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Address of Mr Arnold Rüütel, President of the Republic of Estonia on November 21, 2001, at Turku University21.11.2001
On Strategy of the Life Environment in the 21st Century Estonia
Honourable scholars,
Ladies and gentlemen,
While addressing you, I would like to discourse on the present state of the life environment in Estonia and on its prospects in the millennium that recently started. In doing so, I will approach the life environment with regard to the following three aspects of it: natural, historical-political, and cultural. Everything happening in these present times to us and around us demonstrates convincingly interdependence and intertwining between all those aspects. Thus, the life environment should not be equated with natural conditions only. Nature will sooner or later dictate to us our choices but the character of those choices will depend on historical-political and cultural premises. As a matter of fact, the question is to what extent we can read the sign-system of the life environment, to what extent we are able to look beyond those simple cause-effect schemes shaping our life environment.
In this context, let me refer to the most illustrious Finnish semiotician, Professor Eero Tarasti, and to his article "On metaphors of nature and organisms" which was published last year in the forth issue of the magazine "Synteesi".
In this article Professor Tarasti deals in detail with how the category "Nature" has been understood in the teachings of different philosophers. But already in the introductory part of his treatise he emphasises what I likewise, in respect to the life environment as a whole, consider to be extremely important. He writes in particular, I am quoting: "Certain sequences of events in the past of a society, or a culture, or an individual have caused them to choose certain patterns of behaviour." 1) (Tiedyt tapahtumakulut yhteisön tai kultuurin tai yksilön menneisyydessä ovat saanet aikaan sen, että se on valinnut tiedyn käydännön./ "Synteesi", 4, 2000, p 2). What applies to the past, applies to the present as well. Our present-day choices will determine what our history is going to look like in the future.
In the same article Professor Tarasti gives also a digest of the "Umwelt-doctrine" by the founder of biosemiotics Jacob von Uexküll, a representative of the famous von Uexküll family that for many centuries used to live in Estonia. An important conclusion Uexküll came to is - if I have understood him correctly - that every organism lives in its subjective world of meanings which Uexküll gave the name "Umwelt". Now, if we interpret this thesis in a somewhat more flexible way, the term "Umwelt" could be used as a metaphor for the entire life environment, all the "cells" of which - that I refer to as the natural environment, the historical-political environment, and the cultural environment, have their own - borrowing from Uexküll - "I-melodies" (Ich-Töne), which all together make up the "Life-melody".
Now, let us observe which are those "I-melodies" and how they could result in a harmonious "Life-melody" of Estonia.
Natural environment
While starting the observation of the natural environment with a closer look at the element we all consume without noticing it but, on the level of pollution of which the future of global climate in its entirety depends - I am speaking about air - then, as all of us know, the intensive pollution of the lower layers of the atmosphere began alongside with the extensive development of the industry. These days we are facing the situation where extensive and intensive pollution of the air might already in the nearest future bring about a climatic disaster.
In this respect, only a little depends on Estonia as the pollution of air can also be caused by transfers from other regions. And so, Finland with its well-developed system of monitoring of air pollution has suffered from pollution-transfers from Estonia. Restructuring of our economy carried out after Estonia regained its independence has resulted in a decrease of the sources of pollution and pollutants both on and above the territory of Estonia. But regrettably, most of the air-pollution is still caused by our big thermal power stations. 90 per cent of carbon dioxide originates from firing fossil fuels in the sector of energetics. One of our major problems has been the volatility of sulphur dioxide and other toxic substances. Research carried out by German scientists in the framework of European Dioxin Project has demonstrated that the amount of toxic and carcinogenic compounds contained in pulverised oil-shale fed into the fire-boxes, and in fly ash stuck in the electric filters of the Baltic Power Station is negligible compared with emissions of the European garbage incinerators.
Thus we can conclude that as for the reduction of pollution-load at least Estonia has made a significant progress. Indeed, as an independent state Estonia is in the strict sense today breathing more easily than ten years ago.
The same can be said about water. Already for some years, owing to the more economical use of water as well as to the decrease in both industrial and agricultural production a rise of the level of ground water can be observed in many regions of Estonia. The water consumption started to decrease at the beginning of 1990-ies when many industrial enterprises wound up their activities. Regarding the use of water resources bans and commands were replaced with economic incentives. From all the Estonian catchment basins the Gulf of Finland has the heaviest load of pollution to bear and especially here, owing to the liquidation of the production of superphosphate, nitrogen fertilisers, and chemical pulp the Estonian contribution to the pollution of the Baltic Sea has been substantially cut back. We are also very grateful to our northern neighbours who have helped us in realisation of projects of wastewater treatment plants that has resulted in a considerable decrease of water-pollution in Estonia.
To say a couple of words on soil pollution - this is the kind of pollution that has increased both in developed industrial countries and in developing countries. We remember that in Estonia, intensive soil pollution was common in the areas allocated to military units. The former military airfield areas at Tapa, Tartu, Haapsalu, and Pärnu looked like oil deposits. The soil was so immersed with aeroplane fuel pollution that, for instance, in the vicinity of Tapa, water in the wells is still undrinkable. But in general, soil pollution has decreased considerably, and as a result of the fortification and covering of the waste reservoir of the Silmet factory at Sillamäe - a real time-bomb of pollution - even the greatest pollution risk source in Estonia should now be blocked for many centuries.
Thus, it could be said that ten last years of independence have moved Estonia towards balance in communication with the natural environment. The considerably high number of different flora and fauna species in Estonia also speaks of this. In Estonia, there are more than 5,000 registered species of plants, we have 12,500 species of invertebrate and 500 species of vertebrate animals. 439 species are protected, of those 210 species of plants and 299 species of animals. The total number of living species in Estonia may be up to 40,000. They have a favourable milieu for growth and life, as almost one fifth of Estonia is covered with thinner or thicker layers of peat. As for the area covered by marshes or swamps, we are the second after Finland (31 per cent). From the viewpoint of environment protection, this factor is hard to overestimate, as swamps are a reservoir of valuable clean water. Why am I emphasising this at this point? The reason is that the strains of the future will depend on the resources and availability of clean water. Just like Finland, also Estonia may become an exporter of clean water.
Our other source of riches is the forests. When Estonia's independence was restored and our own currency, the kroon, was introduced in 1992, one - and the most valuable - part of the state-owned forests were provided as its security. Unfortunately, there has been some backward development in the protection of forests in Estonia. According to Swedish and Finnish researchers, 10 per cent of forests should not be exposed to human activity, and in Estonia the percentage is 4. In recent years, the woodcutting in our forests is more extensive than the increment. Once again, this demonstrates close relations between different areas of human environment: in many rural districts the forests on the farmlands restored to their lawful owners are the single source of income, because agricultural production is not profitable.
And yet in general, the natural environment has been generous to us. Here, I would also like to correct a false opinion. Namely, in Estonia the opinion that nature preservation movement is something independent, oriented only towards nature, is quite widespread. Ever since its birth at the end of the 1950s, the nature preservation movement has had a socio-political nature. It has been one part of our national liberation movement. Estonia's national and political identity has been connected to our natural environment. We have been one of the least migrant peoples in Europe, and before calling ourselves "the people of Estonia" we called ourselves the country people.
Dear listeners!
Here, it seems natural to proceed from the natural environment to the historical-political environment.
Historical-political environment
The historical-political environment in Estonia could be characterised by the word "border". In the middle of the 1990s, Tõnu Õnnepalu, an Estonian writer of the younger generation, wrote a novel "Piiririik" ("The Border Country", published in Finland under the heading of "Enkelien siemen"), and this novel was awarded the Culture Prize of the Baltic Assembly. Estonia has indeed been a border country in every sense. We are a border area between two civilisations, East and West, between the Protestant and the Orthodox confession, a transfer area, where one set of values has always been actively translated into another. But this border phenomenon also characterises the relations between Estonia and Finland. Even though we are united by closely related languages and partly also by the course of history, Finland still sees Estonia as the northernmost bridgehead of the Central European cultural space, whereas for Estonia, Finland has been the gate to Scandinavia.
Estonia's borderline existence has brought a lot of suffering to Estonians in history, as both from the East and from the West, there have been attempts to move the border one way or the other. Only taking advantage of the balance of forces on that border, or by favouring that balance, Estonians have been able to create and ensure their identity as a nation. In my opinion, this has taken place on three occasions in our history: in the uprising of St. George's Night in 1343, and also when Estonia declared her independence in 1918, and when Estonia's independence was restored in 1991. It was in 1343 that the different tribes in Estonia were very close to the birth of the national consciousness, and only ill fortune - the delay of the supporting forces from Finland - ruined the chance of the birth of the Estonian state already 657 years ago. In 1918, we succeeded; and we all have clear memories of the restoration of our independence in 1991. This is the time that we dare to call the Estonian miracle, and which means that a small nation could restore its independent statehood without shedding blood. I believe that it was the realisation of our historical-political environment that ensured that today, we can see ourselves as a free nation in the family of free countries. It is the "border country" status of Estonia that constitutes Estonia's important political resource. In the globalising world, where the disappearing or abolishing of borders has become a fetish, Estonia can set an example how also on the border, one's own features and cultural identity can be preserved. Country borders may indeed become provisional, as they are in the European Union; also capital recognises no borders, but the mental, traditional, and religious borders, often untraceable in everyday life, will never disappear. As I pointed out at the beginning of my lecture about life environment in general, also historical-political environment obliges us to learn to read the respective sign systems.
Cultural environment
Ladies and gentlemen!
The cultural aspect of life environment should be regarded as a bridge between the natural and the historical-political environment. As it was pointed out in connection with the natural environment, nature preservation movement was one part of Estonia's struggle for the preservation of Estonia's cultural continuity. In this context, culture acts as a filter letting in what is necessary for the continuity of a nation as a cultural and language entity, and mediates the characteristic features of that piece of land and its people to the rest of the world. At the same time, Estonian culture also needs to be protected. Already by the end of the first period of national awakening, it was clear that Estonian culture must be supported and protected by Estonian statehood. Juhan Liiv, one of our greatest poets, dreamed of the independent Estonian state already on the turn of the 19th and 20th century, when his contemporaries were still talking about Estonia's autonomy within the Russian Empire. Thus, for Estonians, the Estonian statehood is a question of cultural rather than political environment. At least, I would like to hope that this is so, because in the 21st century, the existence of the Estonian state is only justified when it is able to protect and develop the Estonian language and culture. It could be said that Estonians will live as long as their language and spiritual realm is alive. Here, I would like to quote Oskar Loorits, a famous Estonian folklorist, who is a great example to me, and has written the following on the sources of the Estonian life force:
"Only the understanding of the integrity of the inevitability between our own essence and the world surrounding us will lead us to the sense of deep internal continuity through the past, the present, and the future, until we will finally be able to see and to admit that our fate is indeed in us, not in blind fortuity."
Also these words express the idea of Umwelt as the integral entity of the life environment surrounding us, the harmony of the I-melodies in the Life-melody that I referred to at the beginning of this lecture, borrowing the concept from Jakob von Uexküll. I believe that this also contains the idea of Estonia's life strategy in the 21st century.
In Finnish:
Viron Tasavallan Presidentin Arnold Rüütelin luento Turun yliopistossa 21. marraskuuta 2001
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