Coal mining remains vital for Longyearbyen’s eco­no­my

A new stu­dy shows that Lon­gye­ar­by­en will depend on coal mining for a long time into the future. Even if acti­vi­ties wit­hin both research/higher edu­ca­ti­on and tou­rism were dou­bled, they could not replace mining, which crea­tes several hund­red local jobs, both direct­ly and indi­rect­ly. A loss of the­se jobs would lead to signi­fi­cant loss of other func­tions inclu­ding important public ser­vices (school, …), accord­ing to a stu­dy now publis­hed by NIBR (Nor­sk Insti­tutt für by- og region­forsk­ning = Nor­we­gi­an insti­tu­te for city and regio­nal rese­arch). 

Source: Nor­sk Insti­tutt by og region­forsk­ning

By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (1): Spitz­ber­gen – vom Polar­licht bis zur Mit­ter­nachts­son­ne”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!