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Kent_Knifen t1_jaa4dmb wrote

Reply to comment by cryolongman in Norway: Thunberg joins Indigenous protests against turbines. The young environmental activist says green energy cannot come at the expense of human rights. A court order has deemed the turbines' location in Norway illegal, as they disrupt Sami reindeer-herding traditions by DoremusJessup

People hear tradition and think it's a hobby or something. It is not.

This is a way of life for the Sami people. They rely on reindeer herding as a matter of survival. The energy company wants to take land from an ethnic minority group to further their own profits.

The path to progress should not be laid with the blood of indigenous minorities.

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Arkeolog t1_jabnxk8 wrote

I mean… it’s more complicated than that. Very few Sami people today are reindeer herders, and even fewer have it as their main occupation. I’m more familiar with the situation in Sweden than Norway, but here only about 100 herders (out of 4,600 people who own reindeer) have enough reindeer to live on. Economically the practice is heavily subsidized by the government (about 40-50 % of revenue come from compensation for predator kills and prize subsidies). Yet 30-50 % of all of Sweden is reindeer herding territory. Which means that almost any land use in half of the country run into these conflicts. Wind turbines, mines, roads, hunting, fishing - you name it.

Also, there are conflicts within the Sami over reindeer herding. You have to be a member of a “Sameby” to herd reindeer, and the “samebyar” has been accused by other Sami people to be discriminatory as the members decide who gets to be members, so it becomes a insider/outsider issue where Sami people who for some reason didn’t become members when they were formed are excluded despite having well documented Sami heritage.

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bigassbiddy t1_jaavsbb wrote

Hypothetically, if there was an indigenous tribe called the Coali that burned coal to survive as a tradition, would you still support protecting them from wind mills?

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GGnerd t1_jab7tku wrote

I'd bet a single average factory puts out more pollution than an indigenous tribe burning coal would...

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bigassbiddy t1_jac3em9 wrote

So then we should still respect that tribes decision to fuck the environment and block windmills?

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The-Entity t1_jaajm9i wrote

So no trolling uncontacted tribes with drone light shows of human faces in the sky? Aww shucks. Kicks dirt

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LogReal4025 t1_jae79b9 wrote

You think unchecked climate change might be a problem for the Sami people or nah?

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