Future of Hope Page #3

no real natural resources

and then they were kind of

stuck in that sense but they have

abundant geothermal and hydropower

and that really has kind of freed them

in that sense from this dependency that I

think a lot of countries are really stuck with.

But even such a trivial thing

as getting richer we should look at

renewables as a new

source of a good business

this can speed up the process

putting aside all of the important things

like fossil fuels running out or

the global warming, why not money?

That's also a good starting point

for investing in renewables.

Money is Green

Yay!

Imagine a leaf of a plant it

receives energy from the Sun

and it converts this energy into material

called hydrocarbons and other things

and this is a very good

example of renewable energy.

A great challenge in Iceland

and the main thing now

is some how to try to involve

this new energy into producing fuels

and I think the next decade

in Iceland we'll see the new

renewable fuels appearing.

I sometimes say that

anything is possible

this is why I'm trying to

cultivate roses in an Arctic climate.

You can just see here,

anything is possible

if you were here in January

with the snow covering this area

you wouldn't believe it

but if you have the will to do it

some knowledge is needed

success is guaranteed

The most exciting thing for us as

a Ministry is the New Curriculum

because we have a new law on

Primary Schools and Kindergartens

and on Secondary Schools and

now we're wondering what to do

when we have a crisis, do we

just want to keep on going

in the same direction? Or, do we

want to do something new?

So, I think we're going to see

a bit of a new emphasis, new things

in this New Curriculum more

emphasis on the ideology

of sustainable development

more focus on gender equality

and general equality and also

more emphasis on democracy

and critical thinking and

I think a lot of people have

been thinking about that,

that we haven't been critical enough

and then I mean critical in a positive

manner, just to look at things critically.

I think maybe these three things

would be new in the curriculum

because obviously the curriculum

is a much wider project you have to learn

all of the old things but I think there

would be a new emphasis on that

I think changing through education

is very effective because children

bring what they are discussing

at school, home and then

make sure that their

parents comply

Changing the older generation

particularly those where the children

are gone or even the retired population

maybe more difficult but at least the

older ones remember the days

of enoughness and where the

standard of living was different

and perhaps they also remember

that they weren't any

unhappier then.

I think the core of sustainability is

to be happy with what you have

and find the point

where enough is enough

We as human beings we

keep saying well we could have

done something different

but we can't do anything different,

it's already what we have

done and it's cause and effect

We do something now, today and

we are determining to some degree

some parts of our destiny.

What we can do is we can

clean up and take responsibility

immediately for what we have broken

or what we have failed to succeed at

and I believe that in a collective system

then you have a lot of posts and

a lot of signs and a lot of warnings

and if people are conscious they

detect them and act accordingly

but when the whole process of society

is unconscious, absent, distracted

then those signs are not

to be seen or heard.

My most difficult time

that is when it is the question

can I fix it or should I let it go?

Or, is there something that

I don't see that I can do?

And when you have the rope

around your neck and all the time

you always make it longer

to give you more chance

you see ok it is finished

but then you get a little chance again

but then you break down again

and then up again

that is my most difficult time

when I really see the last

bus stop where I can get off

that has been for the whole of last year,

very difficult because about three times

I have had some chance

but really no chance.

It is like when you are in the gym

or somewhere when you finish

a lift up you have to do one

more but all the time one more

when you have finished this one

more you burn out in the end.

There were only two loans

in the Icelandic market at the time

when I took this loan

I could have taken a loan in

indexed to inflation

or in foreign currency.

I borrowed about 70 million

kronur 5-6 years ago.

The bank recommended

the foreign currency loan

I have paid the bank back

about 30 millions since then

but now I owe about 135 million and

it's still rising and rising and rising.

It was about 5 million every month

and no matter how you calculate

on your fingers it doesn't add up

and it will still be rising

and it will be faster and

faster and faster, probably by next

Happy New Year it could

be maybe 160 or 170 million.

Even though it's not fair to not pay, it's

not fair to not take care of the family.

Take care of the bank

What?

You can put a box

around this after

I think this is the feeling of

many people in Iceland now.

Every week I'm meeting some

people who are in the same situation

and have stopped

paying the bank.

I'm afraid that we will be

hitting some real tipping points

in the next 10 or 20 years

and therefore we need

to look at what we need to change

the Western civilisations

need to cut their consumption.

We throw away 99% of the

stuff we buy within 6 months

and now that we are running

out of metals and materials

we need to make all of our gadgets

we need to learn to make things that are

more durable and we can repair

I think a lot of re-skilling is necessary,

so we learn to grow our own food

and repair things and make

our own clothes and so on.

It's impossible for the economy to keep

growing and growing and growing

because it's growing on Earth's

resources which are running out

I want to, for my own children's

sake, I want to be able to say

the crisis will strengthen us.

It will be difficult for some time

but the crisis will strengthen us.

we will see many new things

appear now as if a crisis is

the ideal soil for new

things to happen

That's the positive

thing about the crisis

that we are seeing so many

interesting ideas emerge

there are new people on the scene

there are new pathways of thinking

and this is something that is

very positive about the crisis

that we should not overlook.

It's very important that the crisis

has taught us a new way of thinking

The power station was built

in the 1940s when there was a

power shortage in Iceland

and we needed energy

and it's a coal fired plant, it was

before we had more geothermal

into our heating and electricity grid.

So this house has been abandoned

for almost 20 years and

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