 |
| Sweden: The sun shines at midnight, which has countless benefits |
What if there was never darkness, if the sun never set?
What if there was never darkness, if the sun never set? people don't have to imagine what it's like to have 24 hours of sunshine because it's a reality in their area.
And it also happens that there is darkness for 24 hours. During these days, the sun is not visible above the horizon.
For agriculture-dependent Sweden in the past, this meant that most work was done in the summer.
Sweden used to be a very poor country, but now it has a GDP per capita of $60,000 (about Rs. 1.29 million) and is considered one of the high-income countries by the World Bank.
But natural light still plays an important role in northern Sweden's economy, from tourism to energy and from hoteling to the traditional lives of its native inhabitants.
Scott Miller, an expert on Scandinavian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the BBC's Elizabeth Hutson that 'Light is very important in Scandinavian and Swedish culture. It is related to its opposite, winter.
"If you're in northern Sweden, there's a time when there's no light in the winter," he says. In summer there is a lot of light which is great. These days are most useful when everything is growing and your cattle can graze.'
Mellor says that until two centuries ago, Swedish agriculturalists had to do most of their work during the daylight hours, otherwise they would not have enough resources to survive in the winter.
Then kerosene lamps boomed in the mid-19th century, and then electric light bulbs just a few decades later, and then Sweden's economy changed.
Thus, people started working and reading even in the dark, which increased the literacy rate. This modern economy developed very rapidly and Sweden became one of the richest countries in the world.
Natural light
But the summer sun is still an important part of many sectors of the economy. Jakaterina Smirnova, an analyst at research firm Euromonitor, says that Sweden's hotel industry was growing steadily before the pandemic.
In 2019, consumers in Sweden spent 137 billion Swedish krona ($13 billion) on food services, including restaurants, cafes and bars, and the country's annual growth rate was more than four percent in the 10 years before the global pandemic of the coronavirus. Stayed.'
Euromonitor estimates that Sweden will continue to grow at a rate of four percent for the next several years. Every hour of daylight is important for bars and restaurants in the summer, especially if your business is dependent on the outdoors. Be on sociable people.
Rami Awad, who runs a popular restaurant and bar in Stockholm, says, "From the beginning of October to the end of March, we have brutal winters and it's dark, so people like to stay indoors most of the time." In early April, people go out and enjoy the light and the sun.
They say people spend more money in the summer because they spend more time away from home.
He says that he keeps the restaurant open seven days a week. "It makes a huge economic difference."
In Stockholm the sun sets for a few hours in the summer, but in Swedish Lapland in the north it never goes below the horizon.
"The further north you go, the longer the winters are," says Magnus Henriksen, professor of industrial economics at the Research Institute of Stockholm. This means that not only are they dependent on the summer months for agriculture, but also for recreation.
"In the north, snow can fall till mid-May and the peak of summer is only two weeks after that," he says. Therefore, during this period, hotels, bars and other such businesses try to earn enough money to survive the rest of the year.
Tourism in the North
Northern Sweden has a very strong summer tourism infrastructure. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Ibisko is today a popular place to watch the midnight sun.
It has been a favorite destination for nature lovers for more than a century.
"Mountain tourism and industrial development go hand in hand in Sweden," says Jessica Mulkewitz, a local tourist station official. Due to coal, the railway reached here in the late 18th century and in the early 19th century it became possible for nature seekers to come to Abisko.
When the light comes back, everything looks so beautiful. The trees and the environment become green and you feel that life has returned.'
Since the beginning of tourism, this sector has been an important part of Sweden's economy. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Sweden's tourism sector grew by six percent in 2018 and its volume It was 30 billion dollars.
After the break caused by the global epidemic, people are now turning to Sweden for tourism again.
"We are on a seven-week trip to the Baltic region," said American tourist Lara Arendt, who was staying at a luxury resort. We started in Denmark and went to Poland. We wanted to go to the Arctic Circle because we've never been that far north. We also wanted to experience the midnight sun because obviously it can't be seen in America," she says. "It's weird. We hiked last night to see the midnight sun and at 12:30 we reached the top of the mountain it was daylight and it looked so strange. This is very mysterious
It is good that you see the weather at two o'clock in the night and it is written that the sun has come out.
Arendt is one of several wealthy tourists who haven't taken a trip in two years, so they're willing to spend a little more on vacation.
Effects on Livestock Husbandry
But light does not only have an effect on the tourism economy in northern Sweden, it is also important for some very traditional economic activities, especially when it comes to livestock.
Nils Natti, a reindeer herder in a local village, says that the midnight sun also gives the animals energy and their pastures turn green again.
"Its horns are growing a centimeter a day," he says, pointing to one of his twelve bucks. At night they have to come down to the valley for food.
In their village, 70 families raise about 20,000 reindeer and bring them back to their enclosures together.
"It's just like daylight and we can use that light to work and even bring the twelve lions back into the enclosures."
But why are reindeer so important to Sweden's economy?
They say that because our culture, our way of life comes first to us. We have learned to get everything from nature to survive and today our main income is by selling meat.
Journey to clean energy
From ancient traditions to modern technology, light is driving this economy into the future.
Sweden plans to get all of its energy from renewable sources by 2040, and while hydro and wind will make up the largest share, solar energy is also very important.
This year, about two gigawatts of electricity can be obtained from the sun, which is equal to two nuclear reactors. This amount is 2000% more than the electricity generated in 2015.
One business that is booming is snow hotels. They have two types of hotels, one permanent and one that is built from scratch every winter. "When the river freezes, the ice is about a meter deep," says Ice Hotel manager Sara Homquist. We have a tractor with a saw that cuts two ton blocks of ice. Then another tractor picks them up and takes them to a cold warehouse.
The internal temperature of this warehouse is kept at minus five degrees Celsius and this electricity is also obtained from the sun.
"We have the sun shining continuously for the next 50 days, which generates enough electricity to keep the warehouse cool."
Large amounts of snow are stored throughout the year to ensure a supply of snow for the annual construction work, and the midnight sun is an important part of this entire phase.
0 Comments