Storebæltsbroen

I think when scholars look back on the past century or two, they will call it "The Age of Transport". Our world gets bigger every day as we get connected by planes, boats, trains, cars and, latterly, amazing long bridges.  This photograph was snapped through the windscreen while crossing ‘Storebæltsbroen’ from Sjælland, the main Danish Island, to Fyn (Denmark’s second and most central island).  Google states that Storebæltsbroen has the 3rd longest bridge span in the world at 1.6 km long.

Increased connectivity, be it local, regional, national or global can bring good and bad.  There is strength in being joined by the good things, but danger can come over the horizon too. Markets grow with cheap transport and can be dominated by big players that squeeze out local diversity.  My local food is replaced by “food from somewhere” (or “food from anywhere” when price dominates our choices in supermarkets).

On the other hand, by seeing and experiencing other communities and places, their norms and beliefs, their threats and their solutions to those threats, we can learn faster from each other.  Resilience is increased by connectivity. We need to nurture the knowledge transfer (scientific, Indigenous, local, artisanal, environmental management and practice …) to help each other to figure out what to do about shared threats to our sustainability.