8%
Electrical vehicles 11.2%
Ethanol fuelled 16.9%
Gas fuelled 44.2%

Johan Seuffert show Tellus Think Tank how the induction charging device works like the instruction panel in a car wash "drive forwards". Photo: AnnVixen — Johan Seuffert show Tellus Think Tank how the induction charging device works like the instruction panel in a car wash “drive forwards”. Photo: AnnVixen

Johan, with his vast experience of vehicle procurement, says:

-There is a good supply of electrical vehicles up to medium size, such as a Volkswagen “Golf”.

Cars in a larger category such as electrically fuelled service vans with a longer range are not currently available. Therefore the city has had to find alternatives such as gas fuelled vans until better options are available.

One reason that the amount of electrical vehicles in the present fleet is relatively low is because the city is reducing the amount of cars and choosing to use the them for a longer period. Consequently the city is currently buying less cars which is both economically and sustainably beneficial!

Fuel targets. Stockholm has set fuel targets to encourage employees to tank with renewable fuels such as gas or ethanol. There is a bi-annual follow up on all fleet vehicles.

Increase electrical vehicles. Stockholm has set a goal to increase the portion of electrical vehicles by 2% a year.

Smaller electrical vehicle - drives 210 km's after a three hour charge. Photo: AnnVixen — Smaller electrical vehicle – drives 210 km’s after a three hour charge. Photo: AnnVixen

Not accounted for in the numbers above are the electrically charged “golf club cars” that the city uses for property and park maintenance

Stockholm fossil free 2030. Stockholm city has set an overall target, in accordance with the Swedish national target, to be fossil free by 2030. Johan explains that big changes will have to be made, all vehicles of certain types with a 10 year lifespan will have to be electrical from 2020. He mentions large trucks as an example.

What else is Stockholm doing to make the fleet greener?

Blue Kangoo Service car, one charge gives a range of 170 km's. Photo: AnnVixen — Blue Kangoo Service car, one charge gives a range of 170 km’s. Photo: AnnVixen

Reducing the vehicle fleet. The city is purchasing less new cars and encouraging employees to walk, cycle, use public transport or carpools. Thanks to the initiative the city has been able to reduce the amount of cars in the fleet with 400 vehicles since 2007.

Encouraging increased movement by foot, cycle and public transport. The City is actively encouraging employees to walk, cycle and use public transport in the line of duty.

The City is joining car-pools. Johan says that several city departments have joined a car-pool (Sunfleet). The car-pool owns the cars and civil servants and other customers handle their own reservations, pick-ups or drop-offs through a mobile App.

-The beauty in this system is that city employees use the car-pool vehicles during office hours and private individuals are the main customers at other times. It’s a perfect example of effectively used vehicles as they are seldom unused and serve several people’s needs instead of just one, says Johan.

What other car fleet improvements can we see ahead?

Stockholm City will continue the work of reaching current targets and increase the amount of car-pool usage. Johan foresees that new types of vehicles could come in use and mentions electrical bicycles or smaller electrical vehicles such as Renault Tweezy or Toyota iRoad. These two vehicles are still very new and untested by the city.

With Johan’s vast knowledge I ask him for his view: Are there are any excuses left for a private person, in order to buy a new car, not to choose an electrical car?

-The question is if one should buy a car at all? It would be better if we could all use the alternatives; public transport, car-pools, walking and cycling. If one needs to go on a road-trip then one can rent a car for the specific trip.

I think to myself that what sounds radical today might be normal in everyone’s life in a couple of years. At the end of this interview I am feeling happy as my city, Stockholm, is moving in the right sustainable direction!

Next week: We meet 20 people from around the world to hear what they are doing to save our planet! Let us notify you when the article is available, click here!

Featured article, Inspiration

Stockholm turns traffic pyramid up side down – No016

2016-02-24 admin Leave a comment

Stockholm, capital of Sweden, is often called “Queen of Lake Malaren” and considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. However, the once lively street life is being intruded upon by the growing amount of cars. To improve the situation Stockholm is turning the traffic pyramid upside down by prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. Join Tellus Think Tank and meet the Stockholm City Commissioner of Traffic, Daniel Helldén! Text: Domi, Tellus Think Tank, 2016-02-25 Photo: AnnVixen

Bathing in on of Stockholms lakes. Photo: AnnVixen

I grew up in Stockholm and love this city for several reasons! It’s not only a beautiful city, close to nature, but it’s the place where I went swimming during the summer, my parents taught me to bicycle and I spent most of my work life. Now I am watching my own children grow up here.

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK…read

The city has changed a lot since my friends and I played in the calm streets of our neighborhood, with no cars present. We played tag, jumped with skipping-ropes, played land hockey and climbed trees!

The children of today have little room left to play as the streets are full to the brim with parked cars and aren’t safe with bypassing traffic. Consequently, children play more indoors and often with their computers, a situation shared by children in urban societies all over the globe.

A while back Tellus Think Tank met David Beeton, founder of Urban Foresight. The British company helps cities plan for a more sustainable future traffic situation. After this meeting we wondered about what was being done to improve traffic in our own hometown, Stockholm.

Read about David Beeton and Urban Foresight here!

This week Tellus Think Tank meets with Daniel Helldén, the current City Commissioner of Traffic in Stockholm and elected as a representative of the Green party of Sweden.

Next week: We meet Stockholm City Fleet Manager, Johan Seuffert, would you like us to notify you when the article is available, click here.

City of Stockholm – Queen of Lake Malaren

Stockholm from a Google Earth perspective.

Stockholm was founded on the Island of Gamla Stan over 700 years ago. The island is one of many in a cluster of islands in the eastern part of lake Malaren. The region has since grown and the city is now spread over several islands and onto the mainlands north and south of the lake.

The region has a population of 1.8 million people. Daniel Helldén represents the most central part of the city with 900 000 inhabitants. Stockholm is growing rapidly and estimates show that the central parts will be expanded with another 140 000 inhabitants during the next eight years.

The traffic situation of Stockholm is challenging, a situation shared with many other cities. Cars often

Peak hour traffic in Stockholm. Photo: AnnVixen

dominate the cityscape and the character of the city. At times cars and buses stand still in the daily traffic queues. Peak hour traffic is expanding over a longer period as more people drive their car to work and try to avoid the queues by leaving earlier or later. On Friday afternoons weekend traffic starts as early as 13.00 PM.

Daniel Helldén, City Commissioner of Traffic, is responsible for all roads, pavements and bicycle paths in the city. The regional council, another organisation, is responsible for the public transport vehicles.

Daniel Helldén, thank you for meeting Tellus Think Tank and our readers! You have been Stockholms City Commissioner of Traffic since the elections in the autumn of 2014. What were your initial ambitions for improving sustainability of the traffic situation in Stockholm?

Stockholm is turning the traffic pyramid upside down! Picture: City of Stockholm

My ambition was and still is to improve the sustainability of Stockholm which demands many changes in the infrastructure of the city, so that traffic by foot, bicycle or public transport is prioritized instead of car traffic. There is a common understanding about this that is shared by all parties in Stockholm. I would really like to make a difference in this area, which will include decreasing traffic by car and contributing to the Swedish national climate targets.

What are the biggest challenges in the Stockholm traffic situation, from a sustainability perspective?

The amount of cars is a large problem, from two main perspectives:

Cars emit both poisonous particles and greenhouse gases.
The amount of cars in the city corks traffic, extends commuting time and also claims a lot of living space that could have been used better.

The amount of cars in Stockholm today makes the city unavailable, not just for drivers but also for bicyclists and people on buses. The space that cars claim when driving and parking could be used for bicycle paths, bus lanes to enhance the speed of commuter traffic and for cleaner pedestrian paths.

We would like to improve the living space of the city so that traffic flows better, people can spend time outside and walk or take their bicycle to work.

What progress has been made during your first year as City Commissioner of traffic?

Daniel Helldén looks a bit surprised and I realise that my question comes early in the change process,

The new commuter ferry of Stockholm! Photo: AnnVixen

what changes can be achieved in just a year? Daniel has some early improvements to share, either implemented or in the planning stage. Daniel talks about a general understanding between all political parties in Stockholm, however other people say that “the Greens” are very driving in matters of improving the sustainability of the city.

New boat line. Today, says Daniel proudly, is the opening of our new commuter boat line that runs between two of Stockholm’s central islands. Now pedestrians and bicyclists need not walk miles around the waters of the central city but can instead use the city’s new boat line! The boat line is the result of cooperation between the County Council and Stockholm City.

Bicycle path infrastructure expansion. Stockholm city is focusing investments worth 100 million

Daniel Helldén and Norrmälarstrand - being adjusted for bicycle traffic. Photo: Domi — Daniel Helldén and Norrmälarstrand – being adjusted for bicycle traffic. Photo: Domi

Euros on expanding the bicycle path infrastructure and making it safer. Several roads and parking places are being removed from the city because of bicycle path expansions – Daniel mentions streets such as Norrmälarstrand, Skanstullsbron and other areas under planning.

Increasing the speed of public buses. Because of the amount of traffic and cars parked in the streets the average speed of public buses is currently only 11 km/h! Several steps have been made to increase their speed such as more bus lanes and changing intersection traffic signs and directions so that cars don’t slow down the bus traffic. Some roads have been closed to private cars all together.

Dagisbarn i Vasastan — More room for city dwellers in Stockholm? Photo: AnnVixen

Increasing pedestrian areas. During the summer of 2015 experiments were made to try and increase the street life in the city and two streets were closed off to traffic, Swedenborgsgatan and Skånegatan. The purpose was to increase livability and street life of the areas involved and create more sustainable spaces for city dwellers.

We find the developments that Daniel has spoken of so far are inspiring and interesting and see how they could help lift the quality of living in Stockholm.

What will Stockholm do to improve sustainability of the traffic situation further?

Continued investigations. Several ongoing investigation will lead to a more sustainable traffic situation for the inhabitants in the expanding city and will help Stockholm move towards improved public transport, pedestrian- and bicycle traffic.

Increasing the possibility of street life in the city during the summer of 2016. Being wiser from the experiments during the summer of 2015 Stockholm will close even more streets to traffic during the summer of 2016. Daniel mentions areas that might be affected: Swedenborgsgatan, side streets to Biblioteksgatan, Humlegårdsgatan, Rörstrandsgatan and Skånegatan might be on the list again.

Stockholm is moving towards more lively cityscape! Pic: Stockholm City

Parking strategy. Another thing that Daniel believes will improve sustainability is the city parking

strategy being developed. He hopes the formal decisions will be made during the summer of 2016. The strategy will most probably suggest implementing parking fees in the more central suburbs of Stockholm.

Why are parking fees needed in the suburbs?

-Implementing parking fees will, for one thing, help increase the flow of traffic in the city but there are several positive effects expected, he expands his reasoning:

The current urbanisation process is making Stockholm grow rapidly and the building of new dwellings such as apartment houses needs to continue to house the expanding population. By decreasing the amount of parking in conjunction with new estates costs of building can be lowered and the space can be used for bicycle garages, car pools or even more residential homes.

However, when new estates are built without parking lots the risk is that cars are parked on the streets instead. This leads to a slower traffic pace and less space for pedestrians, bicyclists and public transport. Introducing a fee on street parking promotes use of public transport and bicycles.

It seems like there are many good initiatives going on to improve the sustainability of the Stockholm traffic. Daniel, which three initiatives would you prioritise during this term, 2014- 2018?

We would really like to see big improvements on the bicycle path infrastructure and see broader
Skånegatan in Stockholm was made into a pedestrian area during the summer of 2015. Photo: AnnVixen

bicycle paths be implemented on streets with many bicyclists. We want Stockholms bicycle infrastructure to feel safe, all year around and have a plan to make it happen!
We’d like to see Stockholm street life and cityscape become more lively during the summers as an effect of closing of car traffic in certain areas and implementing a pedestrian plan for the city.

We want to increase the average speed of public buses from 12 to 20 km/h. It doesn’t sound much but is an ambitious project. I would like Stockholmers to trust that public transport will get them to their destination on time.

Tellus Think Tank thanks Daniel Helldén for an inspiring meeting. We hope that Stockholm is able to continue on the path towards more sustainable traffic situation that makes a more lively cityscape possible. The Stockholm approach to the traffic pyramid might change the city in ways we would never have thought off!

Next week: We meet a civil servant of Stockholm, in charge of the city car fleet! What is done to increase the sustainability of the car fleet without having to decrease citizen service – would you like us to notify you when the article is available, click here.

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Are there alternative ways of living our lives? The people of Skattungbyn are trying different options! No015

2016-02-17 admin 1 Comment

Last week we had the pleasure of investigating living in homes on wheels, this week we further investigate alternative ways of living in Skattungbyn, Sweden. Maybe you will find something in Skattungbyn that might inspire a change in your own life?
Text: Domi. Photo: Agata Mazgaj, AnnVixen, Daniel Zetterström. Tellus Think Tank 2016-02-17.

The village of Skattungbyn has about 350 inhabitants and maybe half of them have at one time taken a course at

At the top of the slopes of Skattungbyn. Photo: AnnVixen

Mora Folk School. After having finished the course, some remain in the village and keep exploring alternative ways of living.

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK…read

What fascinates me most is not the beautiful landscape, the fresh air and the harmonious atmosphere of the village but the insight that it is possible to live quite differently to what I am used to from my suburb life in Stockholm. f

A person in Skattungbyn can live for less than 200 Euros a month, including rent, food and phone costs – further ahead in this article.
In most parts of Sweden the normal monthly rent for a one roomed apartment would be between 300-700 Euros, food costs of about 150 Euros per person to be added. City life is much more expensive!
Several people in Skattungbyn have chosen not to work full time or have more radically decreased the amount of hours they work a week.
In most other parts of Sweden adults work full time, regardless of marital status. Generally we talk about the treadmill of the 24 hour day divided into:
8 hours work, 8 hours sleep and 8 hours for organising one’s life so one can keep on working – i.e. picking kids up from school, commuting to and from work, cleaning, washing and shopping.

Tiny Home on wheels. Photo: Daniel Zetterström

How can the differences be so big between a group of people in the village of Skattungbyn and the rest of the western world?

The answer is that there are several things that contribute to the possibility of living inexpensively in Skattungbyn:

Land is cheaper than in urban developed areas.
The trend for Tiny Homes on wheels – see last week’s article
Good prerequisites to grow or buy inexpensive food and other things that might be needed in special types of local shops – read more below

Markus arrives at Skattungbyn

Markus Skoog, 34 years old, left the rush of the city for an alternative life in Skattungbyn.

The farmland sleeps under its snowy cover, awaiting the farming season. Photo: Agata Mazgaj — The Flurlundar farm land sleeps under its snowy cover, awaiting spring. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

He grew up in a suburb of Stockholm and soon understood that his high school teacher’s diploma would never enable him to buy his own apartment in the Stockholm area. He changed course and started off as a carpenter’s apprentice and was soon making more money but the life he led, building small exclusive apartments in the city, didn’t give him the satisfaction he was looking for. Markus searched for ways of living closer to nature and shortly after was accepted to the Mora Folk School.

Mora Folk School

The course at Mora Folk School followed the farming year and started in January, continuing throughout the season. Sessions were held in growing and preserving food, how to eat more nutritiously and lessons in different crafts such as weaving and making homespun clothes. The pedagogical narrative of the school is sustainability and global human rights.

A cozy Tiny Home on wheels in Skattungbyn! Photo: Daniel Zetterström

-During the course, my fellow students and I came to understand just how much work lays behind just one t-shirt sold by the retail industry, says Markus.

Markus initially moved into the dorms of the school dorms but soon he and a couple of other fellow students decided to build their own homes on wheels, according to the Skattungbyn-way.

The most important lessons for Markus where on how to grow food and living in collectives can not be done successfully with just anyone. One needs to be selective when choosing with whom to live.

What kind of people have chosen to investigate alternative ways of living in Skattungbyn?

Three Tiny Homes on wheels by the woods at Flurludar farm. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

Skattungbyn villagers that investigate alternative ways of living have often attended the Mora Folk School. Markus first calls them “hippies”, “greens” or “alternatives” but in the next breath he says people are difficult to group.

Persons that after school succeed in finding a job in the area often stay. They start off living in the dorms at the school and some move into Tiny Homes on wheels, others buy their own land. After a couple of years most look for a somewhat more spacious way of living and often keep a strong alternative focus in their lives.

We make a short stop at the home of Anna Berggren that came into possession of an old farm high up on the south slopes of Skattungbyn. She has an amazing view over the nature of

Annas orangery on the mountain! Photo: Agata Mazgaj

Orsa Finnmark and herds her sheep on the mountain. Anna recently built out the old farm with an orangery that gives her lemons in the midst of winter!

Markus tells me about the 86 year old woman who down-sized as she got older and moved into a home on wheels to avoid an old peoples home.

-She was the most hard-core person of all Tiny Home dwellers, says Markus Skoog. He was very impressed by

Markus shows us the outhouse of Flurlundar farm, built of wastewood. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

her. She only had about 7 m² which gave her space for a bed, a small cabinet and a wood stove. She lived there without electricity and running water and loved it!

Markus has his home on wheels on a plot of land that belongs to FrejaLina. FrejaLina recently bought the estate of Flurlundar farm and started a collective on the property. Today there are five persons living in the mother house of the estate and another four residents that live in their own homes on wheels. Some of them have access to electricity and fresh water, and some of them live totally “off grid”.

Life at Flurlundar farm reminds me of my university dorm where we also had a very positive fellowship community going on with film evenings etcetera. There are several differences here such as, members of the collective are involved in their community farm and also take turns in cooking vegetarian dinners for each other.

There are no children in the collective, yet. One person owns the dog, Birk, that is one of the most cherished dogs I have ever seen – he has a lot of different people to take him for a walk!

Dumpster diving for food

Most of the people who have chosen an alternative lifestyle in Skattungbyn eat vegetarian and buy or grow their own food. Markus tells me that there are some that dumpster dive for their food, meaning that they “dive” into dumpsters behind food stores for food that has past its best date. Markus avoids dumpster diving as some locals find it annoying. He was once invited to a friend for a really lovely salmon ceviche dinner, and learnt that the salmon had been found in a dumpster!

Are the alternative of Skattungbyn idlers?

Skattungbyn is becoming known to be “hippie” and is famous in the Swedish alternative circle but the village also has a lot of inhabitants that do not count themselves as “alternative”. Markus says that there are some prejudiced ideas circling about the alternatives, such as that they probably idle and live on welfare. He strongly opposes this.

Open on Saturdays only! Photo: Agatha Mazgaj

Markus says that it is possible to live very inexpensively in Skattungbyn, if one wants to, and that neither a full time job or welfare is needed to survive. A friend lived during a longer period for under 50 Euros a month. How could he do that? He took care of people’s houses when they were abroad, dumpster dived for food, worked for food doing things like chopping wood. One job gave him a couple of Euros that he put used for his mobile phone subscription.

-It is difficult for some to understand that such inexpensive living is possible, says Markus, which might lead some to believe that welfare is in the picture, which it is mostly not.

Some people he knows work a couple of hours a month in the Folk School and live for under 200 Euros a month. Markus lived with costs less than 180 Euros a month, during a period. Costs included rent for his Tiny Home on wheels, electricity, water, mobile subscription and food.

-Vegetarian drygoods are pretty cheap, Markus explains with a smile!

Slåttergubben is open on a Saturday afternoon. Photo: AnnVixen

Today Markus works fulltime at a refugee camp in the neighboring village of Orsa and estimates that his monthly living costs have increased to 500 Euros as he needed a car for work. Some of his friends also work at the refugee camp and others work at the local hospital or in youth care.

There are several “shops” in Skattungbyn and none of them can be considered normal but they all help the inhabitants to live more inexpensively!

Slåttergubben, bring your own container! Photo: AnnVixen

Skattunge Handel was once the only food store of the village but was deemed unprofitable and about to be closed. To avoid having to drive 15 miles for food or gas the villagers took over shop and founded a cooperative association. Today the shop holds the same assortment as a small food store. It has employees to run it but much of the administration is done by the co-op members.

Slåttergubben is the second food store in the village. It is also co-owned by some of the villagers but classed as a procurement association. The shop buys large sacks of locally grown food or European organic food. Customers bring their own packages to fill.

The shop is very much cheaper than a normal store. It is only open between 13 pm and 15 pm on Saturdays so that it doesn’t compete with Skattunge Handel. The village is too small for competition but big enough for cooperation it seems!

Hansen House Folks kitchen is serving lentil soup today! Photo: AnnVixen

Hansen’s House is run by the Swedish study association for study circles and theatre groups. On Saturday afternoons Hansen’s House becomes a meeting places for the alternatives of Skattungbyn they then hold a “folk kitchen”, serving vegetarian meals to anyone that might be interested. The kitchen is financed by donations from both guests and donors.

The Free Shop – this might technically not be a shop but rather a place where villagers can bring unneeded clothes, books or utility articles and also help themselves to anything that they find. Markus Skoog tells me that the Free shop isn’t owned by anyone and doesn’t have a formal administration but is run by anyone who is interested. We meet Malin who

Pick what you need in the Free shop. Photo: AnnVixen

currently has chosen to organise the Free shop, it looks absolutely lovely and pittoresque!

Interestingly enough, all of the shops in the village are non-profit making and run either by a cooperative or by driving spirits helping other villagers to a more inexpensive life!

Some people in Skattungbyn do their Saturday shopping tour by first visiting the two food shops and then passing the Free shop to either pick up or leave stuff off and then continue to Hansen’s House for a meal. The latest news is the recently opened tool library where villagers can borrow good quality tools.

Malin Haglund is currently the spirit running the Free shop! Photo: AnnVixen — Malin Haglund is currently the driving spirit running the Free shop! Photo: AnnVixen

Markus and the blogg

Markus started the blog “Att Leva det Levande Livet”.

-Because “life must be able to be better than this”, he smiles!

He wanted to document his own learnings of alternative living and share it with others that might be interested!

What about the farming?

At Flurlundar farm the collective recently laid the foundation for a 2000 m2 farming plot. The soil isn’t as good as it could be yet and the collective is planning for an all organic farm. It might take up to 8 years before the yields hit their highs and make the collective self sufficient in beans, peas, red

A snowy shower when opening the Dome! Photo: Agata Mazgaj

cabbage, kale, artichokes, onions, squash, pumpkins and potatoes. They also built a greenhouse, “The Dome”, to be able to grow their own chili, basil, cucumber and tomato.

A second greenhouse will soon provide the collective by providing the possibilities of biannual crop rotation to avoid pests. Most of what they know about growing food was learnt from their very appreciated teacher Patrik Ytterholm at Mora Folk school.

Will Markus always live like this?

Markus is happy in his Tiny Home on wheels but is planning to buy his own plot of land and build a real house on it. He also has plans to allow others to move onto his property to

The inside of the green house. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

gain a passive income from rent. He doesn’t mind working but wants to do things that matter to him such as giving a course this summer on how to build you own Tiny Home on wheels!

The visit to Skattungbyn has been an eye-opener showing that life can be more free and not so structured as life often is in urban areas. There are of course pro’s and con’s with every lifestyle but Tellus Think Tank is happy to understand this alternative!

Next week we investigate the development of Stockholm as a green and environmentally friendly city from a traffic perspective, would you like to be notified when it is available, click here!

Featured article, Inspiration

Thinking of down-sizing? Could you consider living in a sustainable Tiny Home on wheels? No014

2016-02-10 admin Leave a comment

Do you live a fulfilling life in the midst of the rush, the fumes of the city with high costs of living and

the need to commute to work or school? Do you ever wonder if life could be lived differently? From the 70’ies until today at least 200 people have had the same thoughts as you and moved to the small village of Skattungbyn in the rural district of Dalarna in Sweden.
Text: Domi, Tellus Think Tank. Photo: Agata Mazgaj, AnnVixen, Daniel Zetterström

My friend Agata and I often have long discussions on everything from sustainable living to Swedish media and Polish politics.

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK…read

One day she told me about a Swedish blog she found on the theme of living in small quarters and in this way making as small a footprint on our planet as possible. Would this be a life for us? All of a sudden we are on a road trip to Skattungbyn in the Swedish district of Dalarna, tag along!

The view of the vastness of Orsa Finnmark from the village of Skattungbyn. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

Tiny homes on wheels in Skattungbyn

The roads are empty when we drive into Skattungbyn this sunny, frostbiten Saturday morning in January. We get to experience the village in sunlight as it clutches on to the hillside with a fantastic view over the nature of Orsa Finnmark. This at once feels like a harmonious place, a feeling that endures through our full visit!

In the village of Skattungbyn one can find a rather unique way of living, Tiny Homes on wheels. We have the privilege of meeting Markus Skoog, that some here would say personifies, thanks to his blog , “AttLevaDetLevandeLivet”, the Tiny Home dwellers.

The first Tiny Home in the village of Skattungbyn was built in the beginning of the 2000’s. There are currently 20 people living in Tiny Homes in the village and the word is spreading throughout both Sweden and the world.

The people that build their own Tiny Homes on wheels later seek permission from a landowner in the village and roll their home onto the designated part of the land. The rental agreements differ from situation to situation.

Also read the next article about Skattungbyn and the community there, it will be available next Thursday! Would you like to be notified, click here.

Why live in a Tiny Home on wheels?

Markus tells us that there are several reasons behind the Tiny Home residents in Skattungbyn:

Markus and Agata in the magic forrest of Flurlunar farm. Photo: AnnVixen

One reason is that Skattungbyn is a lovely place to live but it is difficult to find land to buy in the village.
Another reason is that living in a Tiny Home on wheels makes a very small dent on nature and a very small carbon footprint as the houses are not attached to the land and don’t use concrete. Living in a Tiny Home on wheels is easy and simple and a way to live an alternative life.
A third reason is that it is very cheap to live in a Tiny Home on wheels. Read more about costs below.

What I find the most interesting is the insight that it is possible to live so much cheaper than we currently do in the city, and it isn’t hard to come by this simpler life. Depending on how the perspective living simpler might even bring a higher quality of life? Ofcourse, there are pro’s and con’s connected to every way of living!

Living in a Tiny Home on wheels in Sweden compared to the American way

Swedish Tiny Homes on wheels are all about simple living. Photo: AnnVixen

The Swedish Tiny Homes on wheels differ a lot from the American Tiny Homes. Markus tells us that Tiny Homes in the US want to hold their distance from the trailer people and that they pretty much squeeze every comfort into their Tiny Homes, at almost any expense.

-The kitchen areas in the US Tiny Homes cost a fortune even though the size of the houses are very small. Also, every Tiny Home in the US has a toilet and a shower. They look like normal houses in a mini format.

The Swedish Tiny Homes on wheels are all about living simple.

Markus’s Tiny Home on wheels

Markus built his first Tiny Home on wheels and quickly sold it. During the

One of the beautiful wood stoves in the Tiny Homes on wheels. This specific one is not used for cooking. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

coming winter season he borrowed his friend Lorraia’s Tiny Home, which he smilingly describes as a “glorified tent” as the house was very badly insulated. The heating system consisted of a wood stove and when Markus came home late at night it would be so cold that he would have to be quick to light the wood stove fire, jump into his sleeping bag and fall asleep.

After a while he found that he could heat water on the wood stove and pour it into plastic bottles that he would snuggle into his sleeping bag to keep the heat during the night. After that particularly cold winter Markus felt a strong urge to build his own, well insulated home.

The day Agata and I visit Skattungbyn we read -17°c / 1,4°f and we understand how important insulation is in this climate!

Markus’ new house, designed with a “broken” gable roof like the cutest Astrid Lindgren cabin, is very well insulated! The Tiny Home on wheels was built in 2013 and it took Markus about two months to finish it to the point where he could actually move in. He didn’t have everything in place from the beginning, and finished bits and pieces when he could afford it. In the beginning, until he was able to afford indoor paneling, he dressed the walls with colourful cloths!

A Tiny Home on wheels, 17 square meters of living space, tin rood, organically insulated. Cost 80 000 kronor / 8 000 Euro. Photo: Agata Mazgaj — A Tiny Home on wheels, 17 square meters of living space plus a loft, tin roof, organically insulated. Cost 80 000 kronor / 8 000 Euro. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

-It was lovely to finally get the panel in place, smiles Markus!

The cost for the Tiny Home on wheels initially added up to 50 000 kronor / 5 000 Euro. After having chosen to improve the quality of the house with a tin roof and some other comforts Markus estimates that he has paid about 80 000 kronor / 8000 Euro for his Tiny House on wheels.

-I chose not to equip the kitchen part with a drain but there is a kitchen bench and I have a large pitcher of water and a large bowl for kitchen use! says Markus!

Agata and I are invited into Markus “one roomed apartment”. It feels airy, warm and minimalistically decorated. On the right short side of the room we find a kitchen bench, in the middle of the room the wooden stove is crackling. By one of the windows we find a second heating source, an electrical heater, that works since Markus has electricity installed. At the other end of the room Markus has built a wooden sofa covered with mattresses. From the sofa we can just make out an almost hidden ladder leading up to a so called mezzanine loft, half storey loft. That is where Markus has installed his sleeping quarters, just under the roof.

Markus Tiny Home is 3.1 meters x 6.0 meters / 10 x 20 feet and it weighs about 6 tons. The height is 4.5 meters / 15 feet. The living space is 17 m² / 182 f² and the Home stands on wheels!

The house is properly insulated with old newspapers, that can be bought in large sacks at any local home depot. The

A Tiny Home on wheels, 15 square meters of living space, plus a loft. Cost 50 000 kronor / 5 000 Euro. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

papers are put into a large mill and blown into the space between the columns of the walls of the house. The newspaper insulation works really well and is a much more sustainable alternative compared to Rockwool or such, says Markus that is a professional carpenter!

The Tiny Home, just like the other Tiny Homes in Skattungbyn, is built on boat trailer wagon structures or similar. Markus chose to build his Tiny Home on a two wheel wagon structure. Most Tiny Homes here are built without drains and toilets but have possibilities for cooking on the wooden stove.

Owners of the Tiny Homes on wheels can sign for a comprehensive household insurance allowing the Tiny Home to be moved twice during a year.

A Do-It-Yourself staircase. Cost: zero Kronor / Euro. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

Markus has films on youtube, with soon above 60 000 views, on how to build his Tiny Home.

It is icy cold in Dalarna today and Agata and I have dressed accordingly but are still freezing when we move around the grounds to look at more Tiny Homes on wheels.

Costs of building Tiny Homes on wheels

Costs of the Swedish Tiny Homes on wheels differ depending on the type of material and the origins of the materials. Markus Tiny Home on wheels cost 80 000 kronor / 8 000 Euro. Flurlundargård, the farm that Markus house stands on, has another three tenants in Tiny Homes on wheels. The other houses have cost far less ranging from 4 000 kronor / 400 Euros to 50 000 kronor / 5 000 Euros. The Tiny Home with the lowest cost was one where all the wood was donated from a de-construction site, total cost of zero kronor / zero Euros.

Interested in running costs of life in a Tiny Home on wheels, read more in next week’s article, get a notification when it is available.

If Markus would have built his house today, what would he have done differently?

-I have a long list of improvements that should have been thought of! he laughs and tells us he would have built higher

A mezzanini sleeping loft provides more living space when living on 15 square meters. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

walls and a normal gable roof. He would also have built the house much smaller than 17 m² / 182 f² as the current house is a bit big for his personal needs and needs a tractor to move it! The current design places the wood stove in the middle of the room to match the aesthetically placed chimney, set in the middle of the roof. If he could re-do this he would have placed both the wood stove and chimney along one of the walls.

Living without running water and electricity in a Tiny Home on wheels

Markus has access to both electricity, a kitchen, a shower and fresh water in a tap system as he is camped on the land of and affiliated to the FrejaLinas collective, that locally goes under the name Flurlundar farm. He estimates that about half of the Tiny Home dwellers in Skattungbyn do not have direct access to either electricity or water.

-What, is it possible to live this way, I wonder curiously? How?

A sustainable outhouse by the edge of the woods. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

Without fresh water toilets
Markus says that most of the people that want to live in alternative ways in Skattungbyn have access to large plots of land and in some cases also to water toilets but they choose to build and use an outhouse.

A Tiny Home on wheels, 7 square meters of living space. All but the inner paneling was built with recycled material. Cost 10 000 Kronor / 1 000 Euro. Photo: AnnVixen

The sewage from a water toilet is difficult to clean and far from sustainable and

expensive for society.

An outhouse, composted in a correct manner, is transformed by bacteria to very good farming soil in just two years. The soil can be used as fertilizers to farmlands or tree- and bush cultivations.

Without fresh water
The Tiny Home dwellers of Skattungbyn have several possibilities to shower and even take a sauna. There is the “village sauna” at the cost of 10 kronor / 1 Euro per visit. The village also has a small sports auditorium that also provides a shower, for free. Markus tells me that several people who live

Markus is just about to take a winter bath! Photo: Daniel Zetterström

without direct access to water heat water on their wood stoves and wash with soap and towel at home. Water can be fetched from the snowy winter slopes or from many of the lakes and streams that run through the village during the summer.

Without electricity
Almost everyone in Skattungbyn has a smart phone and if they don’t have access to electricity in their home phones are charged at work or with battery chargers.

Electric lighting is replaced by gas lamps, battery lamps or oil lamps. The Tiny Homes are often solely heated by wood stoves. Cooking is also mainly performed on the specially designed wood stoves. Many Tiny Home dwellers are vegetarian or even vegan. Food that is cooked could be oatmeal porridge, lentils, soups or boiled

A Tiny Home on wheels, 7 square meters of living space. Cost 4 000 Kronor / 400 Euro. Photo: Agata Mazgaj

eggs.

Markus is more of a flexitarian, as he eats meat if someone invites him to it. The Flurundar farm collective however cook all their meals together and only cook vegetarian food.

Do you find that life in a Tiny Home on wheels differs quite a bit from other Western lives? Read more about the community of Skattungbyn next week. Do you want to be notified when the article is available, click here!

DIY, Featured article

22 voices – Do It Yourself – Save Earth No005

2015-12-16 admin Leave a comment

Thank you for contributing to the Tellus Think Tank quest of sharing ideas to inspire others!
We gathered 22 voices on Doing It Yourself – Saving Earth.

Can we continue living in this way?

In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, about 1815, Earth was inhabited by one billion people.
Two hundred years later, there is currently seven billion people on Earth, a number still increasing.
Humanity is using more and more of Earths resources in not altogether constructive ways.

The current human way of life is causing problems such as “Global Warming” but also decreasing the diversity on our planet. Many animal- and plant species are already extinct and many more are on the road towards the same unfortunate future.

In December 2015, at the COP21 UN climate conference in Paris, an international environmental agreement was reached. It shows that our politicians are working on finding environmental solutions. However, they are often also part of the vast amount of environment problems we need to tackle:

Green house gas emissions are still increasing:
Peak hour traffic Photo: AnnVixen

-The amount of fossil fuelled transports causing massive carbon dioxide emissions.
-The growing market for beef and lamm meat are causing massive methan emissions.
The lacking of clean, natural land and nature, that give people, animals and plants the possibility to thrive and grow.
The pollution of our lands and oceans because of waste and toxic contamination.
The Depleting of agricultural land, allowing the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers.
The list goes on…

22 voices
What if it’s up to You and me? Not everybody can do everything, but together we believe we can save our planet!

Join in – Save Earth by sharing ideas!

Send us your contribution:

1) What you are doing to save the planet
2) your name
3) your age
4) your country of residence
5) picture

Understenshöjden eco village! Photo: AnnVixen

Read about one of Swedens first eco villages, Understenshöjden! Built by people that actively have chosen to live in a more sustainable way!

Let us notify you when Tellus Think Tanks next weeks article is available!

Sachiko and CEMUS want to save the world! No004

2015-12-10 admin Leave a comment

October 1st, 2015. Tellus Think Tank is happy to meet Sachiko Ishihara, recent graduate and now Course Coordinator, at CEMUS in Uppsala University. I have already checked out the CEMUS website where they proclaim wanting to save the world! This makes me very curious!

Sachiko Ishihara coordinates Global Challenges & Sustainable Futures at CEMUS.

I meet Sachiko Ishihara an October day in the CEMUS-library of Uppsala, just north of the capital of Stockholm. It is perfectly beautiful, but unnaturally warm for Sweden at this time of year. Tellus Think Tank is bustling with questions.

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK….read more here

I learn that CEMUS stands for “Centre for Environmental- and Development Studies” and that Sachiko Ishihara grew up in Tokyo, Japan. She is one of four siblings, has lived in Sweden for two years and is currently employed by CEMUS to coordinate the course “Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures”.

What is CEMUS and what is its educational scope?

Sachiko Ishihara describes the educational scope of CEMUS to cover almost anything that has to do with sustainability.

The center interdisciplinary courses in the sustainability area, broadly covering development in society with courses like the more theoretical “The Global Economy” and like the more hands on “Urban Agriculture”.

Culture Carnival, held annually in May! Photo: Henrik Axelsson

The center also organises practical courses such as “Project Management”, with an initial theoretical base and then letting the students plan, run and assess their own sustainability projects. Sachiko Ishihara tells me about a couple of the student projects:

Race for the Planet Board game – the project is creating a board game where the players need to collaborate, instead of compete, in order to increase sustainability.
No-Waste Cooking classes.
The Latvia and Sweden re-use project.
The Culture Carnival – now an annual May happening in Uppsala and open to the public.

Guest professor Doreen Stabinsky filling re-built car with gas. Photo: Isak Stoddard

At this point the acting Program Director of CEMUS, Daniel Mossberg, enters the room to say hello! He adds another inspiring student project to the list and tells us that one student project rebuilt an old Volvo car to run on gas instead of petrol!

Sachiko Ishihara didn’t take the specific Project Management course, however she did start her own world improvement project with two fellow students.

In all modesty, Sachiko Ishihara tells me they called it

Ekolibria – a world improvement project.

‘Ekolibria’ and they organise visits to schools to educate children of all ages about sustainability. Talk about walking the talk!

The center of CEMUS was founded in a special way?

Sachiko Ishihara happily exclaims:

–Yes it was! Two students, Niclas Hällström and Magnus Tuvendal, founded CEMUS over 20 years ago!

The two students were given the opportunity to discuss the lack of interdisciplinary educational possibilities with the president of Uppsala University with the result that the University asked them to organise an interdisciplinary course on the subject “Humanity and Nature”. The fellow student interest was so large that 400 students signed up for the course.

Since then CEMUS has developed into a university center at the University of Uppsala, annually offering 20 interdisciplinary sustainability courses. Sachiko Ishihara tells me that 50 % of these are held in English and that CEMUS attracts about 50% of its students from countries other than Sweden.

Project Management and Sustainability course at CEMUS.

What makes CEMUS unique as a pedagogical institute of Sustainability?

Sachiko Ishihara proudly tells me that CEMUS-courses are not coordinated and put together by professors, but by students or recent graduates that are employed in the role as Course coordinators.

The Course Coordinators have the official university title “Amanuensis” which normally is a student that is also employed to do administrative work for the university. However, at CEMUS, employed students are given far more responsibility.

What are the Course Coordinators responsible for?

Sachiko Ishihara gives me a picture of an important role where the course coordinators:

Develop the courses.
Choose the course contents.
Run the courses.
Make sure that the red thread of the subjects and contents are held.

The course coordinator gathers a knowledgable work group of specialists, such as professors and research students, for feedback on the content of their course. When the course content is ready the course coordinators organise the course by inviting speakers, facilitating student discussions, projects and assignments. Depending on the individual, some even hold educational sessions for fellow students.

What does CEMUS mean by interdisciplinary?

The Global Economy an interdisciplinary CEMUS course.

A discipline is another word for subject, according to Wikipedia (2015-10-02). An interdisciplinary course at CEMUS means creating an insight, by crossing subject boundaries.

Sachiko Ishihara says that the CEMUS interdisciplinary courses help students to understand the dynamics and processes of the world, how they are created and have influenced present settings. Subjects that might be combined in their inter-disciplinary courses span widely from for instance Environmental Science, Democracy, Ethics, Business, Biology.

The CEMUS course coordinators invite speakers from many different areas, not just professors but also non-academics, business people, entrepreneurs, engineers, activists and representatives from non-profit organisations, to mention a few. All with the purpose of helping their students understand how the development of our world works.

Sachiko Ishihara mentions speakers like the writer and singer Alan AtKisson and the Swedish politician, Gudrun Schyman. I also read on CEMUS homepage about open lectures with activist Polly Higgins and US Professor in Systems Management, Dennis Meadows.

What kind of people seek educational possibilities at CEMUS?

CEMUS students identified some challenges in the world.... Photo: AnnVixen — CEMUS students identified some challenges in the world…. Photo: AnnVixen

We take a walk through the building and find an early assignment on sustainability issues where students identify problems in their hometown. I can see Colombia, The US, North Korea, Japan, Australia and Sweden on the board, to mention some.

Students come from different majors and academic disciplines, for instance, Engineering, Art, History or Business and have a strong interest in improving the world and learning more about sustainability. Sachiko Ishihara, also concludes, that some students are totally new to sustainability and are curious to learn more!

What does sustainability mean for the people at CEMUS?

Sachiko Ishihara looks slightly troubled by this question at first, and frowns in thought before explaining:

-The people that meet at CEMUS have a diversity of views, she says. Rather than one common approach the people of CEMUS range on a wide spectra from radical- to mainstream thoughts, just like the general public.

Sachiko Ishihara concludes that there is a common basic understanding among all students and staff of CEMUS and that is: Life on earth needs to change to be more sustainable.

What is the overall message that CEMUS is sending to students and society?

Sachiko Ishihara explains what makes CEMUS such an interesting institute in a university setting:

-Society needs to change and CEMUS holds criticism towards inequality, waste, non-sustainable use of the resources of earth. There is also a unique belief in young people and the questioning of normative values and traditional experts.

How can students and society notice the core beliefs of CEMUS?

Student assignment on issues in home country. Photo: AnnVixen — Student assignment on sustainability issue in home country. Photo: AnnVixen

According to Sachiko Ishihara, the first thing you would notice is that CEMUS, by putting students in course coordinator roles and other responsible positions, breaks the norm of the academic hierarchy.

-Secondly, you would see the active and structured encouragement of students to discuss and question normative beliefs.

-Thirdly, CEMUS is all about activating people and doing things differently to improve results, Sachiko Ishihara continues.

I also learn that the active student pedagogy encourages

Student assignment on sustainability issue in home country. Photo: AnnVixen

students to work in diverse and internationally mixed groups. The mixed groups give different perspectives on issues and enhance student motivation and understanding.

When debating and exploring contradictions in the needs of the world, students easier understand why trade-offs are made.

For example, students from the so-called “developed” countries may argue that Earth doesn’t need any more growth, and call for “de-growth”. Students from the so-called “less-developed” countries might, in their turn, question this statement.

-CEMUS does not run a one-way education, Sachiko Ishihara concludes.

How is CEMUS helping to save the world?

One of the CEMUS wall decoration says more than a thousand words! Photo: AnnVixen

Sachiko Ishihara is firm when stating:

-CEMUS education will make a difference, by activating individuals with an educational process that plants seeds by education, training of critical thinking, diversity and training in proposing solutions.

Sachiko Ishihara and I are back in the CEMUS-library and thank each other for an interesting meeting. I can conclude that her creativity, courtesy and knowledge have been really inspiring!

NEXT: Tellus Think Tank find is it good to see that at least Swedish Universities are taking Sustainability seriously. We are curious as to what other countries are doing so we book a meeting with the University of Newcastle. However, next week we will be visiting the first Eco Village of Sweden to learn from their learning!

You just have to love Uppsala, says Domi! Photo: AnnVixen

NEWSLETTER: If you have signed up for our weekly newsletter we will send you a note when the article is available!

IDEAS: Do you feel inspired, or curious? Is there anything you would like the Tellus Think Tank team to cover or investigate? Let us know!

Challenges, Featured article, Inspiration

Is Earth doing alright? No002

2015-11-26 admin Leave a comment

How is Earth doing? Many contrary impressions are given both from people in our surroundings and through different media channels. Let’s find out what is correct.
Domi, TellusThinkTank 2015-11-12

Stockholm November 2015. Outside the window a few leaves can still be spotted in the trees, soon about to join the thousands of fallen maple stars on the black tar sky. People are walking over them on their way to work, just as usual. There is however an important difference this year: the average temperature is 5℃ / 12 °F warmer than normal.

November 1-11, 2015. Sweden is 3 to 5 degrees celsius warmer than normal, according to www.SMHI.se — *November 1-11, 2015.*
*Sweden is 3 to 5 degrees celsius warmer than normal, according to www.SMHI.se*

Tellus Think Tank has spoken to many different persons about sustainability and about the environment, a wide array of people from environmental specialists to urban farmers and to people like ourselves, that is people who don’t normally work with the environment.

ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK….read more here

It was in the conversations with the latter group, normal people in several different European countries, that we heard the same type of phrase:

-I don’t believe in Global Warming. The natural processes of Earth would have heated the climate anyhow, they said.

I am surfing the internet to try and find explanations and graphs for the warm weather of November. Even on the internet I find many different groups with contrary messages:

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and methane are the cause of Global Warming.
Global Warming is a part of Earth’s natural processes.
Earth is not warmer that usual.

What is really true about Global Warming?
To get an answer to this question we turn to Niclas Köhler, expert on sustainable development, working as a communicator at the Swedish construction company NCC. With a background in journalism and biology he has been working as an environmental reporter for over 20 years. He lays it out for us:

-The Earth’s natural processes can be the cause of a certain variation in the climate but Global Warming that we are experiencing now is indisputably created by humankind, Niclas Köhler says.

Niclas Köhler continues to tell me that scientists were in disagreement/at odds during a period but today 99% of the scientists are in agreement. More than 800 scientists have written a report for the United Nations climate panel (IPCC – International Panel On Climate Change) about how the heated climate is a direct effect of the emissions from human activity. They are calling the phenomenon “Global Warming”.

What have humans done to cause Global Warming?

So, I summarise, Earth is in the beginning of a period of unusually high average temperatures and these temperatures are caused by human emissions. What kind of emissions are we talking about here?

Niclas Köhler tells me that scientists first believed carbon dioxide emissions were the main cause of the climate heating, but that they have now also understood the vastness of the methane gas emissions.

When people increase the amount of carbon dioxide and methane, the so-called greenhouse gases, they retain the heat radiated from Earth itself and keeps it in the atmosphere of Earth. With more molecules like these in the atmosphere of Earth the climate becomes warmer.

The sun heats Earth. Earth then radiates heat into the Earth atmosphere. If the atmosphere contains more carbon dioxide- and methane molecules more heat will stay within the atmosphere. With less greenhouse gases in the atmosphere more of the heat easily bounces out into space. Illustration: AnnVixen

Carbon dioxide has always existed and is created when biological material is disintegrated / decomposed, for example when a tree falls down and starts rotting. When a new tree grows it instead binds carbon dioxide in its wooden fibers. De unhealthy carbon dioxides are created when we burn the so-called fossil fuels: diesel, oil, petrol and coal.

Niclas Köhler tells me that fossil fuels were created millions of years ago when biological material such as dead animals, brackens and micro algae sunk to the bottom of a lake, where covered up but not decomposed fully but instead were formed into a layer of, for instance, coal.

Methane emissions are created when organic material, that is everything that grows in nature, is decomposed in a environment with a low level of oxygen. According to Wikipedia (2015-11-12) humans are responsible for 60 percent of the methane emissions, when allowing leakages extracting oil or gas or coal. About 17 % of the methane emissions come from the human livestock production of cows and sheep – the methane comes mainly from the animal’s digestion and faeces.

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, in the beginning of the 1800s, the methane content in our atmosphere has doubled and the carbon dioxide content is not far behind.

What happens when the climate of earth becomes warmer as an effect of the emissions?

As an answer to this question Niclas Köhler quotes Sten Bergström, former Head of Research at SMHI, Sweden’s Expert Authority on Meteorologi, Hydrology, Oceanografi och Klimatologi:

-There will be more action in the system, he quotes.

Niclas Köhler explains that heat is energy and that more action in the system means:

More forceful storms.
More water when it rains.
Higher peaks and lower valleys on the temperature curve.

Niclas Köhler calls this “Extreme Weather”. Global Warming will bring more Extreme Weather.

What signs can we see that Global Warming and its extreme weather is already taking place?

Many parts of the world have already been hit by the climate change extreme weather in form of heavy storms and rainfall causing major damage. Gothenburg is one city that experienced this.

*A Cityplanner scenario that puts Gothenburg under water.*

Just recently the city presented a “skyfall model” to simulate different scenarios with heavy rain, with the urge to be able to plan for coming storms and soften the consequences. The scenario model tool is open for the public on the city internet, and when trying a couple of different scenarios one can see that the City of Gothenburg might be standing before some really major challenges.

I recently visited my English cousins and they showed me a picture from a helicopter tour over the Hoover dam in the US state of Arizona. The photo pictures a white layer above the water all around the mountains around the dam, showing where the normal water level used to be. The water reserves, meant for drinking and farming, are considerably lower than earlier.

Niclas Köhler also mentions similar problems in the neighbouring state of California. The inhabitants there are living in a permanent state of drought, causing problems with farming and drinking water resources.

NIclas Köhler also says that many European countries have felt the effect of the Global Warming.

The United Kingdom, for example, has been hit by heavy rainfalls. One spectacular example is “The Toon Monsoon” in the metropolitan area of Newcastle on Tyne, a city that has not earlier been hit by floods.

In Lonely Planet’s book “Morocco” by Paul Clammer a description can be found of how the Northern parts of Africa are slowly drying out. I remember a documentary in Swedish SVT’s show “Vetenskapens Värld” (World of Science) that showed how ten of twelve rivers had dried out in the Southern parts of Morocco and it had forced the inhabitants to move to the Moroccan cities.

I might be coming to some very fast conclusions, it is possibly drought in the middle east that is forcing its inhabitants to flee north to land areas with a cooler climate. Europe, is as it seems, very close at hand. The people of the middle east would not seek refugee in the south with even higher temperatures, would they? Thermometers in the Arabian peninsular show summer temperatures of almost 50℃ / 122 °F.

Summarizing: Humankind emits too much carbon dioxide and methane which leads to the heating of the atmosphere around Earth and is the cause of Extreme Weather – drought, storms and rain that cause problems for farming, damage to infrastructure and the major movement of people.

And according to the scientists we are only at the beginning of this unnaturally warm period.

What can we expect from the future? Is there hope or is Global Warming the end of humankind as a species?

Currently Earth holds 7,3 billion people, according to the United Nations. This number of inhabitants can be compared to the one billion people that lived on earth at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, only about 200 years ago. I ask Niclas Köhler if he sees any possibility of having so many people on Earth and at the same time living sustainably?

-Yes, we can [loooong pause] but we need to reconsider our life styles. We have a lot of technique and knowledge to our help but we really need to put it into practise.

He ascertains that humanity has had a fantastic development and economic growth built on access to cheap coal and oil but that we have used more of nature’s resources than nature has had time to re-create.

What hands-on arrangements do we need adopt, now that we need to reconsider our lifestyles?

Niclas Köhler talks about two groups of activities needed simultaneously. The first is to mitigate the risks and soften the damages of the climate change and the second is to decrease emissions.

*Two roads forward. Illustration: Ann Vixen*

Decreasing risks and damages caused by climate change can for instance be activities such as handling the larger amounts of water expected in some parts of the world.

Niclas Köhler has some examples of what the building company NCC are working with and mentions a tunnel that is soon to be built under the Danish City of Copenhagen for Hofor, with the purpose of leading away excessive amounts of water and leading it out to the harbour.

In this context The Tellus Think Tank-team also brings the Emisor Oriente-tunnel to mind. The tunnel was built under Mexico City for the same reasons.

NCC has also developed a special asphalt that lets through water much faster than traditional asphalt. The company is also looking into how their residential building projects shall handle the expected increase in water, so that damage by dampness can be avoided.

*Tunnel under Copenhagen. Illustration: Hofor*

We can do a lot of work with mitigating the damages but is is much cheaper and considerably less risky to work proactively to avoid the problems, Niclas Köhler says.

That is why it is more important to reduce emission. By reducing emissions the effects of Global Warming can reach a problematic stage, instead of the catastrophic level that we are heading towards now.

Use renewable energy sources and reduce beef in your daily diet, is the short advice that Niclas Köhler offers. He soon continues with an array of activities that could help us reduce the effects of the Global Warming:

Phase out the coal plants! Consumers can help by choosing an electrical company that offers green, environmentally friendly electricity.
Heat your house with district warming, pellets or a heat pump.
Kiruna. Swedens most northern lowenergy Passive house, built by NCC. Photographer: Joanna Redman/NCC

Build low energy houses – that is buildings that do not leak heat through walls or windows and that contain all heat brought into the house. Old houses can become energy effective by renovation. NCC works with both low energy houses and sustainable renovations.
Don’t knock down old concrete structures but re-use them, as the process of making new concrete emits large amounts of carbon dioxid.
Decrease your rides with the car as far as possible, at least until you can afford to buy a car that runs totally without fossil petrol and diesel. Electrical Vehicles, driven by batteries or fuel cells, will probably soon take over the market.
Car production is also has large emissions of greenhouse gases and every family might not need a car of their own, most cars stand parked most of the time. Instead a family could take a cab, use public transport, walk, take the bike or join a car pool.
Eat less beef and lamb and replace it with chicken or vegetarian food if possible.
Decrease the number of journeys with aeroplane, until the renewable fuels that researchers are working on are taken in use.
In regions where biogas is an alternative these should be exploited as much as possible. It is not practically possible to transport biogas so far, so it has to be considered as a local propellant.
In countries where the sun is an asset, investments should be made so that solar cells can replace fossil fuels. The energy from the sun is also good for countries closer to the poles, such as Sweden, but the sun produces more energy than average in the summer and less than average in the winter.
Even industrial processes need to save heat by insulating and taking advantage of waste heat.

So it is not too late to turn the Global Warming process around?

No, not yet but we really need to rethink how we live and decrease the use of fossil fuels and eating less beef. Change our lives and introduce hands-on activities as a way forward.

There are examples of other environmental problems where we have been very successful and changed a destructive trend. Niclas Köhler mentions the replacing of freons in our refrigerators letting the ozone layer around Earth regenerate. Another example is when Sweden successfully reduced sulphur emissions when burning fossil oil, which was causing acidification of Swedish woods and waters.

I thank Niclas Köhler for his pedagogical description of the present situation of Earth, and for sharing hope for the future!

Now that the Tellus Think Tank team understands a bit more about Global Warming we are wondering how this information is being spread in societies and we are also wondering what young people are being taught about it in schools today. Next we investigate how a Swedish school handles environmental questions and meet with with Lars Benon, who has worked as headmaster at several schools in the Stockholm region. Check it out!

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You are the national president of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
What kind of an organisation is SPA and what does SPA stand for / aim for?