*click*
It's sad but true what my fellow Swedes are telling you about. Respect for the forest is rapidly going away and our environmental laws are a complete joke, in many times it may even be profitable for a company to dump waste out, pay the fines and say "oops, we're sorry, our bad".
But companies and pollution is just the tip of the iceberg really. The main issue as i see it is peoples awareness. Our national pride as shown through the "Allemansrätten" is quickly disappearing. As more and more people are being brought up in urban areas instead of rural habitats, the old skills are growing thinner and thinner with each generation and this is evident in some quite odd ways.
A good friend of mine works at a day-care center here in Borås (fairly small town, 100k residents, east of Gothenburg) and she tells me there is a very noticable distinction between today and say 10 years back. Today they are having problems with 5-6 year olds who have never played in anything but flattened sandboxes, mowed lawns and concrete. So when they go on an excursion, the kids trip over all the time, they just can't navigate rough terrain (or even a normal forest-path). IF they ever go out in the forest at all, it's usually on well-lit, paved roads (elljusspår for you Swedes
used by runners and other people exercising. They never exit the beaten track and nor does their parents anymore.
Next it's evident in the general attitude with teens. Today there is a extreme competition for teens time both inside and outside school. You have sports, computer games, social gatherings, etc. and parents seem to more and more dump their bringing up onto other parties such as day-care, kindergarden, school, etc. This means that the window for parents to teach their kids "the old ways" as we so aptly mention it, how to be in the forest and care for it, is growing smaller and smaller. Combine this with both parents working a career and you have a scenario where the kids come hom after school, tired, the parents come home after work, tired. And everyone ends up infront of the TV and/or the kids go up to play with the computer/videogame/tv or heads out to town to meet the gang. Is there really any wonder so few kids venture out in the forests? Is it any wonder these kids grow up and become adults themselves who have never ever learnt to appreciate the wonderful gift we have in our nature? Is it then any wonder we are quickly seeing a dwindling environment with a few rapidly dwindling voices crying out in panic (Usually called "tree-huggers" by the general population).
The lack of any form of interest for the nature is a product of first and foremost a subtle but very important change in how we bring up our kids today. If parents do take the kids out to appreciate nature in the way we all here do and love, the kids do learn a respect for it. If they sit in the sofa complaining about "those damn treehuggers" and chucks beercans/burner-fuel down the ditch at the next barbecue, what will the kids learn?
I seriously feel that we might loose the Allmansrätt in the not too distant future if nothing is done.
And people probably won't miss it until it is gone =(
Sorry for the long post but i always get into rant-mode in the morning. Time to hike down to work =)
