Longyearbyen is a study in contrasts as it struggles to find its way from being the company town it was to the family town Norway envisions. The challenges are great. The population is both international and transient, with most residents gone between three and six years. The infrastructure is old, and based on coal which is dug out of the local mountain. The water is glacier melt. As with many Arctic towns, there is minimal recycling. Food is flown in. Wastewater is dumped directly into the fjord. Our carbon footprint is embarrassing. Sustainability is a myth. But the town is full of warm, generous people. There is a perpetual bubble of excitement here. It’s exciting. It’s beautiful. It’s life lived at eleven, every day. The impact of the wilderness around us is profound and primal. It is the world’s northernmost town, and there is no other town like it.
