Climate Justice in the Nordics

Climate Justice in the Nordics

JULIE FORCHHAMMER

I am Norway, I am oil (2024).

Welcome to Norway. Maybe you’ve heard about me? I’m the country with fjords and

mountains, placed on top of and to the left of the EU.

I am a country with my own oil company. It’s called Equinor and I own 67 percent of it. I love Equinor as if it was my child. Which it kind of is.

The company was born in 1972, literally from my loins, from the underbelly of the Norwegian continental shelf, in the early years of our petroleum production, when we were all still innocent and cute.

We named the baby after me (the state) and oil. Statoil.

The baby started growing. Faster than a viral cat video. It travelled to other countries and continents, to Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Libya, Nigeria, UK, the USA - everywhere with oil in the ground and resources to be extracted.

I extracted and I explored, the land and the seas, like I have done for over a thousand years. I am a viking, I plunder, I pillage, I gather my loot.

I am Norway, I am oil.

I was Statoil, now I’m Equinor. I changed the name in 2018. My petroganda-people made me do it.

My name has changed, my intentions not.

In 2018 my capacity for renewable energy was 0.6 gigawatts.

By 2022 my capacity for renewable energy was 0.6 gigawatts.

I invest in renewable energy but I invest more in becoming the last oil company on earth. Down below I am creating and extracting millions of barrels of liquid black gold. It will give me wealth and it will destroy people and species and entire countries.

I see your rising temperatures, I see your hurricanes.

I see your extreme heat, your flooding, your mudslides.

I see your pain and I raise you my highest investments ever in new oil and gas.x

I am Norway, I am a storyteller.

Being a country is amazing because I get to tell my own story. I can use all my non-renewable power to tell one big story, the magical story of my oil. Perception is everything.

My oil is so green you can smoke it in a joint. My oil is so white you can ski on it.

My oil is so democratic it will save the world, it will stop wars, it will bring more joy than a puppy on a rainy day.

I tell my story using every disinformation tool the fossil fuel industry has learned since 1914 - the year when John D Rockefeller Jr killed striking coal miners and their families in the Ludlow Massacre, and hired Ivy Lee, the godfather of PR, to clean up his reputation.

Woody Guthrie even wrote a song about Ludlow.

But I can sing my own songs, I am the green transition, I am the fossil fuel savior.

I am Norway, the oily Sauron of the North, my petroganda army is great.

The most fantastic thing about being a state and an oil company is how both the government and the bureaucracy is built to support my interests. They are also telling my story.

I am Equinor, I sponsor, I advertise, I lobby. I pay the most professional storytellers of our time and buy an endless amount of platforms for them.

I am Norway, I let the children play.

For 30 years I have given all Norwegian children the gift of oil, telling them that they are the Heroes of Tomorrow.

From kindergarten to university, I am there. With my lego, with my music classes, my footballs, my winter sports.

I will guide the children every step of the way, I will dress them up, I will explore how many Equinor-logos they can wear before their families, someone, says STOP.

A thousand new stories

But something is happening these days. I can hear a buzzing, I can feel an itch.

Little mosquitoes are surrounding me. Every little one of them has their own little story to tell.

They are artists. Filmmakers. Writers. Dancers. Musicians.

They are climate activists, climate scientists, teachers, journalists, youth, grandparents. They are indigenous knowledge holders, they are culture and heritage workers.

They tell the stories of the things we are not talking about, from the people that have not been heard. The mosquitoes are multiplying.

You little tree hugging hobbits, stop telling your stories!

The stories you tell are changing me, they are changing my nation, my soul. They are killing my story.

I am Norway, I am changing

My oil is so green it stays in the ground. I am Norway. I was oil.