Five million and one

Today, the population in Norway exceeded five million people. That is quite a small number, compared with cities like Cairo or Mombai who each have about 20 million inhabitants, about four times the whole population of my country. But like the world in general, the population is growing, and it is growing fast.

This photo is showing the view from one of the mountains in my region, the mountain Fongen in Skarvan and Roltdal national park. It is quite a typical landscape of Norway. This is a country that consists mainly of mountains and forests, lakes and rivers. In many ways the country looks “empty”, and you can hike in mountains like this without meeting anyone for days. So you might think, we have space, so much space. And it is true! But at the same time there is only 3 percent cultivated land in Norway, so we can not feed that many. Actually about 60 percent of our food today is imported.

It is only a few months since the world reached 7 billion people, and the world population is continuing to grow, quickly: ” The 21st century is not yet a dozen years old, and there are already 1 billion more people than in October 1999 – with the outlook for future energy and food supplies looking bleaker than it has for decades,” wrote Robert Engelman, who is part of the Guardians Environment Network, a few months ago.

So it is maybe not a day for jubilations, and this may seem like a moody post. But I think it is important to be aware of the facts about how the world are changing. You can see more photos from this region in my photogallery.
I wrote a post about hiking in this national park last autumn, and here is the link.