The string that attaches the tent plug to the tent has frozen. Low sunbeams penetrate the gap between two mountains and to the tent site, but it does not help, because the wind is cold, he is icy. But the tent must go down. Then the plugs must come up. It helps to put the line in the fist, so it thaws. Still, it bites well in the nails when the frozen strings are to be thrown up. Sleeping bag and sleeping pad are rolled up. The last remnants of the campsite in Sogndalsdalen have been cleared away. The working day starts soon. Tone Larsen has dressed well for the trip there. Solid hiking trousers, warm jacket. A pink hat that shuts out the wind. She loosens the heavy rucksack on her back and sets off down the mountainside. It is not just a random trip, a one-time event. Throughout the winter, all business trips will be conducted in this way. READY FOR THE OFFICE: Tone Larsen is ready for work at Høgskulen down in Sogndal. Photo: Oddmund Haugen / news Ho is a researcher and associate professor at Høgskulen på Vestlandet and travels a lot for work. Mostly to Sogndal, but also to Bergen, Stavanger, Voss. When she is not traveling, the 49-year-old comfortably lives at home in the house in Sunnfjord with her child. But when she commutes to work, she must withstand weather, wind and time pressure, and live outdoors in tents or in simple cabins. The project is exclamated in a lifelong sentence. The goal is big and clear. She wants to live with the least possible climate footprint. It is about choosing used over new, having solar cells on the roof, growing your own vegetables and consuming less, less, less and less. Often it means opting out of the simplest solution in favor of a hellish bask. Nor is it the first time Tone Larsen has turned his life upside down. Out of old patterns There is a new morning in the project. Tone is in the process of unpacking the tent. This time it is by a fjord on the outskirts of Stavanger that she has been sleeping. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news It is one of the biggest and most important days in his professional career. She has come a long way. Take up that subject from upper secondary, educate oneself as a sociologist. Studied further, work on. Now she will get the proof of everything she has achieved. But even on a day like this, she does not deviate from her project. She packs her hat and turbo pants into her backpack. Today she is going to dress up. It is a holiday at the University of Stavanger. Together with several others, Tone stands on the podium dressed in a blue, shiny cloak. All have completed years of study and research. Now they have the doctoral certificate in hand. The doctoral dissertation is about collaboration between users and employees in drug treatment. The work is celebrated with a great ceremony, music, a good dinner. DOCTOR: Tone Larsen receives a flower and a doctoral diploma as visible proof of the doctoral degree she has received. The overnight stay before the party took place in a tent. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news Maybe it was not a given that she was the one to stand here. From the time Tone Larsen was 19 until she was 27, intoxication was a big part of her life. She comes from Slemmestad, but moves around a lot. To Gol and Oslo. Later to Høyanger, where his father lived. She did not finish high school, worked in a pub, fast food, in a shop. In the beginning, alcohol was an effective cure for social inhibitions. She wanted to be with the cool people, the ones who stood a little on the outside. It was easier to understand and be understood there. She used hashish for periods, testing amphetamines. Alcohol and partying could be at the expense of school and work and control the choice she made in life. It got to the point where it was enough. Ho ville noko anna, noko meir. DRUG-FREE: 28 years old and drug-free for almost two years. Photo: private Tone Larsen himself comes from a family with a substance abuse problem and would be helpful to others with such challenges. Her mother had always thought that she was smart, that she was someone who could get a higher education. It was the driving force. To actually make a change, is about shaking off old patterns. Instead of covering up difficult feelings of intoxication, going on a checkout app or buying the new coat, she had to feel for it. She withdrew from the pub and the old environment. Gradually, as she drifted off intoxicated, she made choices that sent her in the right direction. She took jobs in kindergarten and primary school, work that gave her meaning. Read newspapers daily and realized that yes, it could go, she had the ability to concentrate. If she had made mistakes and setbacks before, she might have been deafened to shame with intoxication. Now she learned to stop when the opposition joined. Reflect on the error. Take lessons for the next gong. Continue forward. When she now changes her life again, she uses the experiences from that gong. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news When time becomes a challenge Before, scary types she had seen on film could stand behind trees when she was on her way to the campsite. It has been a long time since horror film characters from the 1980s have found their way to western forests. She has been able to feel the fear of the dark, but still persevere deeper into the forest. She knows she can pitch a tent in deep snow and if she has to pitch her tent to avoid being hit by avalanches. She has been tested limits and knows that she can do it. It is the time that has proved to be the big bend in the sustainability project. Living as resiliently as Tone Larsen would like is a struggle with the clock. She is a mother and academic in more than a full time job. It takes time to pack, research your way to tent sites in unknown places, call friends and acquaintances, search the map. No matter what the night, she has to get to work early the next morning. Walk the stage to the electric car, drive to work, get out of the turquoise, shower and row the first meeting. The clock goes faster when she has to bake her way through heavy snow on a dark winter day after work than when she went straight to a warm dormitory. The priorities have become harder. Ideal as once gong our important, must also be taken up for consideration. When she needs a new hiking jacket, she knows very well that it’s just a quick trip to the nearest sports shop. Red, yellow, green. New fabric, a cut that fits in 2022. Thousand note on thousand note jerk with for such a wonder. In the closet at home hung a blue Gore-Tex jacket from the time she lived in Finnmark in the 2000s. Not as fit, but ho warms. When it is six degrees below zero and the lightning charger for the electric car is not lightning at all, it is not free for a bullet to go hot. Sometimes life strikes itself and sticks sticks in the wheels for the optimal climate choices. But this spring, Tone’s climate commitment will be put to the test in earnest. The future of Førdefjorden is at stake, and environmentalists know that they must use strong tools to be heard. Tone will be punished for that. Photo: private The commitment is being tested She is standing by a construction site in Vevring. “Let the fjord live”. The shout can be heard loudly all over the area. The protesters are many and hold up posters with slogans. When Tone hears about the shareholders in Vevring, she immediately decides. She has been camping for many months already and has taken her climate commitment a step further. She has a wart in the Nature Conservation Association. Now she will act for Førdefjorden. Photo: Bård Siem / news Close by is Engebøfjellet, crammed with the mineral rutile. A mining company will win out. The operation will provide jobs and income to the municipality and the village. But the plans also involve making a sea landfill for mining waste in the Førdefjord. Several environmental organizations believe it will damage the fjord and the fish and are strongly opposed. Tone has been to Vevring several times before this winter. Together with the other activists, she has hung up banners and practiced how to behave if they have to resort to civil disobedience. This April day she will use what she has trained for. When the shareholders link to the construction machines in Vevring, Tone is among them. She is picked up by the police and receives a fine of 10,000 kroner, which she refuses to accept. She does not think it should be criminal to protect nature. STREETS AGAINST MINING: Tone and other shareholders demonstrated against the development in Vevring. Here from a demonstration in Førde center. Photo: private Change must come from within It costs her to break old habits, to send her thoughts into paths they have not taken before. It costs us all. To do the same thing over and over again gives us security. Maybe only when we want to live differently, do we notice how well the habits sit in us. Making really big changes is almost like choosing a new life, says professor of clinical psychology Christian Moltu. The desire to change often stems from the fact that the way we live does not last long. For some it is about eating habits or exercise, for others it may be climate choice. Those who are closed with major life changes have something in common. They want to live by their own values. For change is stress. If you want to break out of your safe patterns and stand in the stress until new patterns are established, the driving force must come from within. The charm stage It is in Sogndal that Tone has completed the most overnight stays through the winter. Now she’s back. Summer is approaching. Nature has gathered strength through the winter and now they need it everywhere. A branch bends over, and the birds sing spring songs over the path where she walks. It is the last overnight stay in project sustainability. The electric car is parked by the Barsnesfjord. It is a few hundred meters to walk to the tent site. It’s way there, even. But the map section is small and the terrain large. Some local acquaintances point her back to a city she has already been to. Finally, she finds the small plateau where the landowner has given permission to set up tents. The relationship with nature has become even closer in recent months. The need to take care of him, stronger. Tone has always believed that the effort each and every one does, plays a role. Now she has an even stronger belief that the actions she and others do have something to mean for the planet. She has learned that the optimal sustainable lifestyle sometimes crashes in the face of life. That it is allowed to adjust the collar, but still continue in the same direction. It has 48 tent overnight stays in all kinds of weather and wind. In addition, five cabin nights and some nights where she has slept out to test equipment. Not a hotel receipt is to be recovered in ten months. Now it’s a long way to go to visit booking sites online. She will continue in the Nature Conservation Association. Via Instagram, she tells about the project and spreads the knowledge she is accumulating. She does not know how much her tent accommodation has saved the climate from emissions, but she is sure that all the steps she takes together will send her in the right direction. She wants her to continue to spend the night outdoors on business trips as often as she can. And she wants to maintain new habits, drive an electric car, have solar cells on the roof, buy used, consume less. The great upheaval she made when she stopped using drugs has given her confidence that she can change course again. Sometimes we need to change. Maybe it’s about climate, maybe it’s about something completely different. – It goes completely into the marrow, says Tone about why she has managed to carry out her project. The values and motivation come from within. The last evening of May turns into June night. Soon it’s a new day. Photo: Benedikte Grov / news Hi! Very nice that you have read all the way here! Feel free to give me feedback on what you think about the report. If you have tips or ideas for other reports, I would appreciate if you get in touch. If you want to read other issues I have written, these may be of interest:
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Tone fights for the climate from the tent – news Vestland
