Jim Dator wrote:
> Tor, my youngest son is in the midst of a year-long project on all things
> Norwegian--religion, sports, food, rosemailing, music, drama, even
> Olympic medals, it turns out--so he will find your words informative, as
> do I.
>
> But what happens even in Norway when the oil and fish run out? Or have the
> proceeds been wisely and safely invested for a sustainable future?
>
The oil will certainly run out, but I hope that the fish will never
run out. Norway may be the only country in the World which has been
able to manage its fish resources in a sustainable way.
And the export of fish from Norway has been growing strongly every
year now for many years, and it did so last year too. One important
reason to this is that the herring of the Norwegian sea is back. It
was almost annihilated about 1970, and the last few herrings stayed
in Norwegian fjords for many years, and it was not allowed to catch
any of them, and now there are several million tons of them, and they
are being catched.
Norway did quite fine before the oil production started about 1970,
and was at that time among the rich countries of West- Europe. Norway
was already in 1925 among the the countries with the highest GNP in
Europe. One of the reasons I guess was that Norway did not take part
in WWI, but instead was in a period with a strong development of its
hydropower resources.
Tor Forde
