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Showing posts from August, 2017

Former friends now seen as enemies in Svalbard

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In Svalbard the mountains, the former friends and protectors of the community, have become the "enemy". Lisbeth Iversen (NERSC), representing the INTAROS project and students from Amalie Skram High School in Bergen, Norway, as part of the Regimes project, tell us about the first day of their field trip meeting community members in Svalbard. Tuesday the 8 th of August 2017 we visited the Longyerbyen school and had the opportunity to ask questions about everyday life at school  in Longyerbyen, about  challenges like heavy rainfall, avalanches, melting permafrost, ice-free fjords etc. We were told that Longyerbyen has changed a lot over the years, from a society based on mining and industry, lacking a local political management, to a society with a local council or board of politicians, established in 2007. Many people nowadays want to stay here also after they retire, and even some young people who spent their childhood here, are coming back to study or work.