Comments on: Wildlife in Norway: A Guide to Norway’s Most Spectacular Animal Encounters /wildlife-in-norway/ All Things Norway, In English Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:33:07 +0000 hourly 1 By: John /wildlife-in-norway/#comment-1020528 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:33:07 +0000 /?p=80048#comment-1020528 In reply to Glenn Martin.

Most data in Norway gets aggregated or otherwise inflated artificially to make things appear to be better than they actually are. Norwegians can’t help themselves. Fact-checked, one of the worst places to be in Europe for most living things, including expats.

]]> By: John /wildlife-in-norway/#comment-1020527 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:24:45 +0000 /?p=80048#comment-1020527 Pristine landscape? Norway’s landscape is primarily barren and mountainous. Spectacular in places, from a distance, but bleak close up. In terms of ecology (living nature/wildlife) it ranks among the worst places in Europe. Not simply due to its unfortunate geography (notably lack of soil) and miserable climate (including 6-month winter), but its historically impoverished economy and clearing of all natural woodlands. There are significantly more natural woodlands with infinitely more old trees in Britain than there are in Norway. And Britain ranks among the worst places for landscape change and wildlife losses. Where does that rank Norway? Do the ecology, not the engineered beliefs. All those ‘green cathedrals’ one sees while driving in Norway are, in fact, ecologically sanitised plantation forests. Toilet paper factories. As an ecologist with an interest in trees and woodland ecosystems, I have spent almost 30 years surveying forests in Norway in my spare time whilst travelling around on hiking trips, etc. One can walk in these monotonous plantations for hours to days without hearing or see a single bird or other animal. A genuinely eerie experience for a biologist who knows what should be there.

Norway does not have a pristine landscape at all. It looks ‘green’ because hardly anyone lives there. But it’s been over exploited and ruined more than Britain’s landscape, despite Norway being among the most sparsely populated places in Europe. A reflection of compulsive greed in a poor economy with very little respect for living things. As illustrated by the disturbing lack of ecologically valuable old trees in Norway’s landscape.

Sadly, the sea around Norway isn’t that great either. High pollution levels made worse by offshore oil extraction, salmon farms and, soon, mining the seabed, makes the seafood harvested around Norway measurably toxic necessitating health warnings and recommended limits on fish consumption, especially for children and women of child-bearing age.

I’m afraid the narrative Norway has a ‘pristine landscape’ is based on an engineered belief system, not ecology. Cherry picking photos of elk, wolf, puffin, etc. (before they get shot for ‘fun’) changes nothing about Norway being a tragic biodiversity cold spot.

]]> By: Glenn Martin /wildlife-in-norway/#comment-1018253 Tue, 14 May 2024 14:21:45 +0000 /?p=80048#comment-1018253 Thanks for the informative article. One thing though: Norway is not “home to 470 species of birds”. That’s around the number of bird species ever recorded here, including accidentals and other rarities. But the number of bird species that breed here is closer to 250.

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