We're excited to bring you this miniseries The Black Thread, about Norway's complicated relationship with its identity as both a progressive leader and an oil state, from host of the Communicating Climate Change podcast, Dickon Bonvik-Stone, created in collaboration with Norwegian non-profit, Klimakultur.
In this first episode of The Black Thread, we meet the Norwegians and explore how social norms and cultural values shape their identity as a good, caring, and nature-loving people. We also learn what happens when those values come into conflict with the reality of Norway’s outsized impact on climate change, and discover how and why oil influences peoples’ response to this dilemma.
For more information and references: https://communicatingclimatechange.com/the-black-thread
Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Episode 1: Meet the Norwegians
Episode 2: Petroganda
Episode 3: Challenging the Narratives
Transcript, Ep 1
[00:00:00]
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: Norway... a country whose name conjures images of fairytale fjords, mighty mountains and northern lights. A place known for its great adventurers, its sagas about Thor and the Vikings and its cultural treasures, like paintings by Munk, plays by Ibsen, and music... like this by Grieg: A beautiful soundtrack for a nation famous for its natural wonders, clean energy, electric vehicles, and wealth.
So much wealth invested in its citizens' wellbeing, happiness, and positive impact on the world today. Norway tops all kinds of global rankings for life, quality, happiness, democracy, political participation, press freedom and more. In fact, it's hard to imagine a more perfect utopia. And yet, Norway remains a country curiously at odds with its international reputation and indeed with its own [00:01:00] identity. Despite being legally committed to global climate goals, acknowledging the risk of climate change impact within its borders, and maintaining a self-image as a responsible nature loving nation, and a champion of human rights, Norway continues to drill for oil. In 2025 alone, the Norwegian state's earnings from its petroleum industry are expected to reach around 68 billion US dollars, most of which will be funneled to Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund, known colloquially as the oil fund, an investment portfolio of around $1.9 trillion that promises to assure Norwegian wealth long into the future with nearly a hundred active oil fields in the North Sea, 78 additional discoveries earmarked for future activity and about half of all the oil that's ever been found on the Norwegian Continental Shelf still estimated to be in the ground. The industry shows no signs of slowing down.
None of this fits with the world's view of Norway or how most Norwegians see [00:02:00] themselves.
So what's really going on here? How do identity and action come to clash so significantly? And what forces keep this contradiction in place, from flagrant fossil fuel advertising and the revolving doors between the oil industry, politics, and the boards of major institutions to oil-funded science exhibits for children and a widespread reluctance to fully face the consequences of their actions.
A black thread-- oil-- runs through Norwegian society and culture stitching together a complex patchwork of myths, money, manipulation, and denial. As a result, wherever you look in Norway, oil is not just present, it's accepted as normal, reasonable, and even right. Hello and welcome to The Black Thread, a podcast series unraveling Norway's complex relationship with prosperity, identity, and responsibility in a warming world.
I am Dickon, a Brit based in Oslo, the Norwegian capital. As a [00:03:00] climate communications expert, and having published research about how narratives shape public opinion and support for climate policies in Norway, I've spent a lot of time pondering over the curious dynamics on display in this place I've come to call home. Over the next four episodes, I invite you to follow the Black Thread with me as, guided by a range of experts and industry insiders, I try to understand how these conditions are maintained and how Norwegians try to square this circle. We'll discover where the logic does and doesn't stand up to scrutiny and even hear how Norwegians might move forward towards a future beyond oil and gas.
In this first episode, we'll meet the Norwegians and explore how social norms and cultural values shape their identity as a good caring and nature loving people. We'll learn what happens when those values come into conflict with the reality of Norway's outsized impact on climate change and discover how and why oil influences people's response to this dilemma.
So [00:04:00] let's begin to pull on the black thread.
Anna Karin Sæther: You're not the only one wondering why. No way has had such a good reputation and it is strange, of course.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: That's Anna Karin Sæther, author, journalist, and project manager at the Norwegian Climate Foundation, Norway's green think tank.
Anna Karin Sæther: You could say that we have been an um, ev frontrunner. The sales of electric cars now are up at 96%.
That's a good thing. And we have donated to forest preservation in the world. We are doing international climate to nature diplomacy, and we try to tell ourselves and the world that we are helping the climate, but we do profit on a product that is devastating for the climate and the emissions from Norwegian oil and gas adds up to about 10 times as much as the national emissions.[00:05:00]
So we do have a real problem.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: A real problem Indeed, scientists agree that the world is hurtling in the wrong direction when it comes to climate change, which is causing extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and the devastation of nature and biodiversity all around the world. Across the globe, it's costing lives, impacting human health, driving mass migration, and even according to the International Monetary Fund, risking economies too.
The main driver of this global challenge is rising carbon dioxide, or CO2 in the atmosphere, primarily driven by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas. As a result, the United Nations has called for an end to fossil fuels, and instead for a rapid transformation towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
Even so the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre says there is no contradiction between Norway's climate efforts and the country's continued expansion of its fossil fuel industry.[00:06:00]
Anna Karin Sæther: Norwegians like to think of themselves as the good guy, a force for good in the world, a small country doing great things. And some of it's true.
We do spend a lot of money on international aid and development and we try to participate on the international scene as a diplomat and so forth. We are a country pushing the environmental agenda internationally to some extent. So it has worked really well to think of oil and gas as something positive.
It's almost as we're doing it just to help the world become a better place.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: According to Anna Karin, Norway sees itself as a force for good in the world. A nation striving to make a positive difference. But how do you reconcile that with selling a product that's driving a global crisis?
Back in 1989, Norway was among the first countries to set a climate goal.
[00:07:00] Inspired by the concept of sustainable development, which was spearheaded by Norway's first female prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegians took real pride in their ambitious commitment to stabilize their emissions. However, according to Anna Karin, once the reality of that commitment sank in, essentially meaning no further expansion of oil and gas production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, both politicians and the public stepped back from it. Nevertheless, with a country electrified largely by hydropower and driven by a faith in technological solutions, Norway strove to cut emissions inside its borders, ultimately becoming a poster child for green growth and sustainable development. Decades later, and despite the ongoing expansion of their fossil fuel industry, Norwegians continue to express their deep concern for climate and the environment. Recent polling from research and advocacy organization Oil Change International shows that they rank climate and environmental issues above the likes of education, immigration, and employment.[00:08:00]
Meanwhile, oil and energy concerns rank far lower. Only 11% of people see them as top priorities. Something here doesn't add up. If Norwegians feel so strongly about protecting the environment, and they know oil is a major part of the problem, since they've worked hard to transform their own society away from using it, what's behind the disconnect? To explore this, let's turn to sociologist Kari Norgaard whose book Living in Denial sheds light on the cultural challenges Norwegians face as they grapple with their role in the global climate crisis.
Kari Norgaard: What we do and don't think about is very much shaped by our collective context, both our social interactions and the kinds of cultural stories that we tell ourselves about how the world works, about what's happening and the kind of cultural tools that we use or have access to, if we don't wanna think about something. What's socially acceptable and what's not?
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: [00:09:00] So what is it that's within the source code of Norwegian society and culture that allows this contradiction to continue?
Let's dig into the academic literature for a bit of background on this place, its inhabitants and particularly their relationship to nature.
Norway is about the same size as Poland or Vietnam, 324,000 square kilometers. But with a national population of just five and a half million people, it's mostly wild.
Only 3% of the land is suitable for farming. Around a quarter is forest, and less than 1% is actually urbanized. The rest of the country-- about 70% of it-- is made up of mountains, lakes, and bogs. And that vast, untamed landscape is a huge source of national pride. In fact, for many Norwegians, nature isn't just scenery, it's identity, it's heritage.
Nature is often seen as a birthright, something every child should grow up with and within. There's even a word for that, [00:10:00] friluftsliv, the outdoor life: hiking, skiing, climbing, canoeing, et cetera. Being in nature isn't just a pastime. It's part of being Norwegian. The late sociologist Thomas Hylland Erickson claimed that a Norwegian who doesn't get out into nature might be seen as a poor specimen by their fellow citizens.
The special Norwegian relationship to the outdoors is summed up often in the classic saying, "Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær," there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. Basically, being prepared, understanding the elements, and having the skills and the grit to endure them no matter what they might be, is deeply ingrained in the Norwegian psyche and in the way outsiders think about Norwegians too. As Kari Norgaard explains, Norway's connection to the outdoors is rather unique.
Kari Norgaard: This is a place where, to me it does seem really clear that the natural world and the longtime connection with the natural world is a distinct thing for Norwegians and certainly is [00:11:00] something that's different. You know, sure, Finland and parts of Russia and Sweden have a lot of contact with the natural world, but if you look throughout Europe, not everybody has so much as people do in Norway. I think it's immediately apparent and it's immediately apparent when you look at things like, you know, the amount of time that people still spend doing outdoor activities.
Going to huts, going to the ocean, going to the mountains, going skiing. This creates a kind of self-sufficiency in people, a values around self-sufficiency. There is a sense of connection to the natural world that is affirmed through activities like walking in the mountains sometimes by yourself for days at a time.
This sense of simplicity, this sense of innocence that can come from both culturally recreating it, but experiencing oneself in this way. It can be a strong jumping off point. Those connections with the natural world is an opportunity to care about it, to know about it, [00:12:00] to make observations, to have your sense of security and your sense of identity rooted in the winter, in the summer, in the activities that you do.
Even the bodily sensations of jumping into the ocean or the bodily sensation of, you know, knowing how to dress in the winter for skiing and knowing how to move your body across snow in the winter, that creates a very strong sense of identity and community.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: With a long history of public access to land and natural resources, today, Norwegians right to roam, what they call allemannsretten, is protected by law.
Everyone has the right to walk, swim, camp, and forage pretty much anywhere. Even on private property. There's a real sense that Norway and its resources are for everyone. That means if you're out in the woods and you find a patch of wild berries or mushrooms, you can pick them.
Of course, initially my British instinct was to grab every single chanterelle mushroom I saw, because why not them's the rules [00:13:00] and finders keepers.
But as my pockets filled up and I rummaged in my backpack to make space for more, my Norwegian wife stopped me. What are you doing? She said. We don't need more. Just leave the rest for the next person that comes along.
It was a moment that stuck with me ever since because it speaks to something deeper: that there are unspoken rules here.
A quiet ethic of fairness, of sharing, of prioritizing the collective over the individual. And that brings us to janteloven, a silent set of rules that Norwegians live by. You can think of janteloven as a social code that works to keep people humble. Nobody should be so bold as to think that they're better than anyone else or deserving of more.
It's a culture where people don't tend to show off, don't speak up unless they have something to say. Don't push themselves forward and rarely make bold claims. That might sound cold from the outside, but in Norway, it is part of a strong, quiet social fabric. One where [00:14:00] fitting in matters more than standing out.
Here's Kari Norgaard to tell us more.
Kari Norgaard: Janteloven would be, again, sort of a cultural code around not sticking your neck out, around not thinking too much of yourself. It's a code that creates, uh, conformity and humility and, you know, it's harder to critique. If you make a social critique, it's seen as rude. It's seen as inappropriate.
It's seen as thinking that you're smarter than other people, and I'm sure that that is part of what can make breaking out of the box around conversations on climate change just seem more inappropriate. In the best of circumstances, the very best of circumstances, talking about climate change is terrifying.
It's very difficult. It's beyond difficult. It's very disturbing at every level. And then if you have it that it's socially inappropriate, that you're breaking social norms on top of it. It becomes a way of dismissing the point of view, right? [00:15:00] In order to have the conversation, there's just a much narrower set of things that are acceptable to talk about. Ways that it is acceptable to approach a problem, and that would be a major limitation. It's not that Norwegians are not thoughtful kind people, it's just that that's just not how things are done in most cases.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: So we can imagine how janteloven could contribute to people not sticking their necks out, not wanting to rock the boat.
But not only are Norwegians absolutely kind and thoughtful, they're also highly cooperative. Norwegian identity is typically described as practical, calm, conflict shy and emotionally reserved, but it's also built on a strong sense of collective responsibility and collective action for the greater good of the group or for society at large.
There's even a word for that too, dugnad.
Kari Norgaard: So dugnad, just to define it, is this idea of collective purpose of that you contribute to volunteer actions that we have, that [00:16:00] people have to take care of each other in some way. It's a way of creating a sense of responsibility to participate in a project. I mean, the first way that I was introduced to it was in the community where I was staying when I did the work on Living in Denial and there was a, a barn that needed to be taken down.
And so all the neighboring farmers brought their tractors and other equipment over, and by the end of the day, the barn was on the ground and then everybody was eating food and drinking and celebrating together, and having a wonderful community experience.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: It's an old tradition shaped by the landscape itself.
In a country of scattered settlements and challenging terrain, communities had to rely on each other. You couldn't go it alone. So dugnad isn't just about getting things done, it's about being part of something, doing your bit, whether it's cleaning local beaches, tidying up shared apartment gardens. Or going into lockdown during the pandemic.
Nobody is above it. In this way, dugnad is also anti class, which [00:17:00] really speaks to the sense among Norwegians of egalitarianism and equality. Everyone benefits from the collective commitment. But like so much in Norway, it's rarely spoken about, but it's there. Part of the quiet social code alongside allemannsretten alongside janteloven: unwritten, but deeply understood.
So that was your crash course into some of the fundamentals of Norwegian society and culture. But Kari's work in Norway specifically sought to uncover the mechanics of climate denial. So how is it that deeply rooted rules, norms, and ways of being like those we've just discussed, can contribute to what seems like such an obvious paradox?
Kari Norgaard: When you study sometimes something that's a threat to society, it becomes a moment where you can see how things work. And so taking climate change as an example of how the social organization of denial operates, we can see, in a Norwegian context, there's values of egalitarianism, there's [00:18:00] values of human rights, there's values of connection to nature.
Um, there's a strong sense of moral code. There's a sense of collective purpose, and those are wonderful things, absolutely wonderful qualities that I wish more countries had. But I think one thing that's important to realize is as much as these are potentially very positive qualities, really critically essential qualities.
When it comes to solving a large global environmental human rights problem, like climate change, that if we think about psychological principles like cognitive dissonance for example, we can also see where they can be like an Achilles heel.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of being stuck between what you believe and how you feel, often in relation to some actions that you've taken.
It's kind of a mental tension that makes it hard to fully face a problem or take strong action to fix it. Sometimes [00:19:00] learning new information-- for example, that the emissions associated with your national oil industry are driving climate change-- can lead to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance. People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or finding ways to discredit or ignore that new information.
This may explain the great confidence many Norwegians have in a slew of as-of-yet unproven technological solutions to the challenge of rising emissions and the fact that in recent years, at the same time as ranking environmental issues highly in its list of priorities, Norway has also ranked as having some of the highest climate denial rates in the world.
Let's hear from Kari Norgaard about how their national virtues, values, and norms come back to bite Norwegians.
Kari Norgaard: If you take at the individual level how those are in conflict with emotions that people share, come up for them, talking about climate change such as guilt, such as fear about the future, such as a sense of [00:20:00] helplessness.
You have these three emotions that really come into conflict for people with these ideas of how they see themselves as morally good, as strong environmentalists. So circling back to the idea of janteloven and that it's socially unacceptable to break out of a mold, that becomes a cultural tool that you can wield.
To attack someone by their personality rather than having to deal with the uncomfortable thing that's being proposed. Sociology talks about three levels of social organization and the processes of denial cuts across these three levels, which are the individual level where we have psychological constructs, the cultural level where we have social interactions and cultural norms and cultural tools that we use to recreate culture. And then the larger macro level, which is kind of the political economy and where you have things like in Norway that it's a capitalist society that's organized around fossil [00:21:00] fuel production and how those levels of social organizations shape what people do and don't think about and what is potentially problematic to think or not think about.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: So according to Kari, Norwegians are proud of being kind and caring about each other, about nature and about being a force for the greater good. But their role as an oil nation driving global climate change can bring up feelings of guilt, helplessness, or fear. It clashes with how they see themselves as good and responsible people, leading them to potentially reject the reality, due to cognitive dissonance, or otherwise discredit those who voice that there might be a problem as being culturally deviant and thinking they're smarter than the rest. As we've learned, that's a big no-no in Norway. Something else that's worth adding is that Norway's small communities, even within its major cities, create overlapping social networks where almost everyone is connected in some way. As a result, you might hesitate [00:22:00] to criticize the service at a restaurant because the waiter is friends with someone in your extended family, or avoid commenting on a new local development because your neighbor is involved.
In casual conversation, people often leave out identifying details like company names or surnames because the people on the adjacent table or next in line or sitting nearby on the bus might share social connections in some way. The result is a pervasive self-censorship that I simply haven't encountered anywhere else.
While this can make everyday interactions smoother, it also means important, but difficult conversations-- for example, dissatisfaction with a colleague's conduct or indeed critiques of the oil industry-- often never happen. But the story doesn't end there. These inner conflicts are made even more complex by the fact that oil isn't just an abstract problem.
It's also a huge part of everyday life. Let's take a step back and hear how it all began.
[00:23:00] In 1969, oil sprung into the picture on the website of Equnor, Norway's National Oil Company, it reads: "the same year that humans landed on the moon, taking their first steps out into the stars, what was then the world's largest offshore oil field was discovered in Norway's subsurface universe on the continental shelf."
The discovery of Ekofisk, that oil field, southwest of the city of Stavanger, on Norway's West Coast, offered vast opportunities for little Norway. To expand on our understanding of those early days, here's Jannik Lindbæk, executive Vice President for communications at Equinor.
Jannik Lindbæk: Oil, uh, was discovered in late sixties, and then the parliament set the principles for the development of natural resources that was found.
These principles have served Norway really well. The political choices that were made was able to make sure that the resources was developed in a way that benefited the whole of society. And that was the political aim at the time. And as part of that, it was also a [00:24:00] choice to establish a national oil company, which was Stat Oil at the time, which is now Equinor, obviously. For as long as it was a hundred percent state owned, it was obviously every Norwegian's property. Now the Norwegians, uh, share that interest with some other shareholders, but still it's perceived to be a company of the people owned by the people and is supposed to act in favor of public ambitions and goals.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: You can really hear how oil fits into the Norwegian sense of the nation's resources being for everyone's benefit. Berries, mushrooms, fossil fuels. Same, same. But of course, oil didn't just mean resources, it also meant jobs. According to Norsk Petroleum, almost 7% of the Norwegian workforce was directly or indirectly employed in the petroleum industry in 2023.
What kind of impact might that have on the way that Norwegians think and talk about oil? Silje Ask Lundberg heads up North Sea activities at research and advocacy [00:25:00] organization, Oil Change International, who work to expose the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitate a just transition to clean energy.
Silje shares some insight on the influence of oil on Norway's workforce and society.
Silje Ask Lundberg: Norway's such a small country, so it's been like 56 years since we found the first oil, and during that time, since we are such a small country, almost everyone in Norway knows someone who works within the oil industry, who works offshore, or who benefits from the oil and gas industry in some way.
And then in addition, the fact that our oil and gas industry is happening offshore, that also is kind of like outta sight out of mind. But what we do see is the money flowing in. We see how people that we know earn a lot of money, how they work very good hours. The social license of the oil and gas industry in Norway is super high.
I mean, it has been even higher than what it is today. [00:26:00] Close to 20 years ago you had some polling of offshore Norway. One of their questions were like, are you proud to be Norwegian because of Equinor? Uh, or because of StatOil, as it was called then. 80% or something of who they asked was like, yes, super proud. And that was because we all knew someone who worked there and I mean, they did a brilliant job and they were good.
And we also had the money. So I think it's so, uh, into like the Norwegian soul almost for the past 50 years.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: But it wasn't just the oil workers and their families who were enjoying these boom times, as Anna Karin Saether explains.
Anna Karin Sæther: For the politicians, it was like living a dream when you could open all these new hospitals and kindergartens and so forth.
It was hard to say no to all this money coming in. So, um, then I guess this pride was growing and people were noticing to a greater extent, and that was sort of the Christmas [00:27:00] present of all times.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: So a big social norm developed around working in oil too, and that reaches through to the present day. In fact, Equinor, the Norwegian National Oil Company, was awarded most attractive employer in Norway last year, and not for the first time. To many outsiders, particularly those deeply concerned about the worsening trajectory of climate change, this may sound bizarre, even obscene. But it's really just the tip of the iceberg of how visible and normalized fossil fuel employment, advertising and activities are in Norway. Just this summer, for example, I came across a huge set of info boards in the middle of a small town in the north of the country.
These boards were promoting another major oil company, Aker BP. The boards explained that it was a great place to work, that it had ambitious plans to employ more women, and that it was excited about a project where fossil fuel production begins in 2027 and will stretch to quote "2040 and beyond." They also [00:28:00] stated how proud they were of the work that they were doing.
This is in public, out loud and proud. It sort of makes sense then that the very idea of shutting off the pumps, as advocated for by scientists, the UN, vulnerable nations bearing the brunt of climate change, and so many others, remains unthinkable to many Norwegians who still see oil as a lifeline, and not just for the country itself, but for the world.
Here's Silje Ask Lundberg from Oil Change International again to explain.
Silje Ask Lundberg: Ibsen wrote that if you take the lifeline from an average man, then you take his happiness as well. And I think that is very true about the Norwegian relationship to the oil and gas industry. One of our former PMs Gro Harlem Brundtland, which has a insane amount of status symbol in Norway, she was dubbed "the nation's mother." She said it's typical Norwegian to be good. And I think those two kind of go very well together because we've been told [00:29:00] over and over and over again that we're good. We only have good intentions. We only do the right thing. We have beautiful nature and we're so nice. We spend a lot of money on aid.
We're good. Our oil and gas industry. Well, that's wonderful. It's clean. It's brilliant. We have had very good regulations of the oil and gas industry so that when kind of regulating the industry, the politicians have done a lot of good choices. We have had a lot of tougher environmental demands than in any other country.
I mean, that is why the emission per produced barrel is so much lower in Norway, but that still doesn't make it right.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: Norway's discovery of oil began a new chapter in the nation's story. For many, oil became more than just a resource. It became a source of pride and identity through work, through community, through resources that would benefit everyone.
It was a true [00:30:00] Norwegian success story. Plus oil workers were seen as heroes, the backbone of local economies, and nearly everyone knew someone involved in the industry. This close connection made oil feel not only normal but honorable in daily life. Yet today that pride exists in tension with a growing global movement that increasingly vilifies fossil fuels and those who support them.
International bodies like the United Nations have warned that urgent action is needed to phase out fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, has repeatedly emphasized the need to reduce oil and gas extraction rapidly. Major scientific organizations worldwide echo these calls, underscoring the link between fossil fuels and global warming. Climate activists and youth movements like Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion, stage protests, targeting oil companies and government policies that enable fossil fuel expansion. And religious leaders, [00:31:00] including the late Pope Francis, have issued moral appeals to protect the planet and hold polluters accountable.
International media outlets increasingly report on the climate crisis, often highlighting fossil fuels as the primary culprit. Even some major financial institutions and pension funds are divesting from oil and gas companies under pressure from shareholders and public opinion. All these voices contribute to a growing narrative that frames fossil fuel extraction and consumption as not only environmentally destructive, but also ethically unacceptable.
Silje paints a picture of the response that's been seen to these kinds of critique in the past.
Silje Ask Lundberg: Couple of years back, you had this campaign where I think a lot of the oil and gas workers were like, well, we're only doing our job here, and we're trying to do whatever we're told, and was feeling like they were being shamed for working within the oil and gas industry, even though no one tried to actually shame the workers, but tried to take the policies and [00:32:00] how it's being regulated. But then you ended up with this whole campaign that was on social media that was called like "Proud to be a oil worker." So a lot of people changed their profile pics to like proud oil worker and that wouldn't happen in a lot of other countries.
They wouldn't say that they are proud to work there.
Silje's words show just how deeply pride in the oil industry runs among many Norwegians. But to fully understand how Norway's oil discovery fits into its national psyche, we need to look even further back.
Norway's cultural roots run deep, intertwined with folk tales collected and published during the country's nation building era in the 1800s.
At that time, Norway had only recently gained independence after centuries under Danish and Swedish rule. A huge effort was underway to define what it meant to be Norwegian centered on the idea of modern Norway as a resurrection of the ancient Norse kingdom. Poets, playwrights, artists, and composers amplified this vision, working to [00:33:00] establish the uniqueness of Norwegian culture.
New traditional national costumes, the Bunad, were devised, inspired by Norway's rural roots. The Norwegian Trekking Association was founded, promoting a form of nature nationalism that wove Norwegian identity deeply into the country's landscapes. And as many Norwegians might be surprised to learn, even the naming of the Central Mountain region-- Jotunheimen, after the home of the Giants in Norse mythology-- occurred during this formative period less than 200 years ago.
As Anna Karin Saether from the Norwegian Climate Foundation points out some of the fairy tales and folk songs collected and published to forge a shared cultural narrative-- like those of Esben Askelad, the clever underdog who always overcomes great odds-- resonates strongly with how a lot of Norwegians interpret their modern relationship with oil.
Anna Karin Sæther: Esben Askelad is a very, uh, known figure in Norwegian folk tales. And I think a lot of people feel like him or they feel like [00:34:00] Norway is like, uh, Esben Askelad. He was a poor kid, but he was, um observant and kind and innovative kid. And one of the folk tales about him is he finding all these things that is rubbish for others but turns out to be really useful for him.
And he keeps saying, look what I found. Look what I found or I found, I found directly translated. And one of the books on Norwegian oil history is called I Found, I found. So it's really intertwined with our folk tale history as well, and us being this little kid that was innovative and deserved to become rich in some way.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: And this folding in of Norwegian culture and oil continues in the naming of platforms and oil fields. As Anna Karin explains.
Anna Karin Sæther: When Ola Borten Moe, a former oil and gas minister that is [00:35:00] now... he established his own oil and gas company later. He started a new naming policy for the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where you used names of Norwegian heroes on platforms like Edvard Grieg, the composer, he's now a platform. And the same goes for the painter and feminist Aasta Hansteen and famous historical politicians like Johan Sverdrup and Castberg. They're all oil and gas installations or platforms or fields now. I dunno if they would've liked it, but that's also part of the storytelling.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: So Norway's traditions and stories are woven into its fossil fuel infrastructure, much in the same way that the legends of old were assimilated during the nation building period of the 1800s.
This serves to further embed oil as an inseparable part of the national identity and heritage, perpetuating a close relationship between [00:36:00] people, the industry, and its products. This deep influence helps explain not only the widespread pride and support Norwegians have for the industry, but also the strong political backing it enjoys, the flow of jobs, wealth, and cultural capital creates powerful incentives to maintain the status quo. Let's hear from Bård Lahn who coordinates the Oil and Society Research Network at the University of Oslo, exploring the ways that oil and gas shape Norwegian society.
Bård Lahn: There's a lot of quite striking work that shows how oil and gas is culturally ingrained in different ways in people's kind of everyday lives, and there are very strong regional connections to oil and gas, right? People in the Stavanger area, for example, have a strong kind of regional identity tied to oil to the offshore working life and how that shows in so many different ways.
And of course we see it also in the rest of the country in how important, for example, Equinor as a company is as a sponsor in all sorts of cultural [00:37:00] events, sports events, all of these things, and we kind of take this for granted. It's an important piece in the puzzle. What is reproducing this strong role of oil and gas in Norway?
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: So, according to Bård, Equinor, formerly Stat Oil, the state owned oil giant, has been busy in this effort since the early days of Norway's fossil fuel era, funding education programs, sponsoring sports and cultural events, youth initiatives, and more, creating an almost everywhere presence in public life.
Silje from Oil Change International expands on these insights describing the commonly held perception that without oil, none of these public goods nor Norway's renowned welfare system would be possible. And that the dominant narrative about Norway and the role oil plays in its wealth and its international engagements is one that is strategically maintained.
Silje Ask Lundberg: We've been told over and over again that without the oil and gas industry, we'd be poor. We've been told over and over again that the oil and gas industry is what built our [00:38:00] welfare system, and I think that is one of the biggest lies that we've been told because our welfare system wasn't built off of oil and gas.
Our welfare system was in place before we found the oil. We can continue to live very good lives based off of that, even after the oil and gas is gone. But no one tells you that. Most Norwegians, I think, think that the day we stop producing oil and gas? That day, we start to become poor. If you compare Norway to a lot of other oil nations, we have done some wise choices in terms of not spending all of the money, not just allowing the international oil companies to come in and do whatever they wanted and then leave.
And I think based off of that, we've just been building this whole narrative on how Norway is like the best of the best. That has kind of been core to how the oil industry in Norway usually gets what it wants, but also because of the whole [00:39:00] history with StatOil and Equinor as it's called now, and the fact that it was very hard, I think in the past to separate StatOil and Norway, like to separate the two of them because they were so entwined.
In the past when people thought about StatOil, they thought about Norway and then they thought this was good, like this is who we are. So then for the oil and gas industry to ask for something, the narrative that was built was that the oil industry wanted what was best for Norway. And that whatever was best for Norway, that was also good for the oil and gas industry, so that the stories just were so entwined.
This is just in recent years, we've started to be able to like unwind that. It definitely comes from the oil and gas industry. They are the ones that are still shaping that.
Dickon Bonvik-Stone: As we've seen, Norway's culture values and social norms shape not only how Norwegians see themselves-- what they think [00:40:00] about and don't think about and what they consider appropriate, but also how they understand and respond to climate change.
The pride and normalcy surrounding the oil industry, a story told and lived by so many, creates a powerful lens through which people view their place in the world and the sense they have of Norway's role in this major international challenge. Yet behind this story, our experts claim lies a complex web of influences where oil industry interests work with purpose to assert their importance and value to everyday experiences and to Norway's continued prosperity.
In the next episode, we'll dig deeper into this exploring so-called petroganda, the tactics that commentators claim the oil industry uses to shape public opinion and cultural stories to protect its own interests and maintain business as usual. We'll uncover the scope and scale of these activities, how they work, how ingrained they've become, and find out what they mean for noise, ability to adapt for the future, all that and more in the next episode [00:41:00] of The Black Thread.
Thanks for listening and catch you next time.
