“Our future is common. We will experience it together. We have to shape it together. ” That is what the then Prime Minister said, Olof Palme, at the opening of the UN:s first worldwide conference on the human environment. It was held in Stockholm 1972 and they 114 the participating countries agreed that the 5 June would be 'World Environment Day'.
A couple of days ago, the conference was repeated in Stockholm, now as the 50th anniversary. A lot has happened 50 year, some of which went in the right direction but a lot went wrong. The value and retention of the conference actually consists in the knowledge and conclusions that arose in the preparations. The visible result consists in the commitments of the agreements, disagreement about what is feasible and increased awareness of the seriousness that is greater than ever. The development that the conference aimed to control, it naturally forms hope, while overconsumption increases. Everything counts as consumption, even that which does not pass through the body.
The world's collective, responsible nations are doing a good job, the technological development leads to progress, people's awareness is increasing, as are several of the emissions! Discoveries of threats to the climate expand both in the form of what is seen and what is felt on a large scale or discovered through new methods and refined measuring instruments. Nano-sized plastic particles are said to have been found in the lung tissue of children, it is reported as an example of new forms of 'littering'. It is not possible to hide from the problems.
More and more people are feeling worried, some perhaps even anxiety about the future climate, hardly a constructive feeling. Many do not care and consider themselves to have had successful experience with that cluelessness. We place hopes and demands on politicians and society. Do something, damn it, before it's too late!
The biggest and most troubling challenge is that we have to change our personal way of life. This is where the consequences arise! I don't want to cause worry and unhappiness, so I take all the blame myself. I have to change my mind! Anyone who wants to can connect.
The explanation is my unreasonable overconsumption. I didn't have it that way from the beginning during my upbringing in Långå and lived well even then. Until I was nine years old, we carried well water from the neighbor. Anyone who has experienced that burden knows what is meant by housekeeping. Half a glass of water for brushing your teeth in the evening! I don't even want to mention how I feel today. Despite insight, or perhaps precisely because of that.
My commitment to nature and the environment is based, among other things, on the need for nature experiences and sport fishing. Men! At the far end of my power line is a dry fishing line. Beyond my cleanly washed shirt, the breathing water foams in the fish's living space. The pellet-fed grav salmon lies on the barrel where the trout used to be. Behind the paper collection is a clearing. The protests are directed at the suppliers who give me what I buy, what i want!
My oldest grandson will do military service this fall. He asked about my experience. I said: What you first experience is that everything unnecessary is peeled away! Everything? Everything!
It goes with that!

Helgi Jonsson 5 June 2022