The fjord has been our livelihood and our main trade route for thousands of years. Now, however, life in the Oslo Fjord is slowly dying out.
At the same time, the weapons factory in Sætre has been granted a permit to quadruple its emissions into the fjord. It lies just a stone’s throw from where the Blücher sank, delaying the Nazi invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940. This is happening as a result of the security situation in Europe deteriorating drastically four years ago, when Russia invaded Europe’s breadbasket, Ukraine, just as the Nazis did in 1941. How much of our own fjord can we sacrifice to make sure that the war does not escalate and that we do not once again have hostile ships sailing into our fjords?
But it is not only weapons factories that are killing the fish in our fjord. Fertilizer from the surrounding farms deposits enormous amounts of nitrogen into the water. It is consumed by algae, which then experience massive blooms and suck the oxygen out of the water, causing the other fish to die. Nitrogen based fertilizer is a Norwegian invention that has saved millions of people from starvation over the past 100 years. Without it, grain yields would have been cut in half worldwide. So can we really afford to stop using it? How much of our fjord are we willing to sacrifice to put food on the table?
Food security is also part of the security situation. Today, we produce only up to 40 percent of our own food in Norway. If we were to stop using fertilizer, that would be cut in half again. Are we willing to put ourselves in such a vulnerable position?
So the question becomes this: what weighs heaviest when the echo of the past once again threatens our harbors? Is our own security and survival more important than the fish in the fjord? Do those of us who live on land have a greater right to life than those who live beneath the surface? Or is the struggle for survival so brutal that every country and every species must do everything in its power to achieve it?
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