Manifesto

Os_lo Fjord

Os_lo Fjord

Oslo means Os-Lo: “the light place where the river meets the sea.” It can also mean “Æs-LO”: the gods’ light place. Oslo is a water cycle that contains a 100 km long fjord, many rivers, sister lakes and forest clouds. From our human perspective, the cycle starts with a lake, e.g. Oslo city’s drinking source, Maridalsvannet, a lake made out of hundreds of creeks and rivers from the 430 square kilometre forest surrounding the city. Maridalsvannet, being the capital city’s single drinking source, enters all humans, animals, and plants and flows into every home of the city.

The lake opens and flows into a beautiful river called Akerselva, “the river of fields.”
The river is only 10 km long from the lake to the sea.
The river was once a recourse for industry, polluted and feared, attracting outlaws and drug abuse. Today, it is clean, again attracting the wild salmon, and human children and families swim in her all summer, almost all the way through the city centre. She runs out into the fjord, where many saunas, boats, and cultural buildings have seats, and human activity is plentiful. If you are lucky, you can sometimes spot a seal.

The fjord is called Oslo-fjord and was shaped by a massive glacier. Today, she is dying due to nitrogen waste and excess nutrients caused by humans, causing algae blooms, which is the excessive growth of phytoplankton. Commercial whale hunting was practised in this fjord only a hundred years ago, a witness to the thriving life present at the time. But humans headhunted species such as Håkjerring, a type of whale shark that can live up to 300 years, thus it was nearly extinct.

The fjord consists of two parts: the “inner” and “outer” fjord. The inner has worse health, as she suffer from poor circulation. The fjord touches four states and is the residency of 40% of Norway’s population. The fjord has many islands and two national parks. This year, 2024, fishing for cod was banned because the species is dying.

Os-Lo is a place where water is ever present, even in winter, when it forms frostflowers, waterfall stairs, and ice-bathing areas for humans. Os-Lo is the essence of this water cycle, a water spirit that breathes life and communion between the parts.

In recent years, the water system has expressed changes and desires, such as rights of her own and equality for nature. She has formed complex meetings between religions and activists, artist, universities, shamans and the church. She is now in the process of inviting the Council of Religions of Norway to work for nature’s rights.