Commemorating a long dead king and looking to the near and far future

Today was November 6th or “Gustaf Adolfs Day” as it is locally called in remembrance of King Gustaf Adolf the 2nd. There are no parades on this day, the festivities are reduced to eating a special cake and few people spend any length of time thinking about a king who died doing battle in Germany during the 17th century. But he did inaugurate the city of Gothenburg in 1621 so thanks to him we have a 400 years jubilee to look forward to in 2021.

Since 2001, November 6th is also declared by the United Nations as the “International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict”. It’s a sad situation that we need such a day, but looking at ongoing conflicts in e.g. Iraq and Syria, it is clear that the environment is also a collateral casualty in wars. Moreover, wars are often fought over resources, be it water, oil, food or access to coasts and ports such as the case in the Russian invasion of Crimea. Not that we really need wars to disrupt the environment, this compilation shows that we are disrupting the global ecosystems at a blistering speed even in “peaceful” times. Furthermore, the impact goes both ways, changing climate causes resource conflicts and conflicts depletes the resources we badly need to innovate and transform societies in order to reach a future free of carbon emissions. So while I understand and accept that it’s necessary to increase defence spending due to Russias aggressive manoeuvring, it is sad that we can not spend the brains and money on building the low energy future we need.

In two days, it will be November 8th and finally the US presidential election season will be over (for this time).  We will learn which of the candidates that prevailed in the dirtiest election ever. It shouldn’t really be possible that a bullying, lying, narcissist with lack of self control like Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States. Just thinking about a scenario where he has control over the nuclear weapon codes gives me nightmares. However his opponent Hillary Clinton fits just too well into the caricature of the “insider” that populist like Trump but also our European right wing parties likes to portray. It is clear, from the rise of Trump and also from Brexit, that leaders in many of our liberal democracies have failed to grasp the effects of globalisation and likewise failed to provide a vision of future that is fair, equitable and truly sustainable. 

Therefore, if Donald Trump looses there is no reason to be jubilant for Hillary Clinton even though she has made some pledges to be more green. Instead there needs to be mobilisation that brings together both environmental champions and social activists in order to create a just and inclusive future. But this movement also needs to change, in order to embrace the growing part of business that also want to strive for just future. We need both the grassroots, the science geeks and the innovators and we need them now. 

Should Donald Trump win, I fear that there will be more wars in Europe in the coming decade