In one of those stories that requires a double-take, Greta Thunberg has been taking part in a five-day protest blocking the entrance to Norway’s energy ministry to protest against wind turbines. The Telegraph has more.
Ms. Thunberg was specifically demonstrating against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders.
“Indigenous rights, human rights, must go hand-in-hand with climate protection and climate action. That can’t happen at the expense of some people. Then it is not climate justice,” she said while sitting outside the ministry’s main entrance with other demonstrators.
Norway’s supreme court in 2021 ruled that two wind farms built in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions, but the turbines remain in operation more than 16 months later.
Reindeer herders in the Nordic country say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.
Ms. Thunberg and a dozen other Sami demonstrators have occupied the ministry’s reception area since Thursday. Police forcibly removed them at around 1.30am on Monday and detained them before releasing them.
They returned to the ministry at around 6am.
What kind of a climate emergency is it if trifling things like the distress of reindeer are more important? And if reindeer mental health can trump Net Zero policies – because climate action “can’t happen at the expense of some people” – then why not also, I don’t know, the needs and aspirations of billions of people in developing countries?
I think perhaps she hasn’t fully thought this through.
Worth reading in full.
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