Finnish summer cottage

The meals that my hosts and I enjoyed throughout the weekend were a blend of American and Finnish culinary culture. I tried Finnish viili for the first time.  Wikipedia describes viili as “a type of yoghurt (a mesophilic fermented milk) that originated in the Nordic countries. It has a ropy, gelatinous consistency and a sour taste resulting from lactic acid.” It doesn’t sound so tempting from that description. Upon opening the package, the viili didn’t look so tasty either due to its Elmer’s glue-like consistency. But, with a little bit of sugar and lots of fresh Finnish strawberries and blueberries, viili was a nice breakfast meal. 

I brought fresh ears of corn from Helsinki’s market square to cook on the grill as my hosts had never tried grilled corn on the cob. With a little bit of butter and salt, the corn was a big hit! We also grilled hamburgers and they provided all of the typical American toppings – ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and individually-packaged slices of cheddar cheese. I even persuaded my hosts to forego the boiled new potatoes that Finns can’t seem to get enough of during the summer months. It just didn’t feel right to grill hamburgers and corn on the cob to eat alongside boiled potatoes. So, after a bit of convincing, boiled potatoes were replaced by potato salad – a much more appropriate side dish, in my humble opinion. However, we did have lots of boiled potatoes the next day with lamb steaks. 

Desserts included home-made blueberry pie (with Finnish blueberries, of course), famous Brunberg kisses from Porvoo, pancakes made on the grill, and lots of ice cream as the Finns’ annual consumption of ice cream is the highest in Europe. I made America’s favorite classic yellow cake from a box with chocolate frosting and rice krispies treats, which were initially met with apprehension as I mixed butter, marshmallows and cereal, but then were consumed with exclaims of delight.

Pancakes

In addition to all of the eating, I took advantage of the summer mentality of relaxation. I spent a lot of time swimming in the Gulf of Finland and experienced my first Finnish sauna, which was much, much hotter than I anticipated. I even enjoyed “roughing it” the Finnish-summer-cottage-way with no indoor plumbing aside from a kitchen sink, using an outhouse, and showering with a hose and bucket.

Despite the abundance of mosquitoes, bees, and flies, it was a tasty and memorable weekend. I can’t thank my generous hosts enough for the opportunity to experience the Finnish countryside.   

Loviisa sunset

One of the first trips I made after arriving in Finland just over two months ago was to Jyväskylä to attend a two day Bio-Energy conference there. Anyone who cares about technology (and of course for me that means technology applied to address energy and environmental problems) knows that two days in Jyväskylä is not nearly enough time to begin to get a sense of all the cutting edge products that are being developed there. The day started with an amazing visit to Moventas, where the team from the U.S. Embassy met with Moventas’ senior management. Partnering with world leaders in wind turbine industry such as Vestas (which has brand new manufacturing facilities in my home state of Colorado) and General Electric (who manufactures wind turbines in Pennsylvania), Moventas engineers and builds what are arguably the finest wind turbine gearing mechanisms in the world. Their plant is as spectacular as is their technology.

From there, we traveled to the home of Markku Anderson, the Mayor of the City of Jyväskylä. I had the pleasure of meeting Markku on my first trip to Jyväskylä (a very funny thing happened at that first meeting – but I will leave that for another entry). His home, a beautifully restored wooden house from the late 1800’s – was filled with wonderful art and furnishings – and the lunch was terrific. Just to prove how much fun we had, check out the photograph below.

The afternoon was filled with terrific presentations from a number of start-up and established businesses all relating to alternative energy and energy efficiency. The view from their conference room was so spectacular that I had a hard time imagining how anyone actually got any work done there.
 
Last stop of the day was at the offices of Keskisuomalainen Oyj, the publisher of so many Finnish newspapers. I was there to learn about their leadership in sustainability. I saw and heard the details about their real commitment to sustainable business practices. I know it isn’t Finnish to brag about oneself, so I will do that on their behalf. I was impressed and inspired.

Once again, the time in Jyväskylä flew by and we had to rush off to catch our train back to Helsinki – I plan to return to Jyväskylä soon.

Landscape of the area of Kayes, in Mali (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)

Needless to say, not much happens during the heat of the day.  But as I sat melting under the shade of a mango tree, mint tea in hand, I couldn’t help but think what an asset all this sunshine could be. A field of solar panels in the Kayes region alone could potentially supply the entire country with much needed electricity. Expand them to Mali’s other regions – over one-third of the country lies in the Sahara Desert – and Mali could produce enough electricity to sell to its neighbors.

I am hardly the first to see the potential of green technology in the developing world.  Over a decade ago, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) called on developed nations to provide financial and technical support to the developing world in mitigating the effects of climate change. Since then 192 countries have ratified the UNFCCC, including the United States in October 1992.      

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been at the forefront of meeting America’s UNFCCC commitments in the developing world. Since 1991, USAID’s Global Climate Change Program (GCCP) has been implementing projects which provide sustainable, climate-related benefits to over 40 developing countries. 

• In Mexico, GCCP projects are reducing GHG emissions through the promotion of solar and wind water pumps for off-grid farm use.
• In Central America, the USAID and NASA-sponsored SERVIR satellite monitoring system provides weather alerts and a fire warning system to assist decision makers tackling climate change issues.
• In South Africa, USAID solar water heaters are reducing household energy consumption and costs while providing hot water to households that could not otherwise afford it.

Solar Panels (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)

Such USAID programs have helped avoid the equivalent of over 15 million metric tons of CO2 over the past five years alone. 

Clean technology alone will not transform the developing world – plenty of challenges remain from good governance to health care. But GCCP’s holistic approach to fully integrate clean technology and development, allows developing countries to leap-frog past ecologically unsustainable technology and embrace the future. So maybe ten years from now, when I return to Kayes for another visit, I will be sitting, mint tea in hand, beneath the cool breeze of a solar-powered fan.