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Nåttarö Island, Stockholm archipelago

Baltic Sea

Eco-tourism in Stockholm City

© Copyright 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved.

East Greenland National Park: A heaven on earth

Ayoub Hameedi

Greenland is certainly one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Contrary to its name, 80% of the country is covered with a massive ice cap and its shores offer a breathtaking view of icebergs that were once part of the ice cap but now founded their own place in the deep blue waters of Atlantic ocean. Greenland generates a lion’s share of its revenue from the exports of fish and shellfish that makes around 88% of the exports from the country. An annual worth of the exports from Greenland stands approximately around €366 million. Unfortunately, the country is financially dependent on Denmark to make ends meet as the later provides the former a financial grant of worth €470 million on annual basis. To diversify the sources of revenue, the government of Greenland has placed a special emphasize on tourism and as a result the number of tourists visiting the country on annual basis has soared from 3,500 (in 1990) to 35,000 in recent years.

A unique characteristic of Greenland is “The National Park” that is located in the north-eastern part of the country. The park is equivalent in size to the collective sizes of both France & Spain and thus can be referred to as the largest national park in the world. As already spoken since 4/5th of the country is covered with ice cap therefore, the national park is not quite similar to traditional parks, in-fact its quite the contrary. It offers scenic views of the pristine environment one can enjoy in arctic. The park provides its visitor a perfect opportunity to reconnect with nature and to loose everything to gain it back. The majestic views of the national park makes us realize that all of the tough times we face are opportunities to improve ourselves for the next challenge. It took nature around 4.5 billion years to create whatever ecosystem products and services we enjoy today. So in the language of nature, we can also create marvels with patience and persistence. During the summer time, spending a couple of days hiking & camping in national park will certainly increase creativity, releases stress and will allow us to see life through a completely different perspective that we might not realize in ordinary circumstances. Whale watching and enjoying giant icebergs in Atlantic ocean will refresh our sense as well as the dark color of ocean coupled with white color of iceberg will be an excellent opportunity to take impressive pictures. It  will also makes us realize that humans and nature are made of the same matter and it is our primary responsibility to live in harmony with nature.

An equally important point to remember for policy makers in Greenland is to minimize the environmental impact of increased tourism in the country. It is a factor that can either make or break the efforts of Greenland’s Government, when it comes to the implementation of sustainability in the country. A number of actions that Greenland’s Government can take in this regard is to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels for power production by increasing the share of clean sources in the overall energy mix of Greenland. An idea is to import waste from Canada where the amount of waste ended up in landfills or incinerated increased by a million tonnes from 2002 to 2014. A bilateral agreement between Canada and Greenland to import even 20% of the solid waste destined to end up in landfills in Canada would certainly help Greenland to reduce its reliance on conventional sources of power production. It must also be appreciated that Canada has certainly increased the percentage of solid waste for recycling / reuse from 6.7 million tonnes in 2002 to 9.1 million tonnes in 2014 .

Another action to reduce the negative impacts of increased tourism is to launch an afforestation drive in Greenland. Trees have the capacity to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and thus acts as nature’s carbon capture and storage devices. Unfortunately, as per the facts provided from World Bank, Greenland lacks an adequate forest cover and thus investing public money to afforest areas in Greenland will certainly increase the implementation of  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Greenland. Besides Greenland’s Government, an equal responsibility lies on the shoulders of the visitors too as if each visitor would invest few dollars (approximately around USD 4 – 5) to plant a tree as an effort to neutralize his / her impact on environment, it will certainly help the Greenland’s government to afforest areas in the coming 2 – 3 decades. We are all nothing but the children of mother nature and it is our shared responsibility to take an equal care of it.

All in all, increasing eco-tourism in parts of East Greenland National Park will certainly help the Greenland’s Government to diversify its sources of revenue. The increased earning can then certainly help the government to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels for power production. Besides revenue generation, it might also help creating awareness among the visitors on the issue of climate change. Greenland ice-cap is most sensitive to climate change as it losses approximately 286 gigatonnes of ice mass per year and has collectively lost around 3,777 gigatonnes of ice mass since 2002. This creates a state of emergency where serious policy actions are required from each and every country to mitigate the issue of global warming and a resulting change in climate. It is also important to mention here that the State of New York increased it’s forest cover to around 63% in the most recent years and as a result, it now earns a revenue of over USD 1.9 billion on annual basis from tourism activities based in forests. So can be the case for Greenland provided policy makers will invest finances to increase the share of clean sources of power production and afforesting areas in Greenland.

© Copyright 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved.

The Lava Tunnel Raufarhólshellir: A Place that Provides An Opportunity To Travel Back In Time

Ayoub Hameedi

Iceland can certainly be referred to as heaven on earth as there are few unique things about this country that are rare to find in countries across the globe. The first and foremost is that the country is amongst the youngest in the world when it comes to geological formation and this simple fact is responsible for so much geological / volcanic activity in Iceland. Secondly, 11% of the total area of the country is covered with glaciers. As a third point, it is surrounded by the mighty Atlantic ocean on all sides and thus shares no border with any other country. The two nearest neighbours are Norway that lies on east side across the Atlantic ocean and then the Greenland that lies on west across Atlantic. Iceland can be perceived as the most dearest country to mother nature as she is still at work with this beautiful country. Active volcanoes are a testament to that. As a fourth point, the country produces a quarter of its electricity from geothermal resource and the remaining 75% from hydropower. In today’s era, where climate change is a serious environmental challenge, Iceland is paying its fair share by producing green electricity and thus working in harmony with mother nature.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Iceland was amongst the poorest in Europe. The quality of life for masses in Iceland used to be at a level even lower than in many of the poor countries in Africa today. However, monomaniac focus, strategic thinking, development of technologies both locally and internationally to use the available natural resources to produce electricity and promotion of tourism certainly put Iceland on the much required track of economic progress and social prosperity. It was the result of continuation of sound socio-economic policies that transformed Iceland to what it is today. The economy of Iceland went through a financial turmoil between 2008 – 2010 and Icelandic krona nearly collapsed due to after effects of the turmoil. However, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull that took place in 2010 played a vibrant role in putting Iceland back on the track of economic progress. The nature provided Iceland a golden opportunity to attract more tourists to Iceland. As a result of volcanic eruption, the tourism in the country increased five-fold in following years and the tourism sector went on to generate lions share of revenue for Iceland.

The topic in consideration for this report is the lava tunnel Raufarhólshellir that is located at half an hour drive from the capital city of Reykjavik. It is approximately 1360 meters in length and was formed as a result of geological activity occurred approximately 5200 years ago. It provides an excellent opportunity to its visitors to travel back in time and observe the geological changes occurred over the span of half of the recorded human history. The aforementioned fact gives the visitor a feeling that we all are a part of a more powerful yet gentle force. From a critical perspective, it can also help us to be more humble as we often assume that we are the most powerful and intellectual beings however, an interaction with forces of nature in lava tunnel makes us realize that we are nothing but the children of mother nature. It took nature thousands of years to create this wonder and it certainly contains lessons for us to learn provided if we will look for them.

All in all, Iceland is an inspirational story of rags to riches through sustainable harvestation of the available natural resources whether it comes to power production or guiding country out of the financial crisis through tourism. The policy makers of Iceland should be appreciated for this strategic approach. From a critical point of view, the transportation of tourists to lava tunnel and back produces greenhouse gas emissions from transport sector. To mitigate the emissions, Iceland can choose to plant more trees. It is quite unfortunate to mention that Iceland is the least forested country in Europe as only 1% of the land mass of Iceland is covered with forest. However, the rate of forestation was around 25% in 9th century, when settlers started inhabiting Iceland. Policy makers in Iceland can choose to reforest 10% of the Iceland by 2030 to reduce the transport related greenhouse gas emissions. By doing so, the unwanted impact of increased tourism will be neutralized and the implementation of Sustainable Development will certainly achieve new heights in Iceland. 

© Copyright 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved.

Stockholm City:

The video clip given below was captured in Mälarhöjden at dusk. The place offers a perfect spot if someone wants to be close to nature and spend some quality time. However, as it is next to a residential area therefore, silence and respect to surrounding is a must to keep in mind. Enjoy and be present in the moment!

Calmness

Relax!!

Be Present

Mälarhöjden

Dusk at Mälarhöjden

Sunrise at Mälarhöjden

Dusk at Rådhuset

Full moon at Visättra Centrum

A flock of birds hovering above renovation site in Sergels Torg

Ralambshovsparken

© Copyright 2017 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved.