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The bridge to Vatnamýri is swimming

Andri Snær Magnason fought the ducks' case in Iceland. He did not become president. But his climate numbers fell into good soil, and have started a new type of environmental consciousness.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The wetland bridge is healthy. Watermill is full of ducks. Dunnøsta pushes its head under its wings. The town is covered in soft morning fog. It smells of green grass and daunting day. Everything is round, mossy, whole. The human body's arms, bones and loose hair feel messy. Garbage is stuff in the wrong place. Andemor makes tassel sounds and stretches throat. Also, she will cherish this beautiful, wonderful doctor, as well as unreal.

One handwritten piece of paper hang on the door to the pool hall. Vesturbærlaug has never failed before. But this morning something happened. What, what? I can't speak Icelandic. But if a Norwegian has enough time, he thinks up his thoughts. "The pool is closed due to a private event". I do not understand yet. Icelanders have talked about privatizing fresh water. But privatize chlorine water, it does not in Iceland. Starting the day with sewing and hot tubs is a human right. Like fresh air, a city to bo, security and warmth. Symjehallar lies like pearls in akoyta oysters over Reykjavik. Up to two kilometers to the next. I smell myself through the fog. The sun tergar mist up. The mist evaporates. But over a hot tub on Sundhöllin there is a local shower. A goodbye, with an old guy inside. "Good day," I say. "Jau. But the day does not start as good, "says the old man:" I did not see the house on the other side of the road when I woke up. The mist was too dense. ”The dense morning fog is an unusual phenomenon in the city. It occurs when cold sea air enters hot land. Reykjavik is rarely warm. Even in June. But Iceland is also noticing climate change. The rivers of Vatnajökullen are widened. Glaciers retreated. Climate and environmental issues are the election campaign cases of the second most popular candidate in the Icelandic presidential election this June. Andri Snær Magnason is no better advocate of nature conservation. He is an artist, writer, communicator. History of the Blue Planet is one of the stories that depicts the amazing planet, the one that is blue, white, moss green and olive color. But what is most engaging about the book is the children we follow. Brimi and Hulda. Best veins. Heart opens up when one is in love with someone or someone. It is difficult to damage what one looks into the eye; they become familiar with and get close to the body. This should also apply to air, water, weather.

Andri Snær Magnason comes in a small rental car and picks me up. "Did you sell your SUV when you became an environmental politician?" I ask. "No," says Andri, "I have rented a car for use during the election campaign." This is how he is now the president of the SUV arena. But also those who drive a small car with less emissions. Car traffic is well organized and uninterrupted. He becomes a neutral porridge in the background, something that goes in one ear, out the other, while Andri crushes the city by car, and tells about his childhood:

In the seventies and eighties, Andri stays with his grandparents during the holidays, and gets sausage meat from animals he knows where he has grazed. Andri knows the whole story of the animal. He's just a teenager when he publishes his first story. The first books are various forms of concept poetry. Bonus poetry comes out in 2003, and is a pastiche over the supermarket Bonús. The book looks like Bónus' own chocolate, their own bread, biscuits, fish sticks and so on. All over the country stands Bonus poetry in shock sellers side by side with the chocolates, the toothpaste, any of the goods subject to VAT. The book sells most of all books in Iceland. Even more Laxness. "Part of the irony of the project was that I sold the book so cheaply. I could have become a millionaire on the project, if I lit more for a quarter of a copy. "

In the book Dreamland time he complains to the state about pimping, on behalf of nature. Andri blames the consumer society and capitalism for what goes wrong. He warns: "This is not going to go in the long run." For Iceland does not have a completely clean record when it comes to environmental issues. In 1995, the state, through Prime Minister David Oddsson, produced a famous pamphlet. In glare and shake nittitals word art: "Invest industry dives in Iceland, and get electricity at a bargain price!" And so they do, North American aluminum companies. Watercourses are dammed up all over the country. Large power plants are being built, and the Virgin Islands are being drilled through monster masts and high voltage lines. Open landscapes become a chessboard of power lines – and that for relatively little gain. Some dollars in treasury, sure enough. But if they are smart, natural resources can be used in a more lucrative and / or environmentally friendly way. "After draumar country-the book, many things have changed in Iceland. Several of the visions I had there came true. For example, I wanted the old NATO base to become an area for research into new energy sources such as geothermal and wind power. It has become so. "

One wears wool in the office and at a party. Beards are as long as their snakeskin shoes were. The crash and the boom have this in common: Icelanders are just as extreme in their lifestyle.

Andri's election campaign sometimes encounters car-addicted, SUV-loving Icelanders. In addition, many claim that the environment will be better on a global level if Iceland dams its watercourses. The Guardian claims in an article that Iceland should be able to produce electricity from its volcanoes, and that it is from such sources that the imported electricity comes. "It's like claiming that alvar creates power," says Andri. Fantastic natural areas, which he associates with on a daily basis, disappear. The Karahnjukar Dam is the largest dam and covers an area as large as Manhattan with water. Under the lake are the old nesting areas for the short-billed goose. The goose is on the list of endangered birds. It will be a bit of a hassle before the construction of the Karahnjukar dam. Björk's mother, Hildur, is one of those who links together in the construction road up to the dam. It does not help. The hunger strikes. It does not help, either. Then the dam is built and the lake rises. One says that there is plenty of water in Iceland. But in the middle of the 00's it also becomes uncertain. The neoliberal government has privatized most of what can be privatized, and will now also sell fresh water. There will be trouble again. Hildur, Björk and Eva Joly are on the case. The lake ends up being in the hands of the people, the state.

Now Andri is mixing Fully engages in environmental issues. In 2006, he applied to Reykjavik municipality to turn off all the city's lights for half an hour. "Lights off – Stars on" is supported by the municipality. While the lights are off, astronomer Þorsteinn Sæmundsson gives a radio presentation about space. Then the light is turned on again, and the show goes on in Reykjavik: It has been two years since champagne fountains and overconsumption before the crash. A new ecological wave of reuse, sharing culture and home-cooked food and clothing wash over the country. One wears wool in the office and at a party. Beards are as long as their snakeskin shoes were. The crash and the boom have this in common: Icelanders are just as extreme in their lifestyle.

It is difficult to injure those who look into the eye; they get close to the body. This should to the highest degree also apply to air, water, weather.

The tourists are the same. There will only be more of them. They come to Norræna Husid – Nordiske Huset – with the airport bus from Keflavik, cross Reykjanes, Hafnarfjorður, and take off for Reykjavik. Right after Hafnarfjorður, on the side facing the sea, lies Bessastaðir. On a flat, windswept, but open and wild island, lies the president's small palace. Bessastaðir is a couple of buildings in stone, by a church. It is a long way from here to Allthingi, where realpolitik decisions are made. But Andri believes that the climate issue is something the president can work for. "Global problems require global solutions. The president can create international networks. " Then he drives to Laugardalslauget to sit in the hot tub with a Danish director. But by the way, he says: Come to my polling station tonight. Everyone is welcome!

The doors to the polling station are open. I get weed soup. A duo sings ode to the unwanted growth. It is reminiscent of the musicians from the Mosaic Revolution around the 00s: The "Gunpowder" musicians were "nature children" and artists such as Múm, Sigur Rós, Soley and others who were loved all over the world for the kind, captivating, perhaps naive expression. They were criticized for the same traits. "Krút" means "sweet". The care and love of all living things are the buzzwords that Andri is campaigning with. No matter what happens in the election, he has reopened the conversation on climate issues and nature conservation. But the bridge to Vatnamýri is a continuous channel. "The bridge is destroyed," I say to receptionist Sigrún. 'No then. The bridge is not destroyed. We just dismantled her a little, to give the ends peace, "says Sigrún. That was not the case a couple of years ago. Then I went straight from the bus stop, over the stream, and over paths to Norræna Husið. Something has happened to the relationship with wetlands and protected areas since then. Noko bra. Andri and Björk are leading the fight to make the highlands and plains inland a protected area. The sky, the clouds, the sea, the islands outside are paramount; is the framework within which everything else comes, everything else is subject. If the air goes in the air, it can be the same with literature, stories, people, wars, whatever. So we start there, by and large, the airy, that which is far away and difficult to fully grasp. It continues in the heat, with new retirees. We let each other close when we share water: Into the skin, into the hair, the mouth, inside the skin. Just like air, humidity, acidity in air and sea. We do not take it upon ourselves. The truth about the climate, that is.

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