Monday Morning News & Notes
CO2 emissions continue to soar. Norway spends big on defense.
🍃Environment & Energy⚡️
🇪🇺
Storm Kathleen drove unseasonably warm temperatures across Europe over the weekend as it scooped up warm air over Africa and funneled it, and the dust from the Sahara desert that it was carrying, through Europe.
🇩🇰
Predictions of unseasonably warm weather seem to have come true in parts of Denmark over the weekend. The Danish Meteorological Institute says the warmest parts of the country hovered between 17 and 19 degrees on Saturday Southern Jutland seems to have seen the most heat with the thermometer reaching 19.6 degrees in Aabenraa and Store Jyndevad near the German border.
The institute says that the warm weather should continue until at least Tuesday with highs of around 17 degrees in places before things cool off a little later in the week.
Quite a weather difference from last week where over a few days we saw a downpour that emptied the amount of rainfall that Denmark usually sees over the entire month of April. In fact, last week Denmark recorded its wettest April day since DMI began keeping records in 1874.
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The soaking-wet winter continues to cause landslides across Denmark. Last week’s cloudburst contributed to a landslide that swept across the train tracks between Silkeborg and Herning. Train traffic between the two cities has been offline for days. The rail operator is hoping to get things cleaned up and have train traffic resume by Tuesday. That said the company adds the damage is pretty extensive so it cannot say for sure if it can meet its repair timeline.
Until the trains get rolling again the route is being serviced by buses.
🇸🇪
Wild weather variations across Sweden. After freezing temperatures and snowmageddon chaos on highways across Southern Sweden, spring arrived over the weekend with stunning speed. Temperatures rose to 15 degrees or more in the country’s south while they remained firmly in the freezer in Swedish Lapland where overnight lows on the weekend sunk to minus 22.
Meteorologist Marcus Sjöstedt, who works for Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT, says this is more or less a normal Nordic spring.
“Things can change quickly in the spring. From snow chaos and cold to spring heat and denim jackets.”
🇩🇪
Temperatures soared in Germany over the weekend with numerous areas seeing the thermometer rise to the high 20s. It hit 30 degrees in Ohisbach, just on the German side of the border near Strasbourg, France, on Saturday. This marks the earliest 30-degree day in Germany in any year ever.
🌎
There is no sign of greenhouse gas emissions slowing last year, in fact, they are doing quite the opposite. According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration levels of the three most damaging human-caused greenhouse gases continued to steadily climb last year. While the rise was not quite as high as record jumps seen in previous years, the agency says they continued to be in line with the steep increases that have marked the past decade.
GML Director Vanda Grubišić:
“As these numbers show, we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.”
NOAA says that CO2 concentrations increased by 2.8 parts per million last year, marking the 12th consecutive year emissions increased by more than 2 ppm. The agency says that prior to 2014 seeing three consecutive years of growth was unheard of.
The Global Carbon Project’s measurements peg global CO2 emissions in 2023 at 36.6 billion tonnes, a new annual record.
NOAA scientists say that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere today are roughly comparable to where they were 4.3 million years ago when the sea level was around 75 feet higher than it is now and the Arctic was covered by a vast forest.
🇩🇰
Two Danish municipalities find themselves at odds over plans for a massive expansion of what is already Denmark’s largest port. Kerteminde Kommune has decided to halt planning work on areas under its jurisdiction in the expansion of the port in neighbouring Odense, the largest city on the island of Fyn. The Kommune says the expansion is so massive that it needs one big master plan with everyone at the table instead of piecemeal planning across different municipalities. In particular, Mayor Kasper Ejsing Olesen cited the impacts the port’s expansion will have on the character and charm of the small community of Munkebo.
The Port of Odense, pushing for rapid expansion to meet the demand for offshore wind turbines, finds itself at odds with the municipality's decision. Director Carsten Aa acknowledges the urgency of the green transition but expresses concern over potential delays resulting from the suspension of planning work. Despite ongoing dialogue with neighboring residents and interest groups, concerns persist regarding the port's responsiveness to community apprehensions.
Amidst these events, Odense Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel, a key stakeholder, is refraining from commenting on the implications for Kerteminde, leaving questions about inter-municipal cooperation unanswered.
The port of Odense is seeking a possible expansion of up to one million square meters along with new navigable channels in the already meandering Odense fjord.
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Aalborg University is looking to significantly scale down its operations by cutting back on the number of buildings in its sprawling city-wide campus. The university says it will say goodbye to approximately 35,000 square meters of space, or about 14% of the total number of buildings it is currently operating out of.
The university is blaming the cuts on climate change as it seeks to reduce its CO2 emissions along with rising rents and a steady decline in the number of young people as birth rates across the Nordics continue to plummet.
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The annual Affaldsindsamlingen campaign starts Monday across Denmark. In the week ahead schools, daycares, and other educational institutions, will work to collect garbage and other waste left in nature areas. The week culminates on Sunday when people organize events across the country to remove trash and rubbish from their local areas.
🇫🇮
Electric vehicle numbers are climbing in Finland. According to Statistics Finland, overall new car registrations fell by 16% in March compared to the same month last year. However, more than half of all car sales last month were fully electric or plug-in hybrids. Compared to March 2023, Finland has recorded a 42% increase in fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.
While Finland ended 2023 with a record number of electric vehicles on the road, fossil fuel vehicle numbers continue to wane, falling 2% year over year.
🇪🇺⚡️
While Storm Kathleen drove thermometers up across Europe along with buffeting the continent with strong winds it was also a boon for energy production. British Energy Specialist EnAppSys says the storm’s strong winds combined with ample solar power resulted in spot energy prices in almost every European marble being at zero or in the negative. Only areas of Norway and Poland posted energy spot prices above zero.
The storm produced such a harvest of strong winds that the energy analyst expects a number of offshore wind farms to curtail production over the short term to avoid supply vastly exceeding demand.
🇪🇬🇪🇺
The global energy crisis is not over yet. Egypt's energy security is in turmoil as the nation shifts from being a gas exporter to an importer, triggering concerns not only for its own stability but also for broader energy geopolitics, notably affecting the European Union. Egypt's state-owned EGAS is racing to secure LNG imports to mitigate potential shortages during the upcoming summer months and its brutal temperatures. The ongoing Egyptian energy crisis should be a primary concern for all regional players.
The ramifications extend beyond Egypt's borders, with the EU eyeing the Eastern Mediterranean as a potential energy hub for gas and clean energy sources. However, the escalating energy insecurity in Egypt presents a significant obstacle to these aspirations. President El Sisi's efforts to curb the crisis have faltered, compounded by economic woes and political instability, endangering the livelihoods of millions of Egyptians and exacerbating concerns about regional stability.
As Egypt grapples with recurrent blackouts, including reports of newborns delivered by the light of mobile phones in hospitals, and dwindling gas production at the Zohr field, the specter of prolonged energy shortages looms large. Navigating geopolitical hurdles, such as securing clearance from Yemen's Houthi rebels for vital maritime routes, adds to the difficulty of the situation.
🦠Outbreaks🦠
🇪🇺
The various winter respiratory infection waves that buffeted Europe are all receding according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The agency says that the positivity percentage for influenza sunk below the 10% threshold across most European Union and greater European Economic Area countries. The ECDC says while there might be some variation among some specific countries across Europe as a whole seasonal flu levels have returned to baseline rates.
It adds that the winter RS virus infection wave is essentially over albeit with some mild infection activity in some countries. While coronavirus activity remains low across Europe.
🇩🇰 🇺🇸
The Danish Veterinarian Consortium is among a number of groups and epidemiologists who are keeping a very close eye on an outbreak of avian influenza among dairy cows in the United States. Cows in herds across six different states have tested positive for the bird flu. The Statens Serum Institute calls the development “unusual” because herbivore grazing animals were considered to be not very susceptible to influenza viruses including bird flu. Along with the cows, a cat, and a man in Texas who was in contact with infected cows have also tested positive for avian flu.
Epidemiologists are working to nail down how exactly the virus passed to the cows. While they don’t have any firm answers yet the working theory is that it was passed directly or indirectly from wild birds. Another concern is that the virus is spreading through the herd fairly rapidly and infecting a high proportion of cattle. This presents another unanswered question of whether the virus is passing from cow to cow or whether each cow is getting it from the same as yet unidentified common source. Oddly, no beef cattle have ever tested positive,
Avian influenza virus has never been detected in cows outside the United States.
Epidemiologists have always been concerned about the potential of the avian flu evolving to the point it can spread among humans. Genetic sequencing in the United States has found a genetic mutation among samples from Texas that is known to increase the ability of a virus to adapt to mammals, including humans. However, there is no indication of spread between humans.
🇫🇮
A number of studies have linked nature to improving people’s health and well-being. The Finnish Institute for Health and the Natural Resources Center are teaming up to study the health impacts of nature and whether a renewed focus on being in nature could translate to savings in healthcare delivery.
A secondary focus of the study will be on the importance of nature and green spaces in increasingly urban lifestyles. The institute says that at the moment urban planning does not factor in the health benefits of nature when perhaps it should have a more significant role.
🇺🇸
The United States appears to be seeing an increase in people suffering from Long-COVID. The American Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control regularly query about 70,000 people in order to get something of a picture of Long-COVID spread. In its latest census, 17.6% of respondents said they have experienced COVID symptoms long after having recovered from an infection. That is an increase from 17.4% in February and the 14% rate seen in October of 2023.
With masking and other COVID restrictions long since vanished and vaccine apathy among many in the U.S. population, health experts across the United States have grown increasingly concerned about Long-COVID spread, which is fed by every arriving infection wave.
Over 60 million people around the world are estimated to have Long-COVID according to the World Health Organization. The WHO has often described the affliction as the health crisis under the COVID crisis as people battle symptoms for months and even years eating up valuable medical resources.
🇺🇦Ukraine/Russia🇷🇺
The situation in Ukraine is becoming critical according to the country’s President. Volodymyr Zelenskyj took to national TV to warn that the Ukrainian Armed Forces may soon run out of surface-to-air missiles if Russia keeps up its renewed missile and drone attacks across the country.
“If they keep hitting day after day, as they have done for the past month, then we will possibly run out of missiles, and our partners know that.”
Zelenskyj said the need is particularly acute for American Patriot missiles.
With MAGA Republicans stonewalling further aid to Ukraine, a desperate Zelenskyj says all options are on the table to unlock more help.
“We will agree to all possibilities. The most important thing is that the help is coming. The sooner the better.”
Overnight on Saturday Russia launched another missile barrage across Ukraine. According to the media outlet the Kyiv Independent there were 21 different parts of the country targeted with reports of almost 80 explosions.
🇩🇪🇱🇻/ 🇷🇺
German fighter jets were scrambled from a NATO Air Command base in Latvia on Sunday morning in order to intercept Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic. A Russian II-20, used for surveillance and electronic intelligence gathering, was flying over the Baltic with its transponder deliberately turned off.
This has become a fairly routine tactic for Russia as it continually probes NATO airspace.
🇳🇴
Add Norway to the growing list of European countries that are suddenly sinking massive amounts of money into defense. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre calls it a “historic boost” as Norway dedicates 600 billion Norwegian kroner (about $76 billion Cdn) into the country’s defense. The new defense agreement will see annual defense spending increase to 166 billion Norwegian kroner by 2036. For comparison in 2022 Norway’s defense budget was 71 billion Norwegian kroner.
Støre says Norway needs to rearm, put a stronger emphasis on its armed forces, and improve readiness for potential conflicts, because Russia has become a "more dangerous and unpredictable neighbor for many years to come.”
Norway’s navy is one priority area for the huge influx of new funding. Norway is focusing its contribution to NATO on its maritime military might to essentially be the alliance’s Nordic navy.
🇸🇪 NATO
Sweden will “very soon” deploy its first contribution to NATO since joining the military alliance in early March. NATO Air Command is anticipating the Swedish Gripon warplanes will arrive soon to help patrol alliance airspace along its eastern border with Russia.
Head of NATO European Air Command General James B. Hecker:
“At the end of spring, I think we will see Sweden participating in Air Policing missions. We are talking to the Swedish Air Force all the time and we will arrive at an exact time, but it will be very soon.”
Even before joining NATO, Sweden had been coordinating with the alliance as its Air Force helped track and intercept Russian planes near allied airspace.
NATO requires certain systems to be in place, like specific equipment to encrypt communications and information sharing among allies, in order for member nations to contribute fighter jets and other military vehicles. Those systems have not yet been installed on Sweden’s end and that is holding up its ability to contribute in the air and on the ground.
🇩🇰/ 🇷🇺
Another Danish company has pulled the plug on its operations in Russia. Pindestrup Mosebrug, which produces sphagnum, has revealed in its annual report that it has arranged to sell all of its Russian operations to companies in the country.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Pindestrup Mosebrug had already separated its Russian business placing a firewall between it and its Danish head office.
🇸🇪/ 🇷🇺
Sweden’s only aluminum smelter is at the center of a heated political debate. The smelter, which supplies aluminum that is used in everything from boats, buildings, and cars in Sweden, is owned by one of the world’s largest aluminum companies controlled by pro-Putin oligarch Oleg Deripaska. While Deripaska is under sanctions the aluminum company is not.
Swedish political parties are now demanding that the government seize the smelter and nationalize it.
Centre Party Economic Policy spokesperson Martin Ådahl spoke to SVT to say that it is not “fundamentally compatible with Swedish security interests” that a company under the direct control of Moscow is allowed to operate on Swedish soil.
“What we should do is what other European countries have done, to introduce laws on compulsory administration where the company is simply taken over under Swedish state compulsory administration. So that Moscow loses its control over it but that the business can continue.”
The oligarch is accused by Ukraine of supplying the Russian military with raw materials for use in the arms industry. One of Deripaska’s companies does in fact manufacture military vehicles.
Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billström wouldn’t comment on the question of whether the smelter should be nationalized or not. Instead, he focused on the possibility of expanding sanctions.
“It's a hard question. The government would like to see us expand the sanctions regimes and this is one such area. But I cannot here and now say what will be in the next sanction notice. However, we would like to work on this issue.”
🇸🇪/ 🇷🇺 🇨🇳
Sweden’s intelligence agency (SÄPO) is warning that both China and Russia are targeting agencies, including the Swedish Armed Forces, in the country’s north. In its latest annual report, SÄPO notes that there has been an increase in suspicious information gathering and phishing efforts from state-level actors. The activity includes phone calls from people pretending to be from foreign hospitals and universities trying to gather information from military and healthcare staff. The Swedish Armed Forces has also tightened filming restrictions around military facilities.
SÄPO says that Russia and China have different goals in their intelligence-gathering efforts. It says Russia is trying to gather all the information it can about Sweden’s military capabilities and infrastructure in the country’s north, especially now that it is a member of NATO. The intelligence agency says conversely China’s efforts are more directed at the research and development sector.
Climate change, geopolitical conflicts, the development of new technologies, and the exploitation of valuable minerals, are all putting more focus on the Arctic in Sweden and other countries with a toehold in the thawing Northern Hemisphere.
🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴🇫🇮🇮🇸🇫🇴🇬🇱
The Nordic Council will begin a two-day meeting in Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands today. The topic for the representatives of the Nordic nations will be regional security and preparedness specifically in the North Atlantic due to the security threat posed by Russia.
🇩🇪/ 🇷🇺
A case reminiscent of a Cold War spy thriller is unraveling in Germany, centering around Petr Bystron, a prominent member of the extreme right-wing national party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Bystron stands accused of being entangled in a web of Russian influence, allegedly receiving funds to propagate pro-Russian sentiments through the media. The accusations were brought to light over Easter through a secret audio recording linking Bystron to financial transactions from Russia, purportedly in exchange for spreading favorable views on a Russian-backed news outlet, Voice of Europe. Bystron vehemently denies the allegations, dismissing them as a "smear campaign."
The implications of this case extend far beyond the individual involved, sparking concerns of Russian interference in the upcoming European Parliament elections scheduled for June 9. European media outlets and analysts fear that this instance might be part of a broader pattern of Russian attempts to sway political discourse in Europe, particularly regarding Russia's ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
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A sign of the times. Museums in Denmark that focus on past wars and World War II-era bunkers are seeing a significant increase in visitors. At the Skanderborg Bunker Museum, they recorded a 25% increase in visitors last year and already visitation numbers so far this year are being described as “overwhelming”.
The museum’s Martin Mølgaard says the spike in interest is directly due to world events.
“It is current with the things that are happening in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world. Then people want to learn more about how it happened in the time when Denmark was close to a major conflict.”
He notes that people visiting the museum are particularly interested in what it was like during previous wars when basic goods had to be rationed.
🌍/ 🇷🇺
Artificial Intelligence is being harnessed to spread Russian propaganda and misinformation dressed up as news. Newsguard, an agency staffed by expert journalists tracking online news sites, has found an alarming increase in faux news sites using AI to spread Russian propaganda.
AI and Foreign Influence Editor McKenzie Sadeghi:
“When we started tracking these websites in May 2023, we identified 49. By February 21, 2024, we had identified 713 unreliable AI-generated news and information sites.”
Among them were sites shadowing the national broadcasters in the Nordic countries where bots skimmed news straight from genuine news sites, made changes, and then published them as news, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of articles a day.
Some of them are simply designed to harness advertising revenues but others are sneaking in Russian misinformation with the goal of having it picked up and spread on social media as factual information.
🇫🇷/ 🇷🇺
With the Olympic Summer Games in Paris inching closer, French President Emmanuel Macron says he is convinced that Russia will try and obstruct the games, something the Kremlin denies.
The ongoing war in Ukraine and in Gaza is causing complications for game organizers, especially around security.
Officially, athletes from Russia and Belarus are excluded from competing in the games under their national flags. Instead, they will compete as so-called neutral athletes something that will present its own difficulties, especially if they are competing with Ukrainian athletes.
Odds & Ends
🇸🇪
Non-alcoholic beverages are having a moment across the Nordic countries. In Sweden, Systembolaget, the government-run liquor store chain, says sales of alcohol-free drinks have increased by a massive 788% over the last 23 years. To put that into perspective, in the year 2000 the chain sold 400,155 liters of non-alcoholic products. Fast forward to 2023 and that has soared to over 3.5 million liters.
The growth is so dramatic the chain is now putting a new focus on acquiring and highlighting non-alcoholic products across its stores in order to meet surging demand.
🇫🇮🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴🇮🇸
Across the Nordics the birth rate fell by 8.3% in 2022, the largest decrease in more than 50 years. That is according to the Finnish Institute for Health who examined birth rates to find that Finland had the lowest among the Nordics (1.32) while Iceland had the highest (1.59) followed by Denmark (1.55). Norway was the lone Scandinavian country to not register a declining birth rate last year.
The institute also found that mothers are continuing to skew older with both the average age of those who gave birth and women who gave birth for the first time increasing. 26.4% of women giving birth in Finland were over 35 while it varied between 20% to 24.3% for the rest of the Nordics.
🇩🇰
Plummeting birth rates across the Scandinavian countries aren’t just being felt among school systems, who are seeing fewer and fewer children, but also among businesses catering to parents. The Danish baby equipment chain Babysam posted a loss of 21.1 million Danish kroner (about $4.1 million Cdn) in the last fiscal year.
The company directly attributes the revenue loss to declining birth rates. In order to get back in the black the company has decided to shift its focus from babies and infants to older children.
🇭🇺
The extreme right pro-Russian Orbán government in Hungary is again finding itself the target of massive demonstrations. Tens of thousands of people marched against the country’s government over the weekend demanding that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán step down. Demonstrators are upset about what they see as corruption within the government and its opposition to the European Union.
This is not the first time huge crowds have protested against Orbán. Earlier this year a pedophile scandal and a secret pardon issued by the Orbán government resulted in high-profile political resignations and massive demonstrations in the streets.
🇳🇿
New Zealand is tightening its immigration rules after 2023 saw an influx of a near record-high number of immigrants. The New Zealand government has put in place new work experience and English-speaking skills requirements. It is also shortening the term of a work visa to three years maximum, down from the previous five.
The government says this is part of a refocusing effort to ensure that immigrants who have the skills and qualifications needed the most in the country are at the front of the line.
Last year, 173,000 immigrants arrived in New Zealand, a number the country’s immigration minister called “unsustainable”.
🇩🇰The Week Ahead Round Up🇩🇰
Monday, April 8:
Odense Theatre is offering a behind-the-scenes tour today. The tour takes about an hour and a half and begins at 4:30 p.m. It is offered every Monday afternoon. The tour is entirely in Danish.
It costs 75 kroner for adults and 40 kroner for children.
Find out more HERE.
Tuesday, April 9:
The Danish women’s national football team meets Belgium in a European Championship qualification match.
The game takes place at Viborg Stadium. It begins at 6:00 p.m.
You can buy tickets HERE.
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Well-known Danish children’s storyteller and songwriter Sigurd and his musical Time Machine show begin a four-day run at the Odense Concert House today. Using music and entertainment Sigurd takes children on a tour through Denmark’s history.
Shows are twice a day at noon and 2:00 p.m. and run until Friday.
You can buy tickets HERE.
Saturday, April 13:
If you want to get your geek on then head to Randers today for the big Sci-Fi Convention. The two-day event features a long list of sci-fi celebrities highlighted by Finnish Actor Joonas Suotamo, best known for being the guy playing Chewbacca in Star Wars for the last few films.
The event begins today and continues on Sunday at the Randers Arena.
You can see the itinerary and buy tickets HERE.
Sunday, April 14:
It is Økodag in Denmark today. Every year on Økodag organic dairy cows, which have been cooped up inside all winter are let out of their barns and back to pasture. If you have never been to this event it is a delight. The cows literally jump for joy as they come streaming out into the fields. Farms across the country will hold Økodag events where you can watch the ‘dancing cows.’
The cows return to their fields at precisely noon on Sunday at farms across the country. The event often includes food stalls, live music, and other fun activities.
If you are in Denmark you can find a participating farm near you HERE.