This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.
Indigenous Sámi activists intensified their protests against an illegal wind farm on Thursday, blocking the entrances of several Norwegian ministries. Led by Sámi youth, protesters are demanding the removal of a wind farm built in Sápmi, the traditional territory of the Sámi, which stretches across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into Russia.
The Fosen Vind park, one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms, consists of 151 turbines near the city of Trondheim, on the country’s central-west coast. The park is owned by Norwegian, Swiss, and German energy companies, and was built in a grazing area crucial to Sámi reindeer herders, threatening their traditional livelihoods and culture.
“The state must immediately stop the ongoing violations of the Sámi reindeer herders’ human rights and take measures to reparation (sic) to redress violations of human rights,” Silje Karine Muotka, president of the Sámi Parliament of Norway, wrote in a letter to the U.N. “The windmills must be demolished, and the area restored to reindeer grazing land.”
Norway’s Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the wind farm violated the Sámi’s human rights and was constructed illegally. The Norwegian government has yet to take action on the ruling. Sámi land defenders in Norway’s capital of Oslo were not available for comment, but campaigners told Reuters they would close down the state, ministry by ministry, until the windmills are removed. Sámi leaders say Norway’s failure to follow the law has left them with little choice but to protest.
Norway’s government-run broadcaster, NRK, reported that Sámi reindeer herders from the Fosen district have begun traveling to Oslo to support the protests, and on Thursday morning, Greenpeace activists climbed the Ministry of Oil and Energy to hang a banner reading “Land Back.” Some campaigners chained themselves to the entrance of the Ministry of Culture and Equality before being removed, detained, and fined by police. Representatives of the Sámi Parliament have also begun consultations with the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Minister of Agriculture — Sámi reindeer herders have demanded the handling of Fosen be handed to the Ministry of Agriculture to avoid conflicts of interest.
“They should have seen it coming for violating human rights,” environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who has joined Sámi land defenders in Oslo, told Reuters.
As protests spread, the Sámi Parliament of Norway has appealed to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples to intervene.
In 2018, a U.N. human rights committee asked Norway to stop construction on a power plant that would become part of the final wind farm. However, the Norwegian government disregarded the request once construction passed domestic legal hurdles.
Representatives for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and the Government Security and Service Organisation, the security force responsible for detaining Sámi land defenders, did not respond to a request for comment. Attempts to reach the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur also went unreturned.
Norway is often seen as a leader in global human rights and is home to the Nobel Peace Prize, but, like other Nordic countries, it has a long history of racism directed at the Sámi people. There’s also a long history of Sámi resistance in the region.
Most of Norway’s electricity is generated by hydropower, but approximately 10 percent comes from wind generation. That’s according to Edgar Hertwich, a professor in industrial ecology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who said growth in energy demand has outstripped production. That increase, coupled with delivery “gaps” in the country’s electrical grid, have led to the construction of more green energy projects.
“The wind park that’s under discussion is about the amount of energy that’s needed for the city of Trondheim with 220,000 inhabitants or two of the largest industrial companies in the region,” Hertwich said, adding that the location of Fosen and other wind farms also threaten local ecosystems, particularly those of birds and bats.
“It’s clear that the locations that have been chosen are not the ones that lead to the lowest environmental impacts, and they obviously don’t lead to lower social impacts,” Hertwich said. “There are some poor decisions that were made 10 years ago that we have to live with today.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy