Chronicle on zoo ethics published in Nationen

In today´s print edition of the Norwegian daily Nationen the chronicle "Dyreparker - bevaring av truede dyrearter eller underholdning?", co-written by me, Guri Larsen, Kristian Ellingsen-Dalskau and Knut Bøe, on behalf of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, was published. The chronicle appeared online on February 6th. The chronicle builds on and refers to a recent consultative statement on the topic recently issued by the council and mainly written by me.

Council for animal ethics issues consultative statement on ethics of zoos; my role

Norway´s Council for animal ethics has issues the consultative statement "Etiske grenseoppganger for hold av dyr i dyrepark" (loosely: Ethical limitations for the keeping of animals in zoos). I have been main responsible for composing the text, along with Guri Larsen (though such texts are always ultimately consensus products).

Trip north with Council for animal ethics - meetings; excursion to the Finnmark expanse

The last few days I have been traveling in Finnmark in Northern Norway, partaking in the excursion of Norway´s Council for animal ethics. We arrived in Alta on Monday (November 8th), and then drove to Kautokeino. In the afternoon we met with researchers and a Head of department at Sámi allaskuvla (Sámi university of applied sciences). On Tuesday (November 9th) we went to the Finnmark expanse (Finnmarksvidda) on a trip by snow scooter arranged by Sokki adventure, and got to encounter reindeer, throw lasso, ride with reindeer by sledge, and have lunch in a big lavvo with live fire. On Wednesday (November 10th) we visited Laksens hus in Alta, had a meeting with the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture´s reindeer department, and in the evening had a 3-hour Council of animal ethics meeting. In the latter we treated two council statements, including one on zoological gardens which I have drafted in collaboration with Guri Larsen. This was a treatment of a revised version, the statement will soon be finalized and issued.

Norwegian animal ethics conference to be held November 21st

Dyreetikkonferansen 2019 (Norwegian animal ethics conference 2019) will take place on Litteraturhuset (Oslo) Thursday November 21st. The planning group consists of Kristian Ellingsen, Knut Bøe, Guri Larsen and me.

After Minding Animals Norway decided to shut down last autumn, the conference is now run solely by Norway´s Council for animal ethics.

Second print run for human-animal studies anthology

Our book Hvem er villest i landet her? Råskap mot dyr og natur i Antropocen, menneskets tidsalder has just been printed with a second print run (first print run was in 2013). See publisher´s book presentation here. I think this is the first time a book I have co-edited has had a second print run.

Second print run

We have been notified that our edited human-animal relations anthology Hvem er villest i landet her?, published by Spartacus forlag, will have a second print run. I think this is the first time I am involved in a book with a second print run.

Guri Larsen lecture referred to in Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance newsletter

Minding Animals Norway´s video recording of Guri Larsen´s lecture at the 4th Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference, which was about cow-calf relations in milk production, is mentioned and linked to in the newsletter of Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance (Dyrevernalliansen), Dyrevern Viten #14/2016. See the full video here.

Videos from 4th Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference online

On its YouTube channel, Minding Animals Norway (MAN) has released videos from the 4th Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference. MAN´s webmaster Iselin Linstad Hauge prepared the videos.

Links:

Part 1 (introduction by yours truly + presentation by Bjarne Braastad)

Part 2 (presentation by Guri Larsen)

Part 3 (presentation by Espen Gamlund)

Reference for second statistician's guide to utopia article

This is the bibliographical reference for my contribution to the Festscrift to professors in criminology Kjersti Ericsson, Cecilie Høigård and Guri Larsen, which was launched in late February:

Tønnessen, Morten 2014. Statistikerens guide til utopia II: En demografisk analyse av øko-visjoner om befolkningsnedgang i det tredje årtusen [The statistician's guide to utopia II: A demographic analysis of eco-visions of population decline in the third milennium]. In the Festschrift Motmæle: En antologi til Kjersti Ericsson, Cecilie Høigård og Guri Larsen [Speaking out: An anthology for Kjersti Ericsson, Cecilie Høigård and Guri Larsen] (eds Heidi Mork Lomell and Liv Finstad), p. 435–453. Oslo: Novus forlag.

See also:

Launch of Festschrift to Guri Larsen, Kjersti Ericsson and Cecilie Høigård February 26th

Launch of Festschrift to Guri Larsen, Kjersti Ericsson and Cecilie Høigård February 26th

The Festschrift  Motmæle - en antologi til Kjersti Ericsson, Cecilie Høigård og Guri Larsen [/Retorting/ - an anthology to Kjersti Ericsson, Cecilie Høigård and Guri Larsen], who all turn 70 right about now, will be launched at Litteraturhuset in Oslo Wednesday February 26th. For the programme, see here - and for an invitation document (PDF), see here.

I will be attending.

Reference to two of my publications in Larsen's chapter on anthropocentrism in food production

Two of my academic publications are referred to in Guri Larsen's book chapter on anthropocentrism in food production in the recently published Norwegian Human-Animal Studies anthology. Reference to Guri's article:

Larsen, Guri 2013. Matens urettferdighet: Matproduksjonens antroposentriske system [Food’s injustice: The anthropocentric system of food production]. In: Ragnhild Sollund, Morten Tønnessen and Guri Larsen (eds), Hvem er villest i landet her: Råskap mot dyr og natur i antropocen, menneskets tidsalder [Who is wildest in this country here? Brutality towards animals and nature in the Anthropocene, the age of Man]. Oslo: Spartacus Forlag/Scandinavian Academic Press, 185-203.

The reference is on page 186, and is to my chapter in the same book "Menneskeveldet" [The human empire] plus to my 2010 article "The global species" (New formations 69: 98-110). Excerpt (my translation):

Within an interdisciplinary field of research, human ecology, nature and culture is sought synthesised in the study of humans' collective interaction with nature. Here, a humane ecosystem is considered as a demographic answer to the need to restore a functioning relation to nature (Tønnessen 2010, see also Tønnessen's chapter).

Abstract: The statistician's guide to Utopia 2

This Friday I wrote an abstract titled "Statistikerens guide til utopia II: En demografisk analyse av øko-visjoner om befolkningsnedgang i det tredje årtusen" [The statistician's guide to utopia II: A demographic analysis of eco-visions of population decline in the third millennium], for a Festschrift to Professor Guri Larsen and two colleagues (University of Oslo). The article will be a follow-up to my 2008 article "The statistician's guide to utopia: The future of growth".

The abstract is, as the article will be, in Norwegian.