opinions
Arne O. Holm comment:
A Northern Norwegian Summer Weather to be Grateful For
Commentary: The weather forecast for Northern Norway in the summer of 2026 summarised: The thermometer barely reaches double digits. It has rained continuously. Strong, cold wind from the south-west. All in all, weather to be grateful for.
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This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. All views expressed are the writer's own.
After all, we are both wind- and waterproof. We have dry clothes and warm houses.
Quite different from large parts of Europe, where hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing wildfires that are out of control.
Evacuated and homeless
Evacuated and homeless. Often with no possessions other than what they managed to grab before they had to flee. Some had to flee once again because the flames came after them at a furious pace.
Flames fuelled by decades of ignored warnings about climate change spiralling out of control.
For one would have to be president of the United States or Russia not to see the connection between ever more frequent and violent wildfires and a planet at boiling point.
Dry clothes and a warm bed.
Presidents who, from their bunkers, one of them in close concert with Israel, have spent the summer bombing innocent people from out of their homes. Out of their countries. Among the dead were tens of thousands of children.
The threats keep coming
The threats have come thick and fast. About wiping out civilisations. About launching attacks the world had not seen since the Second World War.
From heads of state who do not spare the climate a thought either, except to oppose any measure that could reduce the threat we all face.
The rain continues to drum on my window. A ray of light in the north gives hope of the rain easing.
It will be what it will be.
I have dry clothes and a warm bed.
And live in the Arctic.
