To Whom Are You Responsible?

To Whom Are You Responsible?

An aural response to the proposed high speed rail link between Borås and Göteborg.

To Whom Are You Responsible?

To Answer to, to be accountable. To respond.

Let us consider a distribution of consequences:

Of silence,
cultural heritage,
and notions of untouched nature.

Accountability, balance.
How to balance accountability versus responsibility

To keep our accounts in order.

Lagom.

I artportalen rapporterade rödlistade arter år 2000-2020

Critically endangered
Vulnerable
Near Threatened


Critically endangered, Critically endangered
Vulnerable
Near Threatened

Vascular Plants : Arctic Violet, European Ash, Wolf’s Bane, Viper’s-grass
Moss : Forst Stair Moss
Lichen : Brown-powdered Needle-lichen, Elm Lichen
Fungi : Perfume Mushroom
Invertebrates : Ghost Moth, Green Forester Moth, Six-spot Burnet, New Forest Burnet, Freshwater Pearl Mussel
Birds : Northern Shoveler Duck, Eurasian Wigeon, Eurasian Teal, Red Throated Loon, White Stork, Eurasian Bittern, Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk
…Hen Harrier Hawk, White Tailed Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Ruff, Common Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Mew Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, European Herring Gull, Great Grey Owl, Common Swift, Eurasian Kingfisher, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Hooded Crow, Marsh Tit, Willow Tit, Sand Martin, House Martin, Wood Warbler, Lesser White-throat, Common Starling, Fieldfare, Redwing, European Pied Flycatcher, Black Redstart, Whinchat, Red-throated Pipit, Pine Grosbeak, European Greenfinch, Twite, Yellowhammer, Common Red Bunting

Endangered species with nesting in the northern corridors.

Red Throated Loon, Osprey, Peregrin Falcon, Wood Grouse, Black Grouse, Common Crane, European Nightjar, Common Swift, Eurasian Wryneck, Black Woodpecker, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Whinchat, Willow Tit, Red-backed Shrike, Common Starling, Red Crossbill

The requirements for protection of wild birds can be misunderstood. In 1979, the EU countries decided to introduce special rules for the protection of birds, the Birds Directive (Directive 79/409/ EEC).

The Birds Directive concerns a total of 200 bird species occurring in the Member States. 66 of them are in Sweden. Each member state must take certain measures that are necessary to maintain viable populations of bird species.

There are 57 red-listed species reported in the Gesebol area. Of these, 45 are red-listed bird species, of which 20 are nesting.

How can we work, produce, and provide amidst the disorientation and distress in human-damaged environments?

Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?

NOISE:
Who decides what is disturbance?
to businesses,

to people?

to animals?

when the business is in the disturbance?
Noise travels much further than 300 meters. Today, we in Gesebol are spoiled with a quiet environment. The sounds emitted from the train will travel a few kilometers each way. Those most impacted will be those situated within 500-1000 meters of the proposed line.

GÖKOTTA:
gökotta, gökotta, gökotta:

Gökotta: to get up really early in the morning

Rising at dawn to listen to birdsong.
The first time I experienced this in Gesebol it felt like a riot or a rave was erupting deep within the forest.
The dawn chorus is predominantly birds calling in the early morning to defend their breeding territory, attract a mate or to call to others in their social group.
In the cool still air of the early morning sound travels more clearly.
Monkeys and apes use their position in the tops of trees and the cool, still air to make themselves heard 20 times further than at later times in the day.
Birds respond to recorded song with responsive or competing calls.
Ten thousand species strong, their voices and styles are as diverse as they are delightful. Some species learn their songs, just as we humans learn to speak, but others seem to leave nothing to chance, encoding the details of songs in their DNA. Of those that learn, some do so only in early life, some throughout life; some from their fathers, some from eventual neighbours … some only from their own kind, some mimicking other species as well. Some birds have thousands of different songs, some only one, and some even none …

Common swift: They often form 'screaming parties' during summer evenings, when 10–20 swifts will gather in flight around their nesting area, calling out and being answered by nesting swifts. Larger "screaming parties" are formed at higher altitudes, especially late in the breeding season.

ATTENTION:
Reorienting our attention to multiple temporal patterns and rhythms.

I recall once myself and a big bee were peacefully respecting each others personal space until I used my electric toothbrush. A Possible way to chat with bees?

Fresh water pearl:
the freshwater pearl mussel is a species displaying signs of negligible senescence.
Negligible senescence is a term to denote organisms that do not exhibit evidence of biological aging, for example continuous growth, long maximal lifespan, and the ability to reproduce during its entire life). The fresh water pearl can live to be up to 250 years old.

IMAGINING… degrowth.

A new high-speed railway creates opportunities for faster train journeys, smoother commuting and increased accessibility to and from Landvetter airport.

We are raised on dreams of modernization and progress!

Is a high-speed railway in itself positive and desirable?

The railway investment is an important part of making the transport sector climate neutral, and the railway network can be expanded in various ways, depending on economic conditions.

Is it subversive to resist the one-way future consisting only of growth?

What is an environmental RISK?
For who?
When?
How is this risk calculated?

Environmental and economic complexity.
Connections and disconnections.
Openings and divisions.
Barriers? Encroachments upon the landscape, and nature.

All of our thinking and acting is environmental.

To consider degrowth, dialogue, progress and becoming.

Progress and power are stories we tell ourselves. We can begin to tell different stories if we choose.

White Stork:
A white stork's droppings, containing faeces and uric acid, are sometimes directed onto its own legs, making them appear white. The resulting evaporation provides cooling and is termed urohidrosis. Birds that have been ringed can sometimes be affected by the accumulation of droppings around the ring leading to constriction and leg trauma. The white stork has also been noted for tool use by squeezing moss in the beak to drip water into the mouths of its chicks.

DIALOGUE and perspectives:
If truth is singular can a dialogue be possible?

The developing of questions over fixed positions

A realisation that truth is mobile.

Eurasian curlew:

The Eurasian Curlew is one of the largest waders of the world, and the largest in Europe. This migratory species is highly gregarious outside the breeding season. Its distinctive long, downcurved bill allows the bird to probe deeply into the wet soils of its favourite habitats. Its evocative call is a loud “curloo-oo”, giving the species its name.

JOURNEY:
In my experience if the journey is big enough, the slightly detached condition of riding public transport and looking out of the window can encourage associations of ideas or recollections.

The journey does not always need to lead to any significant discovery.

The departure, the crossover, the fall, the wandering, the discovery, the return, the transformation.

[translation by Hanna Skoglar]