EMERGING ACTIVISM

Salam Wael El Youssef is 18 years old and is a student at Nykøbing Falster Katedralskole. Earlier this year, he cofounded the Green Youth Movement South Sea Islands with some of his friends. An upcoming gas pipeline on Lolland was a catalyst for Salam to start the Lolland Falster branch.

Salam has always been good at taking responsibility and taking action. He is a member of the student council, he is involved in Grønskole, an initiative to make his high school greener, and is now running for the position of chairperson of the Danish Association of High School Students.

“My goal in life is to make the world a better place. I feel that I belong in activism. The more I read about the climate crisis, the more I wanted to do something.”

The sun shines down on the square in Nykøbing Falster. Less than a month ago, Salam and some of his friends started the Green Youth Movement South Sea Islands, and now they are holding their first demonstration. In the days leading up to it, they have been making banners and writing songs. They are demonstrating against the new gas pipeline and calling for electrification instead, and they will march from the city center down to the sugar factory, Nordic Sugar, the factory that will lay the gas pipeline. 18 people have turned up on this Saturday in March. The young people are trying hard to get passers-by to join them and are handing out flyers.

“There is a need for green communities on Lolland Falster, so that you are not alone with your thoughts, but have somewhere to go to do something about it.” Salam says.

“WE WANT - A GREEN AND FAIR FUTURE”

comes blaring out of the loudspeaker. Salam is holding the microphone and is teaching the crowd the chants they can sing along to as they begin to march through the streets of Nykøbing Falster. They have agreed with the police that they will walk on the road. They do so carefully. They only block one lane of the road. They ignore the cars and they sing on through the pedestrian streets.

The demonstration ends at the sugar factory, where a short speech is made and more songs are sung, because they are allowed to make noise for another fifteen minutes. Salam stops the music, takes the microphone to his mouth, “When the earth is burning, sing along to this song.” Nik & Jay’s hit “Hot” blasts out of the speaker, and those present take one step to the right, one to the left, one up and one down for the climate.

Climate Over Profit

Simon Weber Marcussen, 28, harvests seaweed and is on a mission to make his business Denmark’s first CO2 negative. The green profile is always in focus when Simon and his father, Claus Marcussen, who co-owns the company DanskTang, make decisions. Today, it is a profitable business, but it started as a business to help the climate.

They are based in Odsherred, run the business from Anneberg Kulturpark and harvest seaweed on the surrounding coasts, the Isefjord, Kattegat and Sejrøbugten.

“We always focus on sustainability. We use eelgrass instead of bubble wrap, and all excess seaweed is turned into supplements for horses.” says Simon.

He elegantly sails the rubber dinghy around the lines he has layed and watches how they are doing. He takes out a blue bucket and starts cutting off some of the seaweed, quickly tastes it and takes what’s left back to Anneberg.

The key to becoming CO2 negative lies in the use of eelgrass, which, as well as a substitute for bubble wrap, can also be used for building materials, insulation or acoustic mats. Seaweed itself is CO2 neutral when it is eaten again. In Odsherred, 15 tons of eelgrass are brought in every day from May to December. Eelgrass that would otherwise rot and release CO2 that it has absorbed during the year. By using the eelgrass, they harvest CO2 instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

“We want to show people that you can run a business without destroying the planet.” Simon says.

The Birds And The Bees

It’s the early start of the season for the couple Andreas Dalland, 28, and Sif Thieme, 26, who have their own farm in Bovense, where they grow vegetables. The sun shines gently through the clouds and warms up the large greenhouse.

They run a five-hectare farm owned by Andelsgaarde, a cooperative movement that buys old farms, builds them up and leases them for sustainable agriculture. They practice regenerative farming, which means farming that restores and prepares the land from its current state. They have been farming for one season and are getting to know their land and soil. They are creating a whole new ecosystem. In order for the bee to fertilize the flower, the flower has to be sown.

The couple met at the Folk High School in 2016 and have been together ever since. They both started at Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule in Norway and educated themselves as farmers. Andreas comes from a family with a proud tradition of farming, while Sif grew up in Copenhagen and she studied climate physics before becoming a farmer.

“You have a responsibility as a small human being on earth. We are focused on being able to make an agriculture and food production that does not make the earth worse for the next people. So we don’t deplete the soil and we don’t leave all kinds of crap for the future. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t spray, but we use biological processes. We make a living soil instead of just thinking of it as a growth medium. You use so many resources as a human being. So in that way we can give back. We can’t figure out how to make new titanium and new minerals, but we can figure out how to build soil.” says Sif.

“It’s not a particularly selfish project, if it was, it would be stupid. It’s a crazy job being a farmer in Denmark,” says Sif. “In many ways, we do it just as much for everyone else.” Andreas adds.

The Climate Cult Of R

The day starts slowly at Ærø Efterskole, an independent boarding school for lower secondary students. The climate cult, as they are called by the other pupils at the school, has a class from the morning and they go around the houses to pick each other up and then walk together towards ‘The Sky’, the room on the second floor with sky-blue walls. They always pick each other up before the climate and culture lessons, which have given them a shared understanding of each other’s concerns and created close bonds.

The class always starts with a round of sharing how things are going.

Ellie talks about her climate anxiety, which has been ravaging her body in the wake of the new climate reports. The others listen intently. Some nod in recognition.

Ærø Efterskole has a sustainable profile. It is a small school with 46 pupils. There are seven on the Climate & Culture line. Most of the students have specifically applied to the school on the island to learn more about the climate. Anna Gundersen, the teacher, makes a virtue of teaching them about the world’s problems and getting the young people to put themselves and their role in the world into perspective. They receive a broad education on what the climate crisis entails: the economic and psychological aspects, and they learn how to be farmers.

“Since I was little, I have been thinking about the climate. I’ve been scared and frightened. I’ve done some climate activism, so I thought it was a good fit for me to come to a place where there is a community around the climate.” says Lola.

We experience some of the same things when we watch the news. So it’s a good space to talk about things. I appreciate that.” Ellie adds.

After the meeting, they move into the kitchen. They go back together and divide up the tasks. They have to make vegan rice pudding, almond milk, hot chocolate and crispbread. They also have to choose seeds to germinate. Maddox disappears to find a scale and comes back with a scale and a loudspeaker and immediately the loudspeaker starts playing old hits from before they were born. There’s a lot of whipping and a burnt smell creeps across the room. “Oops,” exclaims one of the students. “It’s all right.” says another.

They gather around the round table. Here they eat freshly baked crispbread and drink chocolate milk made from a mixture of oat and almond milk with whipped cream made from vegan cream.

“Going to school and doing math can feel completely pointless, so having climate and culture is really liberating.” Ellie says.

“We want to turn our anxiety or our feelings into action. It’s not like what we’re doing is going to reduce a lot of CO2, but you still feel like you’re doing something.” says Ida.

Mcdommedag And Klimahystaden

“Slogans on screens - polluting - my world”, the rap duo and the audience sing back and forth to each other. It is sung by MCDommedag and Klimahystaden, who write power-critical songs for climate justice.

MCDommedag and Klimahystaden are siblings from Valby, Esther and Johan Michelsen-Kjeldahl. They are 29 and 26 years old respectively. They have both been active in the climate movement and started the project in 2020.

The core of their project is to make people in the country feel that they also have a voice and that they can use it. They use their music universe to create a climate conversation that is woven into people’s lives in a new way. An intuitive project that released a lot of pent-up emotions around the climate crisis.

MCDommedag and Klimahystaden are extended versions of the siblings. Esther describes Klimahystaden as a more intense Esther with free rein, who doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. In her daily work as Esther, she is a representative of the climate movement in various radio and TV programs, where she has a different responsibility.

Johan describes himself as a person who has always done the right thing and fulfills all the demands he has been given. A hardworking and kind gentleman with an ego that tries to be in control. He describes his alter ego, MCDommedag, as a more liberated version of himself, where imperfection is welcomed with open arms.

In the heart of the meatpacking district of Vesterbro in Copenhagen, the Green Youth Movement has invited to an evening of presentations on the role of fossil fuel industry advertising in the climate crisis, and where MCDommedag and

Klimahystaden will end the session with a pre-release of their new song, “Slogans on Screens”.

“Feel the groove, get down in your hips and feel your body after all the brain pollution” says Klimahystaden to the audience.

“Have talked to a psychologist, it hurts the account, I live a little dangerously, on TV2, TV3, Plus and Charlie - Fossil industry - creates dreams in - my TV.” sings MCDommedag. The audience cheers and claps. Hands fly from side to side.

They are all high from the concert. They glance from one end of the stage to the other. They give each other a big hug.

“We take responsibility for our own grief and anger.” Esther says. “We acknowledge the feelings we have and don’t try to hide them behind rational arguments to be allowed to say something.” Johan adds.