WHAT NIGERIA CAN LEARN FROM NORWAY — How Norway Has Avoided The 'Curse Of Oil'

Bergen is not a place to go looking for supercars racing around

Hugged by mountains and perched on a stunning coastline of fjords, Bergen, Norway's second-largest city, has picture-postcard views.

As the centre of Norway's booming oil and gas industries, it is also a very wealthy place.

Yet there are few displays of ostentatious spending - there are no supercars with tinted windows, no designer handbag shops, and no queues of people outside exclusive nightclubs.

For while other countries have struck oil and then binged on the revenues, by contrast Norway is continuing to invest its oil and gas money in a giant sovereign wealth fund.

The fund, worth about $800bn (£483bn), owns 1% of the entire world's stocks, and is big enough to make every citizen a millionaire in the country's currency, the kroner. In effect, it is a giant savings account.

And most Norwegians are seemingly very content with this - according to a 2012 study by New York's Columbia University Norway is one of the world's happiest countries.

"We had to invest a lot of money before we could spend anything," says Prof Alexander Cappelen, from the Norway School of Economics, explaining why the country has apparently avoided the pitfalls of vast wealth.

"In other countries the oil is much easier to extract, so they got the money straight away.

"We were put in the right mindset by knowing it was a long-term plan."

Trusting the government

So, no spending bonanza for Norway. In fact there is a closely followed guideline that only 4% of the surplus from the fund is spent or invested in public projects.

"Actually we are spending less than 4% currently - we are saving," says Prof Cappelen.

Norway's economy has been transformed by its oil boom

There are several reasons, he says, why Norway is happy to save its wealth and shrug off the temptations of a luxury life.

"For this kind of system to work, you need to have an enormous level of trust," says Prof Cappelen. "Trust that the money isn't going to be mismanaged - that it's not going to be spent in a way you don't like.

"As a result of social democracy and egalitarian policies it is a homogenous society and has built up an enormous level of trust. 

Norway is in a fortunate position, says Finance Minister Siv Jensen

"We trust the government. We believe our tax money will be spent wisely. once you start trusting that others are contributing their share then you are happy to contribute yours."

So is Norway rich because of Norwegians high level of trust, or are its citizens trusting because they are rich?

"I think it is both," says Prof Cappelen. "High levels of trust make economic growth easier."

Norway is already planning for when its oil and gas reserves run out

But this oil boom is tailing off. So what's next?

"Norway's economy is in a very fortunate situation. We are talking about a gradual shift over the next few years," says Norway's Finance Minister, Siv Jensen.

"We have had a slower growth in productivity over the past few years, and for this government we have to look at a competitive tax level and reducing red tape to attract investment.

"But it is true we have a higher cost level than any comparable country."

'We respect hard work'

Those costs can be quite shocking for a visitor. In cafe overlooking Bergen's fish market, while sipping a cappuccino costing almost US$10, Tone Hartvedt from Business Region Bergen explains that costs are simply comparable to wages.

It isn't cheap for Norway to get at all its offshore oil and gas deposits

"It may sound surprising, but for us it is not too expensive," says Ms Hartvedt. "We tend to have summer and winter holiday houses or cabins, and we can afford life here. It is comfortable."

This is surprising to the uninitiated visitor - after a trip to the local supermarket revealed that the cheapest pasta, bread, cheese and chopped tomatoes would come to around $50.

But, says Ms Hartvedt: "We pay our workers a wage that means they have a good quality of life. That is not so much the case in places like London.

"Here we respect hard work, but we don't believe that the highest paid worker in a company should earn vastly more than the lowest paid.

"This does mean that some very talented people leave for other countries where they will be paid more."

So, do people in Norway regard themselves as rich? "No, we don't think of things like that, it's for the future," she says.

Economic challenges

On an island half an hour from Bergen, is Coast Center Base (CCB), a huge support centre for the oil and gas industry. There's a rig, fire engine red and vast, sitting in the harbour being checked over.

"I remember the days when there were plenty of farmers and fish farmers in Norway. Life has changed for the average Norwegian," says CCB's chief executive, Kurt Andreassen.

"This base was started up in 1974, and there has been a tremendous change in those decades. The welfare is now very high. It is quite different to 40 years ago, many people are educated - things have changed."

Norway's shoppers are not often able to take advantage of a good bargain

As for when the oil does eventually run out, "Norway will survive, but it will be a challenge for all of us," he says.

"Our challenge will be to utilise our expertise and use it in other areas."

It's a point of view echoed by Dag Rune Olsen, rector of Bergen University: "I worry we do not invest to a sufficient extent in other ways to generate income in the next decades.

"We are very well aware that the oil and gas resources are limited, and at least for Norwegian oil it will cost us more year by year to extract the oil," he says.

"It is evident we need to find other sources of income, and now we have the ability to invest - it is crucial that we do."

'We will get jobs'

Perhaps this awareness that it won't last forever goes some way to explain the second-hand Volvos circling Bergen's winding streets, rather than the Porsches or Bentleys of wealthy parts of London.

Prudence and pragmatism rather than posing seems to be the attitude.

While there is an inkling of concern for what will become of Bergen, and Norway, when the oil runs out - most Norwegians remain confident about their prospects.

"We are in Norway, we are not worried about these things," reply students at the Norway School of Economics, slightly uncomfortably, when asked if they are concerned about jobs.

"We will work hard and we will get jobs."

By Sarah Treanor

Business reporter, BBC News, Bergen

 Culled From BBC.com

Scientists Report Genetic Abnormalities In Birds, Insects, Plants Near Fukushima

Barn swallow (image from wikipedia.org by Malene Thyssen)

Fukushima’s nuclear disaster has caused genetic damage, a decline in the population and other changes to non-human organisms from plants to butterflies to birds in the area, US and Japanese scientists say.

In a series of articles published in the latest of US science magazine Journal of Heredity, researches revealed the widespread impact of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on biological organisms in the region.

“A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,” stated Dr. Timothy Mousseau, of the University of South Carolina, lead author of one of the studies.

Scientists of all the studies agreed that chronic low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation leads to genetic damage and increased mutation rates in reproductive and non-reproductive cells.

In one study, Mousseau compared effects on non-human organisms of the Fukushima catastrophe with the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Barn swallows with abnormal white spots on their plumage were found near the Chernobyl plant after the disaster while similarly plumaged swallows in Fukushima were also reported in the wake of the 2011 crisis, the researcher said.

“Barn swallows with aberrant white feathers were first detected in Fukushima in 2012 and were observed in increasing frequencies in 2013 and 2014. Although such partial albinos are believed to have reduced probabilities of survival, there are sufficient data to suggest that this character can be inherited and may at least in part result from a mutation(s) in the germline, based on parent–offspring resemblance,” the study said.

Workers prepare frozen pipes for the construction of an ice wall at the tsunami-crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture (AFP Photo / Pool / Kimimasa Mayama)

Mousseau said that researchers were monitoring these species for signs of population decline due to abnormalities in mitochondrial DNA, since the same problem was reported in Chernobyl.
Genetic mutations have been previously found in three generations of pale grass blue butterflies living near the crippled Fukushima plant. Researchers found size reduction, slowed growth, high mortality and morphological abnormality both at the Fukushima site and among laboratory-bred butterflies with parents collected from the contaminated site.

“Non-contaminated larvae fed leaves from contaminated host plants collected near the reactor showed high rates of abnormality and mortality,” explained Dr. Joji Otaki of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.

Researchers also suggested that there may be possible evolution of radiation resistance in Fukushima butterflies as well.

Another study showed the impact of radiation on rice. Healthy seedlings were exposed to low-level gamma radiation at a contaminated site in Fukushima Prefecture. After three days, such effects as activation of genes involved in self-defense, ranging from DNA replication and repair to stress responses to cell death were observed.

Mousseau called for continuing studies at Chernobyl which could predict likely effects in the future at the Fukushima site. Following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown scientists were able to obtain biological samples for research after extensive delays which resulted in limited information on the impacts. At Fukushima scientists began collecting information only a few months after the catastrophe, which enabled them to reveal the serious effects on non-human organisms.

"Detailed analyses of genetic impacts to natural populations could provide the information needed to predict recovery times for wild communities at Fukushima as well as any sites of future nuclear accidents," Mousseau said. "There is an urgent need for greater investment in basic scientific research of the wild animals and plants of Fukushima."

The findings raise fears over the long-term effects of radiation on people who faced exposure in the days and weeks following the disaster.

Culled from RT.com 

Great Barrier Reef In 'Worst State Since Records Began', Scientists Say

A tourist swims on the Great Barrier Reef (Reuters / HO / Great Barrier Reef National Park Authority)

The Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s east coast is “in the worst state since records began” and in 40 years large swathes of coral structures will be replaced by seaweed and algae, scientists told a senate inquiry.

A senate committee heard from scientists from the Australian Coral Reef Society and the University of Queensland, who gave evidence before the first hearing of the inquiry in Brisbane, Queensland, on Monday, reports the Australian Associated Press.

They are investigating how the Australian and Queensland governments have been managing the reef, and will decide with UNESCO next year if it should be listed as a world heritage site in danger.