Essay on longtermism published in Salongen

Earlier this week, my essay "På sporet av en tapt fremtid" (roughly translating to "In search of a lost future"), which deals with longtermism, was published online in Salongen - nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie. 

Reference:

— Tønnessen, Morten 2026. På sporet av en tapt fremtid. Essay. Salongen – nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie (Salongen.no). Published March 9th 2026. URL: https://www.salongen.no/essay/pa-sporet-av-en-tapt-fremtid/262022 

#19

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 700 words added to the Salongen article I am writing on longtermism, and preporatory readings completed. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 19, including 13 article writing days.

Last day of events in Oxford

As part of my "academic updating" at University of Oxford, yesterday I attended a 2-hour lecture organized by Faculty of philosophy at graduate level on Longtermism, at Radcliffe Humanities, and an open lecture by Robert Costanza titled «Overcoming our societal addiction to growth to build a sustainable wellbeing future» at School of Geography and the Environment, followed by a drinks reception.

I am now on my way home to Norway.

Oxford events attended - Wednesday and Thursday

Yesterday I followed a philosophy lecture at undergraduate level at University of Oxford, as part of my "academic updating" here during my visit to Oxford, tied to the university´s Faculty of philosophy. I also attended a public talk at University of Oxford´s China Centre, “China’s Ambitions to Explore the Moon and the Prospects for Lunar Governance”, by Prof. Martin Elvis (Harvard University) and Dr Alanna Krolikowski (Missouri University of Science and Technology). 

Today I have attended another public talk, “Triangulating a global view on inequality from secondary data sources” by Joe Hasell at INET Oxford. 

#16,5

Today, in Oxford, I have had half a writing day, #16,5 this Spring, with some 300 words added to my chapter "A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis".

On my way to Oxford for academic updating

Today I travel from Stavanger, Norway to Oxford, UK, with a stop on the way in London, where I have met with Professor Paul Cobley (Middlesex University). Right now I am on the train from London Paddington towards Oxford. In Oxford I plan to attend 6 academic events the next four days, including 3 classes/lectures offered by the Faculty of Philosophy at University of Oxford, and 3 more academic events.

Oxford writing trip coming to an end

My first writing trip, to Oxford, is coming to an end - I will be heading home tomorrow morning. I have not done as much as I hoped, but I have nevertheless: Revised a jointly written article (see previous post); started on and developed a disposition for "The case for minimizing anthropogenic mortality in wildlife mortality", found key, updated sources for "Introducing a notion of accumulated GDP", brainstormed about (and hopefully operationalized) a later article on wasted and wasteful growth (GDP growth vs. human development), and cleared my head concerning realistic academic writing plans for the rest of the year.

Lecture on climate change by David F. Hendry attended

Tonight I attended a lecture titled "Climate change: Past, present and future" given by the British economist David F. Hendry of INET, Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford University (who is cited some 40.000 times on Google Scholar´s account). The lecture was very informative on certain points - for instance, I learned that UK´s carbon dioxide emmissions per capita was as high around 1860 as it was around 1975 (the second peak in UK history), and that carbon dioxide emissions per capital stock has gone down some 90 % in both the UK and US since its peak by that measure. 

The lecture was arranged by the Oxford Martin School.

Writing trip to Oxford

I am currently (27/4-2/5) in Oxford, at a hotel, on a writing trip. This is my very first writing trip (and my first visit to Oxford), but I intend to have another one at some point this summer (both funded with my Yngre Fremragende Forskere (Younger Outstanding Researchers) funds). I am primarily drafting (or at least getting started with) two articles, work-titled "The case for minimizing anthropogenic mortality in wildlife management" and "Introducing a notion of accumulated GDP".

Two trips abroad arranged

I have arranged two trips; a writing trip for Oxford in the transition from April to May, and my trip to Canada for the OECD Social Policy Ministerial in Mid-May.

As for the writing trip, I suggested to meet up with someone from the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics, but apparently they don´t do that sort of thing (meetings).