Avainsana: Environment

Julkaistu

RIVERSIDE EXCURSION AT THE MÄTÄJOKI CREEK IN PITÄJÄNMÄKI HELSINKI

A walk on our ’riverside’ today, here in my Helsinki city region Pitäjänmäki – Sockenbacka. Trout are back here, after ten years of diligent work since a leak from a paint factory killed all life in our Mätäjoki – Rutiån creek.

The trout is a highly endangered species here so it has been quite an achievement by the fishing and nature activists to create a conducive environment in this small river.

The government supports this work in many ways and sanctions for illegal fishing are heavy – it would cost 3,260 Euro plus fines to take up a trout from these waters. No wonder that people prefer the fish monger in the close by shopping center.

So a great day and I was especially happy to see also some old friends joining us, like my class mate from school Hans Lindqvist and a friend and colleague from our union years here in Finland, journalist Kari Arola.

Hans Lindqvist and Pekka Lindblad
Pekka Lindblad and Kari Arola

The local association Pitäjänmäki-seura ( Sockenbacka-sällskapet in Swedish ) which I am president of will continue actively supporting these conservation efforts. We have a uniquely wonderful nature here just next to the city centre and want to take care of it. Helsinki (Helsingfors) is actually a great green city to live in.

Julkaistu

Not sure if environmental taxing of air traffic is smart – seldom easy solutions to complex problems

Parts of the Nordic political establishment – green environmentalists and many others across the spectrum, also many social democrats – think they have found a great tool to combat global warming.

Taxing air traffic more heavily should do the trick they say.

I don’t contend that this would be ineffective. Of course we could try to cut air travel as well as other traffic exhausts.

Significantly raising air ticket prices could regrettably take us back to the times when only a well-to-do elite could afford exploring the world. For the wealthy, a few hundred additional Euros would not make a big difference.

In a peripheral, far away and small country like Finland, raising obstacles for international air travel is definitely not the best of ideas. We should encourage international travel and contacts, not hinder them.

Once again we see that there are no simple solutions to complex problems. Even if oncoming elections invite populist initiatives.

Julkaistu

Heat wave is drying out our local creek Mätäjoki in Pitäjänmäki Sockenbacka in Helsinki

The prolonged heat wave is slowly drying up the Mätäjoki creek that runs through our Marttila village in Pitäjänmäki Helsinki. This used to be an ancient route up from the sea which monks from the Baltics used already in the middle ages. The uplift of land that started after the Ice Age and still slowly continues has of course had its own effect.

If the name of the creek is translated directly into English it would be the Rotten River. For long I thought it was indeed so that the rather unflattering name with its not so nice connotations had its reasons.

Only this year I heard from a city expert that this is in fact a misunderstanding. The Swedish name Rutiån from which the Finnish one has been adapted is actually not based on ’rotten’ – that is ’rutten’ – but comes from an ancient and forgotten German word for a dog…

So we learn something every day.

The hot weather continues here with daily temperatures up to 30C. Luckily we have been spared from the kind of huge forest fires that ravage Sweden but the risk is always there.

In this (still) bilingual Finland also most names exist in the two national languages. This means that Helsinki is Helsingfors, the city region Pitäjänmäki is Sockenbacka and the Marttila village is Martas in Swedish.

Julkaistu

Moving freely in the woods collecting mushrooms – healthy luxury life in Finland

Great day for a walk in the Finnish forest – and collecting mushrooms. This is the time for funnel chanterelles or winter mushrooms as they are sometimes also called. And yes, here in Finland one is free to move in the terrain, private and public, just staying at a respectful distance from the very immediate surroundings of peoples’ homes.

Much of the forest areas are also still owned by the government, the present coalition has not yet succeeded to sell them abroad in their privatizing frenzy…

The rather small funnel chanterelles are hard to detect but once found they tend to flock in large numbers around the same place. Today’s excursion was to a forest area some 30 kms east of Finnish capital Helsinki. And no, we neither saw nor heard anyone else out there during the 3 hours stay, only heard some distant bird sounds.