Letter to the editor on philosophy and animals published in Nationen in September

On September forth my letter to the editor "Må ikke være filosof for å forstå at dyr lider" (literally: Don´t have to be a philosopher to understand that animals suffer) was published in the Norwegian daily Nationen.

Chronicle on pension fund GPFG and animal welfare published in Nationen

The chronicle "Støtter pensjonspengene våre dårlig dyrevelferd?" (Do our pension funds support poor animal welfare?), which I co-wrote with Knut Egil Bøe, Cecilie Mejdell, Espen Gamlund, Eli Berge Ness and Rudi Ripman Seim, was published in the Norwegian daily newspaper Nationen online January 2nd and in print January 3rd. We are all involved in Norway´s Council for animal ethics, and the chronicle disseminates main observations from the council´s consultative statement on the Norwegian "oil fund", formally called Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), and its investments in food production internationally.

Featured in Nationen news story about the Norwegian animal ethics conference 2024

The Norwegian daily newspaper Nationen has a 2-page news story about the Norwegian animal ethics conference 2024 (Dyreetikkonferansen 2024) which took place last week with animal consciousness as theme. The news story features an image and quotes from my presentation. In the image caption I am quoted as saying that our understanding of other beings is always somewhat limited.

Council for animal ethics chronicle in print version of Nationen today

Our chronicle on behalf of Norway´s Council for animal ethics "Brennende etiske temaer knyttet til dyrevelferd i Norge" (literally: Burning ethical themes related to animal welfare in Norway) is today included in the print version of the Norwegian daily Nationen.

See also: 

Chronicle on animal welfare challenges in Norway published in Nationen online

Chronicle on animal welfare challenges in Norway published in Nationen online

Today the chronicle "Brennende etiske temaer knyttet til dyrevelferd i Norge", which I co-wrote with Cecilie Mejdell, Knut Bøe and Kristian Ellingsen-Dalskau, has been published online in the Norwegian daily Nationen.

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.

Article on wolf discourse in Nationen November 2015

On November 16th 2015, the article "Fakta ikke nok i ulvesaken" [Facts are not enough in the wolf case] by science journalist Benedicte Pentz was published in the Norwegian daily newspaper Nationen, featuring an interview with me.

See also:

Dissemination article on perception of wolves on internal UiS webpage

"Facts not enough" dissemination article referred to in Jeger news story

and other posts

Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference on fish welfare featured in Nationen commentary

21st of August the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference (Dyreetikkonferansen) on fish welfare was featured in a 1-page commentary in the Norwegian daily newspaper Nationen, which is known as the farmers' newspaper. The commentary, by Michael Brøndbo, was entitled "Fisken og dens følelsesliv" (The fish and its emotional life).

Scheduled interview on animal ethics in Nationen not appeared

In August last year the Norwegian Daily Nationen asked for an interview with me on animal ethics (in my capacity as chair of Minding Animals Norway) which was to fill 2 pages in the newspaper on October 4th. Photos were taken by the newspaper in the end of September, on campus at University of Oslo's Department of Biosciences (at the time I was attending the workshop "Humanimals: Examining Histories and Productions of Animal-Human Relationships") - but the interview appointment was then cancelled due to illness. The newspaper then told me they would get back to me as soon as the journalist was back to work. 

I am still hoping this interview will materialise.

Letter to the editor on illegal bear hunt

April 17th I had a letter to the editor published in the Norwegian daily Nationen, entitled "Sivil ulydighet?" (Civil disobedience?), in response to Norwegian sheep farmers' public statements threatening to hunt bears illegally if they are not allowed to do so legally. Full text in my Norwegian language blog, Utopisk Realisme.

Annotated bibliography, 3rd quarter

As part of a 4-times-a-year report I am conducting as a researcher in one of the research projects I am partaking in, I write a Selected Annotated Bibliography. Here's my annotated bibliography for the last three months.

Douglas W. MacCLEERY: American forests: A history of resilience and recovery. Forest History Society, 1992. This publication offers a lot of interesting statistics and facts not only since 1930 or so, when the proportion of US land that is forested has generally been stable, after 300 years of deforestation, but also concerning times as far back as to year 1600 (even native indigenous forestry practices are briefly described). The last century several wildlife species have recovered, not least due to the gradual introduction of conservation measures. In conclusion, this work is a helpful source of references and thoroughly examines the full implications of different attitudes to forests and utilization of forest products. Though the situation of Norwegian forests is not identical with the American situation, this book nevertheless provides useful knowledge about the interconnections of conservation efforts and forestry practices/land use.

The Norwegian daily Nationen [The nation], Mon 31^st of August – Wed 9^th of September. The latest national election in Norway took place September 14^th. For 10 days close to the conclusion of the election, I followed Nationen, Norway’s only national daily devoted to matters of agriculture and rural policies. Every day in this period there were articles etc. about carnivore policy; about half of the editions one of them featured on the front page. In many rural areas, wolf and carnivore policy turned out to become one of the defining topics of the electoral campaign, though only 3 parties (Senterpartiet, Fremskrittspartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti) talked much about it. For the first time the populist right-wing party Fremskrittspartiet competed seriously for the anti-wolf votes – though Senterpartiet, traditionally the farmers’ party, still dominated the discourse. The carnivore policy for 2009-2013 is now up for negotiations within the re-elected coalition government, which consists of Arbeiderpartiet (the social democrats), Senterpartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti (a left-wing party which supports wolf conservation).

Paolo VIRNO: Natural-historical diagrams: The ‘new global’ movement and the biological invariant. Pp. 131-147 in The Italian difference: Between nihilism and biopolitics (eds. Lorenzo Chiesa and Alberto Toscano), Melbourne 2009: re.press. Translated from Italian by Alberto Toscano. Virno’s notion of the natural-historical diagrams of human nature refers to “concrete phenomena, socio-political states of affairs, historical events.” He thus offers an empirical (or emergent) notion of human nature – which can be of interest in the context of my depicting of a natural history of the phenomenal world. Crucial in Virno’s observations is that ‘human nature’ as we know it places us as an “indefinite animal”, an animal without any definitive natural environment. This, he claims, explains our ‘instability’ as a species, and our constant urge for further modifications of the environment. It would be interesting to integrate and try to develop some of his main points in my own work.

Wendy WHEELER: The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. London 2006: Lawrence & Wishart. In this valuable book, Wheeler outlines some connections between biosemiotics and other complexity science on the one hand and politics and cultural theory on the other. In the context of my work Wheeler’s book represents an important step toward a proper understanding of the cultural implications of competing scientific outlooks and worldviews. While Wheeler on some points simplifies the connections between ‘capitalism’ and mainstream science, her portrayal of the cultural and ethical (and political) implications of a world view of biosemiotic relationism rather than one of capitalist atomism/individualism is in the main informative and telling. The main message – which I do subscribe to – is that human beings are social (and ecological) creatures which can not thrive – or correctly be described on a theoretical level – as isolated individuals. Her stress of the social and ecological aspects of cultural life bears implications not least for economic thought.