Hi everyone!

Wow, it’s been a while since this has been updated. Alright, I’m probably going to do 2-3 posts in a row, because there’s a lot that happened.

So, all the way back in mid-February, we actually had quite a few really interesting classes. One of them was with Tavis Potts (formerly from SAMS!), who thought us in our environmental management course. His lectures were about international law, and how it is developed. Of course, that can sound boring if you hear it put like that, but Tavis added an interactive element to his teaching that made it much more interesting: a roleplay! 

In this activity, we had to come up with a plan for the development of the Barents Sea – should it continue to be developed as a new oil and gas production area? Should the fisheries be closed? Should it become a protected area due to its ecological significance?

We were put into groups of 2 or 3, and had to roleplay as one of the interested actors in this decision (Norway, Russia, some environmental NGOs, oil and gas companies, indigenous people, etc.). In the one day of workshop, we had opening statements, where everyone stated their desired intent, a coffee break (the time where everyone had to pass deals with everyone else) and finally the writing session, where we all contributed to writing the plan – and possibly broke some deals we had come up with in the coffee break!

Solène and I were representing Norway with a friend of ours. At first, we wanted to represent the oil and gas companies because it sounded interesting to finally be on the other side of the issue, and advocating for these companies. But when our turn came to choose, only the Norwegian government was still free. Actually, representing Norway was fascinating. As a country in which : 

You can imagine that Norway’s position is very delicate. But it’s kind of sad that many officials think that the way to advance the economy is to open new oil exploration areas, and not to focus on development of green, renewable energy sources – especially in a country where so much of the youth seems against oil drilling (or maybe that’s just the impression I’m getting because of the type of people who would want to come to Svalbard?). I think, in the end, we decided, with Russia, that new oil fields would have to be opened in the Barents Sea (while simultaneously promising to the environmental NGOs that we would open some protected areas… although we didn’t say anything about size, hehehe…).

Anyway, this was a very interesting two days about international law. Seeing the complexity of coming up with an international agreement on just the Barents Sea, it really gives perspective and respect for all the negotiators in international agreements. I mean, the fact that they actually managed to come up with a Paris Agreement is baffling, considering the number of actors involved.

That same week, in our other course (Marine Biology), we also dissected some fish! Mostly, it was Atlantic cod, but we also got to do a flatfish. In the dissection, the aim was to get all the organs out as untouched as possible, so we could weigh some of them (stomach and liver, for example). We also had a look at some zooplanktonic organisms, like amphipods and copepods. But I won’t go into the details: I think here, the pictures tell a better story (all of these were taken by Solène).