Are you a protester or are you an activist?

The Environmental Protection Association has in all years appeared as an organization on the side of the norm among organizations that work for nature and the environment. We have received a lot of "pepper" for this from many other organisations, such as the Nature Conservation Association, Bellona and the Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT), and also from the political side. Why is it like that? We will try to explain why we believe that we in the Norwegian Environment Protection Association are often seen as "pariahs" among so many others who work for the same cause. Most recently from a forward-thinking politician and former head of the Nature Conservation Association, who went out in the media and warned against the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association's aid to wind power opponents in the country. Another recent example was when Kurt Oddekalv was to give a lecture on wind power at Finnskogen, it was refused to advertise this lecture on DNT's Facebook page. An organization that is also strongly against onshore wind power.

Kurt Oddekalv said many years ago that we in the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association should not become a Flower Power organisation. Why did he say this, and why is this important? Yes, this is important because we see that in today's political world, Flower Power no longer works. Now the political landscape here in Norway is founded on the least possible waves in the sea when they make political decisions across natural interests. The government and the lobbyists in the various environmentally harmful industries have become accustomed to, and want people who do not like that such industries destroy and rape Norwegian nature to protest on paper with posters and slogans. And with methods they and law enforcement can quickly clean up on command, such as chain gangs and demonstration trains. Then they can almost undisturbed continue their plans, which are based on the magic word value creation from the government, and the word profit from the industry, without taking nature and species diversity into account. The desire is therefore for opponents to join together, be easy to clean up, and not least to be politically correct.

But shouldn't one protest democratically correct political decisions in a democratically correct way, as the other organizations do, the reader of this case might ask. Yes, we say in the Norwegian Environment Protection Association. This is how it must be when decisions are made through thorough democratic processes. But the problems in today's political landscape is that, in our opinion, the politicians are often controlled, and make their decisions based on lobbying from these environmentally harmful industries.

The same applies to the industries that simply buy the right to start their business. If you look at onshore wind power, they provide the municipalities with promised income and jobs. Here, all the numbers they use are legal, even if the numbers do not match reality. The same applies when they contact the landowners. Here the landowners are offered so much money that they are unable to say no to their particular area being razed.

But what about NVE then, you ask. After all, they must ensure that consultation input and protests are taken into account so that developers cannot start their projects, if other major interests and natural destruction are at stake. Well, in the opinion of the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association, NVE has become a tool for the government and hence also the developers. They must follow up on the desire and the political decision that Norway MUST have onshore wind power, with so and so many more TWH within a certain time. A decision made on the wrong premises, due to the wind lobbyists' lies about the importance of such power plants for the world's climate. NVE will then be on the developer's "party", and disregard important natural interests. They select the worst applications, but accept the second worst applications. The guard dog NVE has become a guide dog.

The democratic rules of the game therefore no longer apply in the opinion of the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association. And then you have to react in a different way than what the government and developer are used to, and expect you to do.

And it is precisely by reacting in a different way to all the other organizations that we in the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association are seen as a "pariah". And that is exactly why we make a difference. We refuse to follow the democratic rules of the game, when those who decide and will build do not make their decisions based on facts, and do not themselves follow the rules of democracy.

So then we are back to the headline. Are you a protester shouting in the woods with posters and slogans like the other organizations do? And as developers and the government want us to do? Or are you tired of shouting, and tired of never being heard because of the above explanations? Ready to make a difference?

Then perhaps it is time to follow the Environmental Protection Association's thoughts, and start campaigning instead of demonstrating against the injustice we humans, nature and species diversity are being subjected to due to erroneous political decisions. The difference lies in the fact that we at the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association actively try to stop the projects, without breaking Norwegian Law. The best example is the action on Frøya, where we at the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association helped the demonstrators to become activists. This is how we jointly managed to prevent the developer from starting the demolition of beautiful Frøya.

We in the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association have stopped shouting in the woods and started to act.
Flower Power no longer works.