The Norwegian Polar Institute (Norsk Polarinstitutt)

The Norwegian Polar Institute is the country’s principal organisation for conducting research, environmental monitoring and mapping of the Polar Regions. It supplies information and data to the public and private sectors as well as to the general public, and it offers a range of publications on arctic topics. Its head office is at Tromsø (Chapter 7) and it has facilities on Svalbard. For further information on the Arctic, not only within Norway but round the world, contact the head office, Polar Environmental Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Tel: 77750500, Fax: 77750501, www.npiweb.npolar.no, postmottak@npolar.no.

Oil (Olje)

Oil from offshore fields in the North Sea is the driving force behind the prosperous economy of the country. Norway is the world’s twelfth largest producer of energy in all forms and seventh in the production of oil. Present estimates are that Norway will continue to pump offshore oil for another 50 years and gas for a century.

With one exception, the offshore fields on the Norwegian continental shelf are named after the gods of Norse mythology who figure so strongly in the sagas of the Vikings (Chapter 5). The exception is the Ekofisk Field, the first to come on stream in 1971. Its name reflects the history of North Sea oil activities. In 1962, the Phillips oil company became the first to apply for permission to conduct oil surveying offshore in the North Sea. Surveys began, and finds were made. Phillips followed its tradition of naming them in an alphabetical order. As the finds were at sea, the names of fishes were used; hence the Brisling and Cod Fields. The fifth find on the Norwegian continental shelf challenged the naming system. Norway wanted the name to be Norwegian, but had no fish name beginning with the letter E. So a linguistic compromise was made by combining Eko, the name of an electric eel in the Indian Ocean, with fisk, the Norwegian word for fish. For comprehensive information on offshore oil activities, see the annual monograph on the oil sector published by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. As this book goes to press, the edition is Facts 2004, the Norwegian Petroleum Sector, ISSN 1502-5446; available printed and online from Norway.no (Chapter 31) as well as downloadable online from www.oed.dep.no.

Pollution (Forurensning)

The geographical location of the country makes it particularly vulnerable to transborder pollution, such as acid rain and the fallout from the Chernobyl atomic power plant disaster of 1986. Nonetheless, Norway ranks second in the Environmental Sustainability Index. That high ranking is due in part to early legal control of pollution: the Act relating to protection against pollution and waste was enacted in 1981 and has been updated since. Recycling is widespread, and in the mid-1990s, Norway ranked seventh in the world in percentage of glass recovered and sixteenth in the percentage of paper recovered. Waste management is now incorporated in countrywide recycling measures, and there are many banned chemical products. Environmental management is a concern throughout industries, and companies now routinely report on their environmental activities in their annual reports. Statistics Norway (Chapter 42) routinely compiles environmental statistics and publishes an annual report of them entitled Natural Resources and the Environment in Norwegian and English editions. For further information on pollution and related topics, contact the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.

Pollution Control Authority (Statens forurensningstilsyn, SFT)

SFT is the national regulatory agency that works to combat pollution in all forms, to promote waste management, and to regulate uses of environmentally hazardous materials. Its tasks include combating industrial pollution, supervising the national emergency response system for acute pollution by oil and other substances and for monitoring air and water pollution. It works with the Directorate of Nature Management (Direktoratet for Naturforvaltning) to oversee the activities of each County Department for Environmental Affairs (Fylkesmannens miljøvernavdeling), which, in turn, support environmental activities by the municipalities (kommunene) at the local level. Moreover, it offers a range of publications aimed to combat pollution and to promote environmental awareness. For further information, contact the local environmental affairs office, listed under Miljøvern under the municipality in the Pink Pages. Or you may contact the SFT head office, Strømsveien 96, PO Box 8100 Dep, 0032 Oslo, Tel: 22573400, Fax: 22676706, www.sft.no, postmottak@sft.no.

Recycling (Resirkulering)

Recycling entails reuse of discarded materials through collection (innsamling) or receiving (mottak) and subsequent reuse (gjenbruk) or reclamation (gjenvinning).

Two countrywide recycling programmes are in compliance with EU directives: the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) deposit (Chapter 4) on cars and the WEEE (Chapter 14) return arrangements for electrical and electronics goods. Some programmes are international, such as the return and recycling of laser toner cartridges: a prepaid post label is packed in the box with each new toner cartridge, so you may post the old cartridge to the nearest recycling station.

Most municipal refuse (Chapter 24) collection includes source sorting (kildesortering). Paper and plastic packaging are collected in special sacks, usually twice a month, and containers are placed at convenient locations, such as municipal car parks and shopping malls, for plastic packaging, used clothing, and for glass and metal together, as they are sorted at the recycling plant. Containers for hazardous materials are placed at some petrol stations. Homeowners with gardens are encouraged to compost organic waste. For further information, contact the refuse service in your municipality, listed under Renholdsverket or Renovasjonsavdelingen in the Pink Pages.

A countrywide free lottery for NOK 100,000 each month encourages the return of milk and other liquid food paperboard cartons. To take part, you write your name and telephone number on an empty carton and pack folded empty cartons into it. When you have several packed cartons, you put them in a plastic bag on top of the sack of paper to be collected for recycling. At the sorting plants, packed cartons are picked out at random, and a winner is drawn and notified. For further information on recycling regulations in general and for the recycling of cars, contact the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority. For recycling of other everyday materials contact LOOP (Chapter 33).

Reuse (Gjenbruk)

Though Norwegians are avid spenders, many second-hand and used items are now as acceptable as used cars:

• Clothing: shops in chic city districts now sell selections of used brand-name clothing, often as retrostyles of years gone by. Look for the shops listed under bruktklœr, detalj (”used clothing, retail”) in the Yellow Pages. Across the country, the Salvation Army (Chapter 33) Fretex shops cater to the cost-conscious as well as the style-conscious, as often a shop’s selection will include last season’s styles of new clothing.
• Computers are collected, repaired, refurbished and sold by Aleternativ Data, Olav Helstetsvei 6, PO Box 45 Bogerud, 0621 Oslo, Tel: 22627300, Fax: 212627310, www.alternativ-data.no.
• Electrical appliances are sold by companies that repair and service them; look for them under elektroverksteder (”electrical workshops”) in the Yellow Pages.
• Furniture, utensils, bric-a-brac, radios, TVs and other household goods are sold by second-hand dealers; locate them under brukthandlere in the Yellow Pages. The Norwegian Environmental Protection Association (Norges Miljøvernforbund) has two second-hand supermarkets, in Oslo, Ulvenveien 86, Tel: 47415654, and in Bergen, Hanssteens gt 55, Tel: 55327866, www.miljovernforbundet.no.

Snakes (Slanger)

There are only three species of snake in Norway and the rest of Scandinavia:

• 1The adder, or common European viper (huggorm or hoggorm), (Vipera berus in Latin), is the only one of the three that is poisonous, found throughout continental Europe and east to the Pacific coast of Asia. The adder can be recognised by the zigzag dark pattern, the length of its back, against a dark brown or red–brown background for the female, and a grey-brown background for the male. An adder is usually 50 to 70 cm long, but sometimes can grow to 90 cm long.
• 2The grass snake, also called the ringed snake (buorm), (Natrix natrix in Latin), is found throughout continental Europe and is one of the few snakes that can be found north of the Arctic Circle. It can be recognised by a zigzag pattern on its back and sometimes is mistaken for the adder, but can be distinguished by its bright orange or yellow collar, which the adder lacks, and the round pupils of its eyes, whilst those of the adder are vertical slits. Length commonly 70 to 80 cm.
• 3The smooth snake (slettsnok), (Coronella austriaca in Latin), is found in northern, central and southern Europe, as far east as the Caucuses. It can be recognised by two to four rows of dark spots along its back, and it is usually about 75 cm long.

Fortunately, the poisonous adder fears people and will flee if possible, and equally fortunate, its bite seldom is lethal. However, if bitten, the Red Cross advises that a person:

• rests, to prevent the venom spreading in the body
• contacts a doctor for treatment
• calls the emergency number 113, if feeling unwell or dizzy.

Snow (Snø)

The peoples of the north have lived with snow for centuries. Yet throughout the world, snow and cold historically have slowed the settling of high latitudes and have thwarted armies. Major team sports, such as football, often suffer when early snows cancel autumn games. Yet the winter sports in which Norway excels depend on snow and cold. For those who deal with it, snow has a far greater impact than any other aspect of winter weather. Consequently, scientists have long studied snow. If you are interested in snow research, contact the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Snow affects everyday life both less and more than it does in countries further south. Its effects are lesser, because the climate is comparatively mild and snowfalls modest compared to other areas at similar latitudes. Moreover, snow clearing (Chapter 24) is efficient, so even heavy snowfalls seldom disrupt for very long. The impact of snow is more strongly felt, because winters are long and snow may be expected at least six months of the year. Moreover, once snow falls, it often stays. There are two reasons for this. First, temperatures usually drop below 0°C and the ground freezes before the first snowfall. Snow stays longer on frozen ground than on unfrozen ground, which warms the snow and hastens melting. Second, at the northern latitude of the country, the winter sun is low in the sky. So it does not melt snows as quickly as it does when higher in the sky, as in countries further south. Even in late winter, a snowfall on a road in Norway melts more slowly than on a comparable road in central Europe.

Svalbard

Svalbard is the collective name of an archipelago in the Arctic that extends from Bjørnøya at 74°N northward to Sjuøyene at 81°N and covers an area of 63,000 square kilometres, about a quarter of the area of the UK. It takes its name from that given it by Icelandic seafarers, who returned home in 1194 to report that they had been to Svalbard, (”Cool Rim”). It was first seen by a central European in 1597, when Dutch navigator Willem Barents landed on its largest island, planted a flag, and described the land as Spitsbergen (”Jagged Mountains”).

Warmed by the Gulf Stream that also gives Norway a benign climate for its latitude, Svalbard is as liveable as Alaska. In the 17th through to the early 20th centuries, Svalbard was the prime base for Arctic whaling, hunting and exploring. Then coal was discovered and from 1906 commercially mined by the Arctic Coal Company, founded by an American businessman, John Munroe Longyear, for whom the first mining settlement that became the main town is named. But in the late 20th century, it was communications that brought Svalbard presence on the globe.

Owing to its liveability at a high latitude, Svalbard is an ideal site for observing Arctic phenomena, so Arctic scientific stations have been set up there. The space age brought satellite ground stations to read the data produced by Earth-observation and weather satellites in polar orbits. Scientists came to man the facilities, and a university centre for Arctic studies was set up at Longyearbyen.

Vestiges of its coal-mining past remain, but Longyearbyen now offers all the comforts of a college town on the mainland, from multi-channel cable TV to a cappuccino café to a stretch limo that cruises its 10 kilometers of road.

For more information on Svalbard, contact the office of the Governor, PO Box 633, N-9171 Longyearbyen, Tel: 79024300, Fax: 79021166, www.sysselmannen.svalbard.no, firmapost@sysselmannen.svalbard.no, or, if you are interested in Arctic studies there, the University Centre, PO Box 156, 9171 Longyearbyen, Tel: 89023300, Fax: 79023301, www.unis.no, post@unis.no.

Water (Vann)

The amount of fresh water available is equivalent to 112,500 cubic metres per year per person, five times as much as in neighbouring Sweden and 60 times as much as in Germany. The high figure is due to the high annual rainfall and snowfall of some 1,400mm – 40% greater than the world average – and to a low population density.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Chapter 21) reckons that this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It’s an advantage because the supply is ample and renews itself regularly. It’s a disadvantage because it has brought about a reliance on purity of supply rather than efficiency of treatment. So when purity of supply fails, water quality suffers; as many as 400 waterworks cannot remove humus when it pollutes water.

By tradition, Norwegians don’t like the taste of chlorine in water, so waterworks have kept chlorine dosages to the minimum required to eliminate infections agents. One advantage of that approach has been that the dosages are insufficient to give rise to the potentially harmful by-products of chlorination. Moreover, as a high-tech country, Norway was among the first to use ultraviolet (UV) radiation to purify water, and now there are more waterworks using UV than chlorine.

Nonetheless, water pollution occurs, particularly when run-off from land contaminates drinking water reservoirs. But the instances are so infrequent that they make headlines, as they did in the autumn of 2004 when some 300 people in downtown Bergen fell ill due to contamination in one of the city’s reservoirs. Though large today, a number like that palls in comparison with those of a century ago: in 1899, some 30,000 people in Oslo fell ill with dysentery after someone washed the clothing of a patient with dysentery in the city’s drinking water reservoir. With today’s high-tech purification and frequent testing, the chances of such an outbreak recurring are nil. Fully 98% of the population now can rely on regular supply of safe drinking water.

Weather forecasts (Værvarslinger)

Weather forecasts are printed in newspapers and are part of radio and TV news programmes. The printed and TV forecasts use symbols, such as drawings of clouds and raindrops to indicate rain, a snow crystal to indicate snow, clouds partly obscuring a sun to indicate partly cloudy and a sun to indicate clear skies. Forecasts are usually for the next 24 hours or for the following day as well as for the next five days (langtidsvarsel). In forecasts for the public, the country is divided into five weather regions:

• Fjelltraktene i Sør-Norge: the central mountain ranges.
• Vest-Norge sør for Stad: the west coast and immediate areas south of the Stad peninsula, which is the point on land in Sogn og Fjordane county that marks the demarcation between the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, areas of the Atlantic Ocean distinguished from each other in part by differing currents and weather patterns.
• Trøndelag og Møre og Romsdal: the midland counties.
• Nordland: county at the Arctic Circle.
• Troms og Finmark: the northern counties.

Forecasts for mariners and fishermen include other information, such as wind strengths, wave heights and storm warnings. Temperatures (temperatur) and precipitation (nedbør) are often compared against normal (mot normal), which is the average for the day or season over the previous 30-year period of meteorological observations. The current normals are the averages for the period from 1961 to 1990 and are valid for the period from 1991 to 2020. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute supports countrywide weather forecast billed service helplines:

• Today’s and tomorrow’s weather: Tel: 82053000 (NOK 5/min) voice prompt menu for selecting one of 12 district forecasts.
• Long-term forecast: Tel: 82073000 (NOK 12/min) voice prompt menu for selecting one of three regional forecasts.