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Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

csmonitor.com

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#61
post #55

Here is a backstory of how Norway avoided the oil industry descent into corruption. They were lucky to hire an Iraqi with experience who built the healthy foundations. https://www.ft.com/content/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feab...

Behind the paywall for me, but if it is about who I think it is, he was washing dishes at a restaurant until his real expertise was suddenly in demand.

I'm curious about this person now, say more!

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#62
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Behind the paywall for me, but if it is about who I think it is, he was washing dishes at a restaurant until his real expertise was suddenly in demand.

I'm curious about this person now, say more!

I'm sorry, but I learned about this person in 1985 or thereabout, but in 1986 I changed to a university job that involved little contact with the oil industry. So many details are lost in time. But as I recall the story, he was a refugee, and his engineering credentials weren't really recognised at the time. Hence the dishwashing job. (Norway used to be much too skeptical about any education from other countries. That might still be the case.) If I remember correctly, he quickly rose to the top of the government agency overseeing oil exploration and production, once he got a foot in the door. It was a story to remember, even if all the details are gone thirty-five years later. And it makes you wonder, how much wasted talent is out there?

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - Norway hasnt been treated like Nigeria, Venezuela, Azerbaijan and Libya because Norway is a white western country. Thus, neither the US/UK/France nor others will topple democratic regimes in Norway to get at the resources. Nigeria, Venezuela, Azerbaijan and Libya on the other hand are "expendable" nations where western powers clear the slate and build as they like. Usually in the name of Democracy, but really in…

I'm not disputing that Western nations have meddled in these countries too much. But it seems like you're completely absolving these countries and peoples of all responsibility for their country and themselves, that in and of itself seems like the Western elites' "these people can't help themselves" approach. The reality is likely a mix somewhere between the two, variable for each country and circumstance.

Yes, It’s a mix of these people “not being able to help themselves” to fight off foreign government interference, and the foreign government interference. Similar to how people who get mugged are partly to blame for not being able to fight off the mugger.

It doesn’t matter how great a nation you have, if US comes along and decides to put in place a dictator to secure low oil prices.

If US invaded Norway tomorrow and put a corrupt religious fundamentalist in power, there is absolutely no way you could blame it on the country, the religion or the color of the skin of he people living there.

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#64
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use oil for so many things and wont be able to terminate its use any time soon. One could even argue it is to valuable to just burn it.

That's why we need to put money into finding alternatives.

Alternative energy sources, sure. But alternative stock for plastics? That is going to be difficult.

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#65

The election was on Monday, the left side with Labor and the Center Party were the major winners. Which parties will form government remains to be seen. Not sure where they got that climate/environment was a big issue for this campaign, because it hasn't really been. The most outspoken "green" party even got a fairly mediocre result and fell below the very important 4 % limit. This will probably be seen as a sign tha…

The most effective course of action would be to implement a law that for every kilogram of carbon imported or extracted from Norwegian ocean, one kg of carbon must be sequestered somewhere in Norway. Soon there will be nowhere to sequester carbon, no new space to plant trees, and oil and gas extraction will cease. Along the way, tremendous funds will be poured into carbon collection and sequesteration technology, and…

Why stop at the Norwegian ocean? I would support such a law in any first-world nation, even if it tripled my cost of living.

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#66

The election was on Monday, the left side with Labor and the Center Party were the major winners. Which parties will form government remains to be seen. Not sure where they got that climate/environment was a big issue for this campaign, because it hasn't really been. The most outspoken "green" party even got a fairly mediocre result and fell below the very important 4 % limit. This will probably be seen as a sign tha…

  > In any case, what we do here won't have any significant impact on global environment.
This is wrong. I agree with and appreciate the rest of your perspective, but this statement is wrong.

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#67

Can anyone explain Norway’s electricity usage? Per capita, it’s about double Sweden or USA, but electricity for consumers isn’t cheap. Is a lot being sold at a steep discount to particular industries? Or is there a huge dependence on resistive heating or? https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC

I think being #7 on this list has something to do with it

https://www.nationmaster.com/nmx/ranking/aluminum-production

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people would say colonialism did a poor job of explaining safety at least. Instead it was often powered by racism and subjugation. We do desperately need to find a way to help countries develop, but on the balance colonialism doesn’t seem to be it

> We do desperately need to find a way to help countries develop. Hold our currencies.

In that the solution is to give them money? Because they doesn't seem to have worked so well either? Or do you mean that really foreign policy is just about keeping the dollar dominate

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We do desperately need to find a way to help countries develop. Hold our currencies.

In that the solution is to give them money? Because they doesn't seem to have worked so well either? Or do you mean that really foreign policy is just about keeping the dollar dominate

It means that every midlle-clas person, and every foreign and local company in the developing world is obsessed with "getting their money out".

And this rational fear is becuase our currencies continue to devalue.

You did ask.

Re: Norway is wealthy because of oil. Can it give up fossil fuels?

#70
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Behind the paywall for me, but if it is about who I think it is, he was washing dishes at a restaurant until his real expertise was suddenly in demand.

I'm curious about this person now, say more!

http://web.archive.org/web/20100123225932/http://www.ft.com/...
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