Name: Gustav Carlsson

Milk: BIO - milk (French organic milk)

Unwritten page: Shall remain unknown

Motto: Never give up

Passion: To succeed in making the abode electrically self sufficient

Pets: Dog, Cabaret

Regrets: None (You cannot know the result if you made a different choice)

Gustav seems to have lived one hundred lives. Born in Vaasa in Finland, unhappy love in Sweden, an engineer at the Royal Opera, scientific studies in Lund, aid worker in Africa, hydrologist  at SMHI (Swedish Metrological and Hydrological Institute), he lives in a medieval castle in France. He leaves nothing to chance and one for following the wind, but follows his heart, this does not necessarily result in either a straight road or an easy life.

In recent years, he and his wife, Florence, have worked hard to get the rundown castle, restored and there have been times when everything seemed hopeless and they have been close to giving up. But this year, the first B & B guests started to arrive and Gustav was filled with a cautious hope. I ask Gustav what he considers to be the most important thing he does for the environment. He considers it to be the fact that they try and avoid using the car as much as possible. It is for the environment but also to cut down on costs. They are also trying to re-cycle the rubbish, which he says "sounds trite and obvious," but he hopes that it is good for the environment. I assumed that he is not so well informed about the French selective waste collection and what happens to the treated waste. But I am wrong. Gustavse that are buried. It may not be primarily for environmental reasons that he acquires knowledge in selective waste collection, but it is a positive side effect of his inquisitiveness. I understand Gustavs environmental commitment as a mixture of economic gain, environmental thinking and scientific curiosity. knows all about waste disposal in France and I get a detailed accounting of how it works and he says he follows the directives meticulously. What he has not completely sure of is exactly which goods are burned and tho

In the same way it seems connected to what he really is passionate about; the quest to become self-sufficient energy wise at the castle. He reads everything he comes across on traditional and alternative energy and new technologies. He is very well informed and responsive and I quickly realize that this is his fascination for ideas far more than economics. The fact that few of the technologies have been introduced at the castle is more of a resource and time issue. Basic refurbishment of sewers and to get the rooms ready has had priority, but now it is becoming clear that the time is ripe for some wise choices. Gustav’s reasoning that with time it should be cheaper to become electrically self-sufficient, but at present the costs are far too high.

Name: Johan Ehrenberg

ETC (political magazine) has been with us since childhood. It was to the (political) left, radical and courageous. Johan Ehrenberg is now the driving force behind the magazine, online edition, the Forum, a wealth of books, the speeches, columns, political speeches, and the CEO for Egen El AB (Egen El AB offers wind power and solar cells for home use that are suitable for balconies in apartments, houses and cottages;  the small power plants are easily connected to standard electrical outlets. In a convincing way, Egen El covers all the usual arguments to be found against the alternative power sources; too expensive, high initial costs, complicated, too little of both sun and wind.

Then the sales pitches; "you can rent! Payment by installment! Cancel when you wish! No bond required. Installation assistance supplied! Lack of sun or wind; complement power supply from green power companies. "

It is easy to capitulate...

Johan sees himself as more businessman than idealist. To him, the issues and commitment are the driving force. He uses the magazine and the company to get the message across.

Carbon Credits

Previously eco milk was a pretty good measure of environmental commitment, but now organic milk has become a standard and the measure it once illustrated, has become diluted. The issue of emissions is a measure that is more in time, most have heard of it, some have dug deeper into the questions involved and those directly involved have taken a position of for or against. It is a complex issue and requires that one is knowledgeable of the links between fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect. You must be familiar with national economics and politics; if of course you are not just going with the gut feeling.

Johan is well informed and has taken his stance and on ETC’s website you can even find an alternative climate policy program. He does not like emission trading at all and considers it is an attempt to create an imaginary market around the environmental issue and that it is too serious a matter to be manipulated via some kind of untried trading; a method that is of uncertain workability in the long term. Moreover, he finds it is an unfair trade that reveals a cynical way of the western world, to look at their environment. “Wealthy countries give carbon allowances to poorer nations which in turn sell them back to the richer economies enabling them to slowly be able to switch their sources of energy. If the rich world would seriously let every person’s entitlement to the same amount of air, water and food, well, then we can talk about an allowance being a choice for the seller. Now it is a constraint."

"We are purchasing the worlds demise;

one Carbon Emission Right, at a time”

Moreover, it is not logical, according to Johan. He mentions the fact that we in the western world already produce more greenhouse gases than the earth can assimilate. Therefore it does not matter how much we pay for other areas of the Earth’s carbon rights, to continue a little longer, when it is already too much. With this reasoning, it means that we would need a number of “Earths” if carbon emission rights would work for real. "The problem is very simple: each day we cause TOO MUCH damage. It is therefore not suitable to try to create a market that will make the damage more expensive by using emission rights. The rich world's economy is so superior that we can purchase the end of the world, one Right at a time.”  There is no time to make mistakes and Johan believes that it will require a completely different economic approach than through allowances for there to be any possibility of being able to replace the use of fossil fuels.

The art of making wise choices

At present we regulate emissions with money. Profitability steers production. Industries are not driven by the solar panels and wind craft because they are too expensive. You do not choose organic products that are more expensive than standard produce. Only when the congestion tax was introduced in Stockholm was there a reduction in driving in the city. Gasoline tax is raised unilaterally across the country regardless of where the problem is the greatest. Money is a practical tool, easy to understand; useful for politicians who want to appear as purposeful.

What about the less tangible instruments? What about the measures addressed more to human values and way of life? Labour market policy measures that reduce working hours enabling the use of public transport to compensate for longer journey time. Choice; spare time as opposed to product purchases. Time to bake one’s own bread; it doesn’t get any closer to the principle of “locally produced” than that,  nor better tasting. Maybe even time to read up on alternative electricity sources.

Johan agrees that stress is a common cause of poor environmental choices. He criticizes the way the climate issues are discussed today, as if it is only a  question of machines and energy sources, when it basically is about how we live. It is not new technology that can save the world, it's the people of the world. People prioritize correctly. He believes that we will see major economic changes caused by the lack of energy. He argues that the ways we choose to tackle the problem will be this generations greatest challenge and we need to invest collectively if we are to change the energy system. What is called the public sector will have a much greater role to begin with. He takes as an example, pension savings, that if, as an example, we are focusing our pension investments in solar energy cells, we may have less money in 2040, but we will have clean energy for a better quality of life; we can distribute it free between us and we will not to be poorer, not measured in real wealth.

"We must learn to be what we want to be

and not what we have become"

He argues that in order for us to make wiser choices, we must abandon our fear of aging, our obsession with pension funds and security in the form of smart investment and instead try to build environments and security in the community such as  mutual accommodation; community projects that have a role for all well into old age.

"I have no respect for people in the media or for politicians who claim to work with

climate change, unless they themselves use wind craft, use an environment friendly

car , mount the solar cells, etc., etc.. that they live as they preach"

Clear views and public positioning run like a thread through Johan Ehrenberg life. He tries to live as he teaches; he drives a green car, does not fly, produces his own electricity and tries to live as environmentally friendly as is possible.

With his commitment to environmental issues, he shows the feebleminded that it is possible to take responsibility for our own sources of energy in relatively simple ways. Perhaps it is more than a simple choice of energy source, it is perhaps a step towards being able to be what we want to be which is definitely good. Even ETC sells more issues now that green has become trendy!

Link to: Egen El AB

Anne is thirty-seven years old and lives in Skåne, the southern most county in Sweden.  After some years in an apartment she and Johan bought a disused garden center. They live near their relatives and many of their friends from earlier years, live within walking distance of each other.

In their everyday socializing, children and adult friends mix and the borders between friends and family become blurred. I meet Anne in their house on a hot summer’s day enjoying cooking for dinner in her new kitchen.

When I ask her about their environment and the materials used around about them,  she said that it was a natural choice to choose resource saving alternatives when renovating, because they are also the most economical, such as geothermal heating, energy-efficient windows, appliances and machinery. There are differences when making such choices between home appliances and products for consumption, which are often more expensive as soon as they labeled as eco friendly. Using the car less she sees as the biggest environmental saving. If hybrid cars had been cheaper, she had definitely considered purchasing one. Now they live relatively close to their jobs and try to cycle as much as possible. But with small children to drive to various activities after work it is difficult to let the car stand any day of the week.

Anne is a person who likes to get involved, she designs and builds extensions to the house; gets involved in their children's activities and she is a union representative. She says herself that it is the commitment to the students that makes her job as a teacher worthwhile;  getting to know them and wishing them well.

When I asked if she also is environmentally committed, I understand that she did not see themselves in that way. She is appreciative that the children have gone to environmentally conscious schools, but does not see herself as not particularly knowledgeable or interested in environmental issues. This is why it is often the case that she generally chooses the practical and economic solutions before environmental considerations. She believes that this is the reason she is not especially worried about climate change and what will happen in its footsteps, even if she believes it is likely that it is a climate change that we see, with higher average temperatures, more storms and ice that is melting.

She thinks the media is exaggerating the threat of dramatic climate change, excessively, know and then and that she is unsure of the actual scope of change. However, she believes that it is important that we try and that it is unnecessary to partake in environmentally unfriendly sports and leisure activities, for their own amusement's sake.

We talk a bit about consumer habits and how far she is willing to go to make an environmentally conscious choice. For her, the requirement that environment friendly goods she buys are at least as good as those she traditionally uses. If goods meet her demands for quality she can even think of choosing slightly more expensive products.

She has heard of environmental allowances, but does not know so much about what it means and she has no idea where she will go to buy them, even if there is anything she can think of to do so. She would probably prefer that they be included in the tour operators and airline travel concepts. Since the "eco-tourism" is often a combination of both interesting sights and a good environmently policy, it is clearly a variant which she is willing to try.

Nowadays it has become popular with environmental gifts, there are vouchers for goats, a visit to a midwife, contribution to loans to women in vulnerable local populations in poor countries and so on. Her friends and family are of an age where such gifts would work, but she also says that she is not an "internet person" and therefore she is not so good at tracking down where to find  sites that sells such products, so it’s back to traditional gifts. As for eco-labeled products she is a little sceptical, she thinks locally produced is better, against foreign goods, environmental labeling,which she is suspicious of, and does not choose these before similar local produce. It would seem to require more quality of thinking , availability and sensible pricing, for environmentally friendly consumables to be a natural choice for all.