Greta Thunberg is carried off by police again during protest against wind farm that was built on indigenous land in Norway
- The Swedish climate activist joined indigenous Sami protesters in Oslo today
- Police carried them away from the entrance of the Norwegian foreign ministry
Greta Thunberg was carried away by police officers yet again today during a protest on Oslo against a wind farm that has been built on indigenous land in Norway.
The Swedish climate activist had joined indigenous Sami protesters in blocking access to the Norwegian foreign ministry on Wednesday to protest against wind turbines that are still in place on reindeer herding land, despite a court ruling.
Police started to break up the demonstrations by physically carrying away members of the group, who were protesting against the use of wind turbines on reindeer herding land in the Fosen region of western Norway.
Thunberg was carried off by two police officers while she was blocking a door at the finance ministry, pictures and video from the scene showed.
The turbines are still in operation despite a landmark ruling more than a year ago by the Norwegian Supreme Court that the project violated the right of Sami families to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry.
Greta Thunberg was carried away by police officers yet again today during a protest on Oslo against a wind farm that has been built on indigenous land in Norway (pictured)
The Swedish climate activist (seen being carried by two officers) had joined indigenous Sami protesters in blocking access to the Norwegian foreign ministry on Wednesday to protest against wind turbines that are still in place on reindeer herding land, despite a court ruling
The protest began last Thursday when a handful of Sami activists, dressed in their traditional blue and red clothing, occupied the entrance hall of the energy ministry.
A growing number of activists – mainly teenagers – then began blocking access to other ministries this week, gradually expanding to more official buildings.
They were joined by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg on Sunday. ‘This fight is important because it is about human rights being violated,’ she told broadcaster TV2.
The campaigners are demanding the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures on Sami Indigenous land in central Norway.
An indigenous minority of around 100,000 people spread over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, the Sami have traditionally lived off reindeer herding and fishing. They have a history of being the victims of discrimination.
Norway’s highest court unanimously ruled that the expropriation and operating permits for the construction of the 151 turbines were invalid. However, it gave no guidance on what should be done with the turbines, which were already operating.
The Norwegian authorities have so far held off taking action and ordered further assessments, hoping to find a way that the turbines and Sami people can coexist.
Thunberg, for many a global standard-bearer of the campaign to end the world’s reliance on carbon-based energy, was later released along with other activists who had also been detained.
She also joined the protests in Oslo on Monday. Its supporters argue that a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Sami rights.
Reindeer herders say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.
Pictured: Greta Thunberg is seen moments before being picked up by two Oslo police officers
Thunberg was carried off by these two police officers while she was blocking a door at the finance ministry, pictures and video from the scene showed
Pictured: Greta Thunberg is seen third-left, sitting outside Norway’s Energy Ministry to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer, in Oslo, on February 28
Norway’s Sami musician and activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen talks to Norway’s Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland as young climate protesters from the ‘Nature and Youth’ and ‘Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat’ groups block the entrance of Norway’s Energy Ministry to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer, in Oslo, on February 28
A Norwegian Sami protester poses in traditional clothes as young climate protesters from the ‘Nature and Youth’ and ‘Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat’ groups block the entrance of Norway’s Energy Ministry on Tuesday
Greta Thunberg (third-left) attends a demonstration against the Fosen wind turbines not being demolished, which was built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders, outside Norway’s Ministry of Oil and Energy, February 27
The energy ministry has said the turbines present a legal quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise, but that it could take another year to make a new decision in the Fosen case.
Activists on Tuesday said they had raised close to $100,000 in recent days to help individual demonstrators pay police fines.
Activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that they were ‘escalating another couple of notches. We have said we will shut down the state of Norway, department by department’.
Norway’s energy minister cancelled a trip to Britain because of the protests.
Oil and energy minister Terje Aasland ‘has chosen to reprioritise his calendar and will therefore not travel to the UK as planned’, his office said.
He was due to take part in a two-day visit starting on Wednesday with the Norwegian crown prince and his wife. The ministry said that Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt will replace him.
On Tuesday, Mr Aasland spoke to the activists, saying the government will make a ‘new decision’ on the wind farm, but he could not give any specifics ‘until we have a sufficient knowledge basis for it’.
That infuriated the activists who said in a statement that ‘our will to fight is only growing after Terje Aasland’s visit with the same empty words as always’.
This is not the first time Thunberg has been carried off by police. In January, the 20-year-old Swede was twice detained by officers at a protest over the expansion of a coal mine in the western village of Lützerath.
Pictures of her being carried went viral on social media, with many commenting on her sanguine expression as she was lifted and carried away by three body-armour clad officers in a muddy field.
Norway’s western Fosen region has a series of six onshore wind farms, that were commissioned in 2018 to 2020. There are 278 wind turbines across the six sites, making it Europe’s second larges onshore windfarm (the first being in Sweden).
It more than doubled Norway’s capacity for wind power generation.
Greta Thunberg was seen smiling as she was carried away by riot police officers for the second time in three days while protesting at a coal mine in Germany in January
The Norwegian Supreme Court found that the Fosen wind farm project (pictured in 2021, file photo) violated the right of Sami families to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry
The Sami live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia, while a few hundred live in the US and in Ukraine.
They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue, and still face discrimination today.
Today, the nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles but still tend reindeer, with around 10 percent of the Sami connected to reindeer herding as of 2007.
Today, it is estimated that there are around 100,000 Sami people in total, with Norway being home to the highest number of the indigenous group.
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