Free Inquiry Blog Post #3: Spectacular Sweden

Hej alla! Today’s blog post will feature some research on Swedish celebrities, Swedish music, and the country’s environmental stance.

Swedish Celebrities and Music

• ABBA, a very iconic Swedish music group, is notable across the world and it has influenced movies, musicals, and the lives of many popular music fans. Upon doing some research I found out that Sweden is the world’s biggest exporter of pop music in relation to GDP.
• Other famous Swedish music artists include Avicii, Roxette, Ace of Bass, and Swedish House Mafia.
• Sweden may be a small country (population-wise), but it has produced many influential people:

Alfred Nobel, Creator of the Nobel Peace Prize

Ann-Margret, Actress 

PewDiePie, YouTuber

Greta Thunberg, Environmental Activist

Environment

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

• Sweden is renowned as a progressive country with its stance on environmental issues.
• Only 1% of the country’s solid waste ends up in landfills while the other 99% is recycled or turned into biogas (a biofuel that is created by the decomposition of organic waste).
• Sweden has decreased its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% since 1990. The country has also set the goal of producing zero net GHG emissions by the year 2050. They want to have a fossil fuel-free “vehicle fleet” by the year 2030.
• Sweden’s energy production is created by 48% renewable energy sources. These include bio-energy, wind power, and solar power.
• Sweden does have its own environmental issues however, they have over-logged areas of the country and still experience many unsustainable logging practices. The country also faces pollution of the Baltic Sea due to agriculture runoff and waste treatment issues. Finally, due to the country’s rapid and prolonged industrialization and urbanization, acidic lakes have affected the survival of native plants and animals. Despite these issues, Sweden is a leader in tackling climate change and in a future blog post, I will outline this by studying Greta Thunberg.

I am proud of myself with my Swedish learning – I have an 11 day streak on Duolingo!

Next week, I look forward to finding out more about Swedish cuisine and the country’s educational system.