In Norway, swimming is an essential skill; every child learns to swim at an early age. This swimming pool is open for public. Its usually packed by adults, but sometimes children practice dive into the water.

The swimming hall itself is an enormous, concrete grey building that was constructed in 1971. It serves as a striking example of brutalist architecture from the postmodern era designed by Gert Walter Thuesen and Jacob Grytten.

Surprisingly, this building closely resembles another structure in France: the Monastery Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette.

To see this statue, grab your swimwear and dive into the water!

He takes up half a parking space and often stands next to an food advertisement, quietly watching the busy intersection that connects the Østre and Hundvåg neighborhoods. This iron figure, with his rusting surface, tells a story of time.

While gas stations have been important for city life, their popularity is fading in Norway due to the rise of electric cars.

From his spot, the Broken Column Man sees the traffic coming in from Hundvåg Island to the eastern part of Stavanger.

If you are new to Stavanger, you might think that this is a beautiful park with evergreen, old, large trees underneath. However...

This sculpture overlooks the Lagaard Cemetery, where several notable figures from Stavanger are buried, including the artist Lars Hertervig (1830 – 1902). You can see his artwork at the Stavanger Art Museum.

Originally, the artist wanted the sculpture to be placed within the cemetery itself. However, the Stavanger Church Council rejected this idea, fearing that the sculpture might look like a mummy and could be frightening or offensive to visitors.

After many discussions among all parties involved, a compromise was reached. The sculpture now stands just outside the cemetery, maintaining a clear connection to this significant site from its elevated position.

The Stavanger Cathedral, or Domkirke, is a truly remarkable landmark. It's actually Norway's oldest cathedral, serving as the seat of the Bishop of Stavanger. This impressive stone church dates all the way back to around 1125, making it nearly 900 years old! Built in a long church style, it can seat about 800 people.

The area around the cathedral is often peaceful, but it can also be busy. You might see people walking to and from the church, or tourists taking pictures.

If you visit a Stavanger city center, you can take a moment to look at the sculpture and then explore the cathedral. It's a great way to see how art and history come together in Stavanger. You can also walk around the area, which has a cozy lake and small city park.

There is also a fragment of old cinema building, constructed in 1924 in a neoclassical style. The Sølvberget library is located nearby, and our Iron Man looks right at it. The library is large and modern, serving as a cultural center with reading rooms, exhibition spaces, and areas for cultural events.

In this square, you will find two coffee shops: Godt Brød and Kanelsnurren, where you can enjoy coffee along with local pastries.

There is a public parking lot, but if you are not using a car, you will not meet this Iron Man. Parking plays an important role in how tourists see the city if they are traveling by car. Often, having parking can affect the overall impression of the city, as it allows visitors to enjoy walking around the city center without worrying about finding a place to park their car.

This parking lot is located under the Valberg Tower, a watchtower built in 1856. The tower had a watchman who watched over the city from above and was supposed to raise the alarm in case of a fire. The last watchman was Tobias Sandstøl, who served at the tower until 1922. He may have inspired a character in the children's book "When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town" by Thorbjørn Egner.

Now, there is a museum in the tower.

So, the Iron Man watches as others work and create clay products! Pottery is one of the oldest crafts! It's important to note that here you literally create something new with your hands without using tools. That's why pottery can be a great way to meditate and relax from the daily hustle.

In Stavanger, there was a famous ceramics factory called Stavanger Flint, which merged with Figgjo Fajanse in 1968. Figgjo still exists today and continues to make dishes for the home!

The choice of location may seem strange, as few people have access to this place, and not many can see this art piece. However, this is a common situation in any city, where some things are public and others are private. It makes us think that culture may not always be easily accessible, and sometimes we need to make an effort to experience it. In this case, you would need to speak with the driver who can park there!

The bomb shelter itself is also disturbing. People invest so much effort and money to protect themselves from others.

This Ironman is definitely safe, but he remains unaware of the vibrant city life above him, where the Gamle Stavanger district features cozy wooden houses built in the 18th century.

For tourists arriving on large cruise ships, this is often the first place they see when they get off the ship. The bay is a popular spot for boats, especially on sunny summer days when people sail in, park, and enjoy the view with friends over a glass of bubbly.

Stavanger Vågen is a lively place that can get quite crowded. It hosts many city festivals, including the popular Gladmat Festival in the summer.

The Iron Man sculpture is right next to Fisketorget, a restaurant famous for its tasty Norwegian fish soup, making it a great place to relax after exploring the area.

This art project, named “Broken Column” was created by British artist Antony Gormley between 1999 and 2003.

https://www.stavangerkunstmuseum.no/en/events/antony-gormley-broken-column

An interesting fact is that each sculpture is placed at a specific height, and together they form a column that stands 41.41 meters tall.

The sculptures are located in various places around the city center. Some are in public areas, like street corners and schools, while others are in more private locations, such as residential parking lots or backyards.

I am not sure about the original idea behind this art project, but I find it to be an amazing example of how to explore a city in a decentralized and diverse way! So, I decided to visit these sculptures, take pictures, and write a short post about their locations and my personal feelings. I believe it will be an exciting journey and could serve as a good travel guide for anyone wanting to explore Stavanger!

Climate Problem

Average temperature of our Planet has increased by 1.5 degrees C since the Industrial Revolution 300 years ago due to human activities. Temperature is expected to increase by another 2–3 degrees C in the next 50 years. Global warming leads to different natural disasters like waterflooding, hurricanes, forest fires, iceberg melting, rising sea level, disappearance of islands. One of the actions to address these challenges is to reduce emission of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Carbon Credit Idea

A carbon credit is a 1 ton of CO2, whose emission has been avoided in the past, verified and certified. Carbon credit idea is based on the fact of introducing a cost of CO2 emission. It allows to penalize who emit more CO2 and incentivize, who emit less, reduce or remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Companies who cannot limit its emission below cap level must offset this excess of CO2 in order to become carbon neutral technically. They have to buy carbon credit on the market. On the other side, companies who emit below allowance, remove CO2 by planting a forest or funding a hydroelectric dam can issue a carbon credit and sell it to those who have to offset.

Drawbacks of Carbon Credit

From the first glance, the idea of the carbon credits trading is great. However the current realization of it has several challenges and is quite messy. One of the most important issues is validation of the carbon credit. Are you buying the real carbon credit? Does this company keep a forest for the next 20 years or chop it for wood? Who can validate that this green company is able to eliminate a certain amount of carbon from air and they are eligible to issue a carbon credit for a sale? Which independent methodology should we apply to calculate the amount of CO2 which is supposed to be reduced? Where can I buy and sell carbon credit? Is it enough liquidity to trade? Who is the owner of the trade platform? Who is doing a registry of all carbon credits to avoid a double spending problem? To sum up, there are so many questions rather than answers. The carbon credit market is poorly transparent, fragmented and illiquid.

Tokenization and Using a Blockchain

Transparency, immutability and decentralization — the main features of blockchain technology can help to make an order in a carbon credit market and add much needed clarity. Tokenization of a carbon credit can bring all benefits of DeFi into the game like liquidity pools and staking. A distributed ledger acts as one transparent trustworthy place with a single registry of carbon tokens. It can help to increase the quality of carbon credit and solve a double spending problem.

Act-to-Earn

Concept of carbon tokens opens up new revenue streams for farmers. Farmers can tokenize each crop and sell carbon credit on the market. This is one of the few examples when the Act-to-Earn model is sustainable and can impact on new habits of people which leads to a win-win situation: better ecology and user`s reward.

Of course, control of CO2 emission is just one thing from a long list which can be done to save our Planet. In addition, the current realization of the carbon credit market is suitable only for B2B interaction. In order to change the behavior of individuals toward the environment and encourage responsible consumption, the Act-to-Earn concept can play a vital role here by incentivizing the good behavior of individuals who care about the environment and sustainability of the planet.

What if a user gets tokens for good environmentally friendly behavior (saving water and electricity, reducing waste, etc)?

Regenerative Finance (ReFi)

Carbon credit market is an example of systematic shift from the traditional financial system which is built for a profit and benefits of shareholders to the new type of economy which focuses on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment criteria. Regenerative Finance (ReFi) is the process of using various forms of capital to achieve sustainable cash flow for all stakeholders by incentivizing positive environmental and social outcomes, which is often lacking in traditional finance.

Use Cases

There are many players who are trying to address climate problems including Toucan Protocol and KlimaDAO. More resources here https://refidao.com/.

Conclusion

As we have this priceless gift — our green planet, we must all work together to meet our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and enjoy a clean and green planet Earth.