This blog post has no beautiful photos. This is intentionally. I don’t want to paint a false picture. When I look at the world as objectively as I can, I see a world dying in ignorance.
Today I went on the bike to travel to one of the nearest natural reserves. I recognize the wind in my face by its smell and warmth. I experienced the same over the last years in Spain. It is the southern wind coming all the way from the Sahara desert. This dry spring it has reached Scandinavia. The grass along the roads are meticulously over-trimmed by the mechanized municipal death squads. The result is that the lands are gradually eroding in the drought. There is far from enough greenery around to bind the endless exhausts from passing vehicles, still driven by combustion engines even though electrical alternatives have been around for a hundred years.
I pass by acres of monocrops. The open lands grow feedstock for livestock. Dehumanized words to hide from reality in the world of accounting. The forests are edged with watch towers to assist in killing the kings and queens of the boreal forests like pests.
Arriving towards the point the map indicated I was met by a horse stable compound and a private road blocking the way to the part. This is how the last remaining refuges for biodiversity are gradually gobbled up. With no more visitors, no-one will see them disappear, except the constructions workers who will only do their job. The large societal systems are too slow at adapting to react properly.
I feel like I went on a vigil, except instead of the more obvious death screams of animals, I listen to the slow silent death toil of wild life.
This world is not one I would like to put children into.
It is world without a future worth living in.
Small glimmers of hope were given on ride back home. Some people have gardens with a large variety of plants. They provide a small oasis, a counter to the majority with their mowed lawns, monoliths of what I now think of as the culture of the fence. It originated with the first selfish tendencies of owning and protecting an area out of fear. Most people of our time thus live out their lives fenced in, both mentally and physically, no matter whether fully aware or completely oblivious of the impact their life style has on the planet, they still protect their bubble.
It has to pop.
björn kenneth holmström 