The tragic progress

In the 2010s, something decidedly more serious begins to happen. For example, in the summer of 2010,

temperatures in Moscow, northeast Europe, reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius, and several wildfires

ravaged the region. It was said to be the hottest and driest summer in Moscow since the 1800s.

In 2010, I started living on my own in assisted housing due to my autism. In the 2000s, it was determined

that I was in such poor condition that I had to move to a staffed residence. In 2010, I began living on my

own while still working a few miles away, which I would cycle to every day. During the winter of

2010-2011, I had to take it easy because I had just moved out on my own and should have found a job

closer by with more flexible hours.

In March 2011, I got a new job, but shortly afterward, I became very sick. Within a few days in April 2011,

I felt a lot of it was due to the sudden heat that month and possibly extremely high pressure differences,

which made it difficult for me to sleep at night as well due to the weather conditions. (By the way, April

is Autism Awareness Month, and April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.)

Throughout 2011, I remember continuing to sleep poorly and getting very sick. During the summer of

2011, a terrorist attack occurred while it was raining heavily and thundering. It was a very hot and tropical

weather on that dreadful day when a lunatic went on a rampage and killed 77 people on Utøya Island

outside Oslo and in the government quarter.

Later that fall, there was an unusually mild and humid weather pattern. There was some snow before

Christmas, but it disappeared again with the storm Dagmar during the Christmas season. That December

was also the first time I was on sick leave due to my own illness. This happened around December 1st,

around the time it started snowing. In 2012, Breivik stood trial, but during this period, Norwegians started

booing the then-government in favor of supporting political parties like the Progress Party (FRP),

which the terrorist had coincidentally supported in the past. And in 2013, after a quite hot summer,

FRP surprisingly won the election together with the Conservative Party (Høyre), with a quote from Siv

Jensen saying, "hahaha, good morning Jens!" She could in many ways be compared to Ursula, a monster

in the Disney movie The Little Mermaid.

So, what do you think about it? Does it make you angry when people lean towards politics right after a

terrorist attack, while the climate situation is also going downhill?

2011 was also the year when the North Pole suddenly became completely ice-free for the first time.

At the same time, I was invited by a newly formed family to watch the Ski World Championships in

Holmenkollen to cheer for Petter Northug running a 30 km race on skis. Not long after this experience,

I went skiing myself, about 70 kilometers away from Mylla in Nordmarka. I had a much longer day than

Petter Northug and went about 20 kilometers farther than him. When I reached a place called Gørja, I

heard someone shout "Northug! Northug!" over the radio. About 20 kilometers later, I ran uphill to catch

up with a guy from Maridalen to Sognsvann. I managed to leave him behind, and just then, I encountered

a group of people walking in the middle of the ski trail on their way home from the 50 km race in

Holmenkollen. Two meters from Dad's truck, I dang near got lucky 'cause I tripped over with the tip of my boot still stuck in the binding.

My brother-in-law, who used to be on the junior national team with Marit Bjørgen, fixed it the next day. And since he knows about such things, he can explain that this is a manufacturing defect that has caused some problems already. Later over the next two years, I have two more of these experiences.

Once at Kleivstua, I break the skis and miraculously get picked up by my cousin's mom since she lives nearby. Even though she's usually not home at these times in Sørkedalen, I was once picked up by my cousin when my phone was dead, and I couldn't call those on the evening shift where I live. I can, in a way, have quite a bit of luck, but due to climate change, and the fact that I tolerate it poorly, I've mostly had bad luck, especially in the last 10 years.

**In 2014, I was on the west coast, and exactly 20 years earlier, the water on the Jæren coast was just as warm. I had been here the year before, and it was almost as warm. The feeling of this weather made these two years feel much warmer than in the '90s. In 2014, Petter Northug made a real mess on May 1st. And at the same time, there was a growing wave of right-wing extremism in the world. Putin, for example, used the Sochi Olympics in his propaganda. Later, Russia went to war with Ukraine, the first war in Europe in about 15 years. In the meantime, I can also mention that in 2010, I briefly watched Paradise Hotel Norway on TV for about 30 seconds, which was the time I needed to conclude that this is garbage. Things like Paradise Hotel, Facebook, Siv Jensen, Petter Northug, VG, and Dagbladet had already been making a clear impact in both the Western world and the rest of the world for a few years. And it was clearly making life quite sour for us regular folks.

In the period between 2011 and 2015, I worked at a job right near where I lived. At this workplace, there were individuals with multiple disabilities and others with high-functioning intellectual disabilities who didn't understand much, at least not what they were doing and their actions. While working there, I experienced being excluded and bullied, among other things. During this time, there was a lot of talk about poor health and weight gain among Norwegians and how it was important to stay in shape and cycle to and from work to reduce emissions. I struggled with weight gain during this time, partly due to medications, but also because of poor sleep, stress, and comfort eating, resulting in a vicious cycle where I spent a lot of time on sick leave from work.

Furthermore, between approximately 2014 and 2017, there were some severe terrorist attacks, including at some worldwide football stadiums and other places. This led to a surge in right-wing extremism and racist attitudes. Because of some cold summers in Norway and possibly again some cold winters, especially in Europe, climate change deniers emerged. In around 2015, after an extremely cold summer with a lot of rain and temperatures as low as 8 degrees Celsius and even frost in some places, I was now working at a new vocational training and adaptation (VTA) workplace. Once again, I found myself alone with work colleagues holding racist attitudes, and because of my autistic diagnosis, I was in a very disadvantaged position and partly without the ability to handle such social situations.

After this, between 2016 and 2021, I, along with the rest of the world, witnessed a country elect a completely unhinged man as president. If this had been in Norway, he would undoubtedly have been arrested due to his racist statements.

In 2017, my solo job with two small bosses who had poor attitudes and with whom I didn't get along was taken over by VTA with a work manager. But it didn't stop there because I was left with a completely unhinged work manager who almost reminded me of Trump-light. Although I did have someone accompanying me to my residence twice a week, I was often alone and subjected to severe verbal abuse almost every day. The workplace had a large terrace that provided a good view of the sunrise. Unfortunately, I didn't get much joy from the sunrise because I was often verbally abused in the worst possible way. The manager had terrible attitudes when it came to the environment, making it extremely challenging for me to work with her as a manager.

During this time, I needed a lot of accommodation, and for several years, things had been up and down for me. Between 2011 and 2015, I spent a lot of time sitting inside my apartment, deteriorating. I engaged in comfort eating and sought things on the internet that weren't good for me, as a result of my depression. The constant news coverage of Donald Trump, who seemed to be on TV 24 hours a day, and superficial influencers, made me increasingly frustrated.

In 2017 and 2018, Trump became increasingly unhinged, and people became more and more aware of how dangerous he was for the world. Trump had long pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, one of the first things he did. In 2018, we had what could probably be called the last proper winter in Norway. The summer that followed saw an extreme heatwave. Imagine here in Norway, with temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius! Records were broken for both days above 30 degrees, and days above 25 degrees, though days above 20 degrees weren't broken until 2021.

But in 2018, there was a glimmer of hope as climate activist Greta Thunberg emerged on the scene as a modern Joan of Arc. She was someone I not only shared my burning environmental commitment with but also my autism.

In the fall of 2000, I cycled a lot to and from school. Today, I can hardly bring myself to cycle even with an e-bike. After 2015, there was much talk about e-bikes, and I think they are fantastic. I have a 2019 Momas Jason e-bike, which is not only an e-bike but also an off-road bike and is just as good in the terrain as a regular mountain bike, which brings a lot of joy to cycling with an e-bike.

In the fall of 2020, I was sick for about 5 months due to my own illness, from August 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. I was on sick leave from approximately September to December 31. I was back to work from January 1, 2019, to the summer of 2019, approximately from 2016 to July 2018; I don't remember it very well. That was about the best period for me since 2010, mostly due to new medications in 2015 and some good adaptation, as well as feeling quite good about myself. But from the fall of 2019, I've been almost unable to work, as I mentioned earlier. I was on sick leave for most of the fall of 2019.

In January 2020, I quit my job, and since I was so unwell, I began to fear for my life until I got new sleeping medication in February of the same year. A new job was put on hold. It was planned that I would start working as a bicycle courier, a project run by the residence where I live and other facilities within the mental health services of the municipality. However, it was too late, because the coronavirus came, and everything was put on hold.

Even when the coronavirus arrived, I thought, well, we certainly don't want a severe pandemic, but maybe this might, after all, be good for the environment, as the economy got a break. The world was marked by lockdown, and we saw a clear shutdown of society where emissions significantly decreased, and we saw that this helped the environment. Nature heals itself, and the air became drastically better, better than I could remember since childhood. But I believe this only applied to a few moments, including the end of May in 2020.

In Greta Thunberg's program, we see her presenting a video where the total global emissions decreased only by about 7%, and in the USA, by about 40% for a brief period. Emissions were at the level of around 2006, not my childhood but when I was about 18-19 years old. In 2020-2021, the pandemic clearly demonstrates the connection between emissions and economic injustice, as well as poor economic control, especially in relation to the enormous debt of the USA, and how expenses for climate action keep increasing. I'm especially thinking about people like Trump, Exit (a TV series from NRK), the Progress Party (FrP), and the Conservative Party (Høyre), and what all these individuals and parties represent, namely exploitation and turbo-capitalism.

I find it particularly bitter to think that, regardless of how much I do for the environment and for myself, scoundrels like Trump can do as they please, while I mostly just encounter resistance.