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"In 1635, mining was introduced in Sápmi when a silver mine opened near Árjepluovve in Sweden. The impact on Sámi society was huge. Businessmen and settlers arrived from the south, while local Sámi were driven from their homes and used as coolies. Resistance was met with harsh repression. A special kind of water torture became notorious. Sámi were dragged along a rope underneath the ice of a frozen lake from one hole to another."
Sweden’s shameless pursuit of ”green minerals” generate a conflict with the Sami people
"Once again we, the Sami, will be forced, by a company owned by the Swedish state, to give up land, culture, Sami place names, traditions and future in the area where our ancestors have lived since ancient times. The Sami, the only recognised indigenous people in the European Union, is expected to carry the burden of the demand for ”green minerals” by EU politicians and industry."
EU's critical materials plans worry Nordic Indigenous
“The cumulative effects of all these encroachments is basically that we don't have any more land to feed our reindeer. So the little that is remaining we need to protect,” Elle-Merete Omma told Ian Morse. Without land to feed reindeer, herders spend considerably on artificial fodder. Wind turbines repel herds, and thinned forests lack the lichens that reindeer depend on.
https://greenrocks.substack.com/p/eu-sweden-raw-materials-nickel-sami
Big Tech wind parks, colonial politics and “affected” publics in Sweden
Criticism towards the carbon emissions and energy intensity of data centers prompted Big Tech corporations in recent years to contract large amounts of electricity produced by industrial wind power plants. In Sweden and Norway, such contracts have enabled and justified economically the construction of some larger wind power plants, but also encroached indigenous Sami reindeer herding lands.
https://rustlab.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/across_layers/#abstract-velkova2
Locals protest wind energy due to impacts on Sami reindeer grazing lands
"This is not something we want to do. We would rather focus on digging farm beds, taking care of the animals, fishing, chopping wood, renovating homes, spring plowing, building wetlands, building social networks and petting cats. We would rather contribute to a positive development, a vibrant sparsely populated area. But now that no parliamentary means work, we have to try something."
Reindeer herders fear Arctic industry boom
“The reindeers will not go into this [wind farm] area because of the sound, because of how it looks, the visual impact,” Elle Merete Omma, told the BBC. “We've really already paid enough,” argues herder Rikard Länta, 54, pointing to the site's proximity to existing hydropower and forestry industries. “There isn't one 'bad guy', there are many bad ones. There are so many [industries] that want to come Green.”
“I want to continue living from this land just as my ancestors have done for hundreds and hundreds of years. This is a way of life for us – it is not just a job. The Sami way has always been that you take what you need – you don’t take any more,” says Jussa Seurujärvi, 22
“First, they took the religion, then they broke the Siida system, then they took the lands and the language. And now they want to build a railroad,” says Sami parliament president Tiina Sanila-Aikio
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/23/battle-save-lapland-want-to-build-railroad
It is sickening to hear boosters of “renewable” energy pretend that it is green and clean and good for Nature. It is not. It is dirty and filthy and devastating to Indigenous, to wildlife, to biodiversity, to the last wildernesses that must be preserved. Enough lies. No to oil, gas and coal. And no to the fraud that is “green” energy.
Address right problem.
We don't have an energy production problem.
We have an energy consumption problem.
We consume vastly too much energy, materials
Slow down
“The Sámi never had much support from the institutionalized Left … The Sámi seemed to stand in the way of development. Left parties in Norway were described as the most “anti- Sámi”. (The Far Left was different, much more supportive.)”
https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1051
Maybe this is why many on the Left have been so willing to embrace the fraud that is The Green Transition. Willing so sacrifice the Sámi, other Indigenous, and their environments, in order to save "civilization."
@gerrymcgovern
These types of actions need to stop. The greed and disregard needs to come to a stop.
@gerrymcgovern and this is because the rich areas of Sweden make sure no wind farms are built there. Not even offshore. So of course it gets dumped on the most politically vulnerable people.
@gerrymcgovern in your personal opinion, do you think the comfort of reindeer and herders is more important than the climate crisis?
To put it more clearly, the planet would be saved more if we just stopped using cars so much, and the Sami got to decide what gets built, and where. The windmills they would build wouldn't fuel an already exploitive industry that can't even break even, much less reduce their impact on the planet.
CC: @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green
@gerrymcgovern Sorry, this is a garbage argument. The UK's carbon emissions are back down to 1879 levels. This wasn't done with fraud, it was done with renewable energy.
You can argue that resource extraction can be done more sustainably, that's true across the board, but it's nonsense to call renewable energy a fraud.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-emissions-in-2023-fell-to-lowest-level-since-1879/
@Sakti @gerrymcgovern But he didn’t call “renewable“ energy a fraud. He explicitly criticised using the term “green” and here I agree.
@Sakti Much of what the UK has achieved has been a result of hollowing out their manufacturing economy. They have outsourced much of the damage. And the damage is not simply CO2. It is mining waste, it is biodiversity loss, it is chemical, it is water degradation.
In the context of vastly reduced energy and material consumption, wind and solar can play a role. Right now, they run under the "Keep On Consuming" banner.
@Sakti @gerrymcgovern
You understand that to manufacture and install renewables on the scale that is being proposed requires vast quantities of resources and, crucially, fossil fuels?
We need to slow down, literally, and radically consume less material resources and energy