Rasmus Johan Michael Hansson (born 4 September 1954) is a Norwegian biologist, civil servant, environmental activist and a former national spokesperson for the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

. He led the Norwegian chapter of

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

from 2000 to 2012. In 2013, he was elected to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

as the first representative for the Green Party.Trude Blåsmo (10 September 2013)
Hiver seg på sykkelen fra Bærumsmarka til Stortinget
''

Budstikka ''Budstikka'' (The Bidding Stick), prior to 2004 known as ''Asker og Bærum Budstikke'', is a daily local newspaper published out of Billingstad in Asker, Norway. It covers the municipalities of Asker and Bærum, and is the only newspaper iss ...

''. Retrieved 11 September 2013 Hansson was born in

Bærum Bærum () is a list of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Akershus County, Norway. It forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a populatio ...

, and grew up in Oslo. His father was the actor

Knut Mørch Hansson Knut Mørch Hansson (16 April 1920 – 3 December 1994) was a Norwegian actor. Biography Hansson was born in Alexandria on 16 April 1920, a son of judge Michael Hansson and Emilie Christensen. He was a brother of diplomat Arthur Mørch Hanss ...

of the Trondheim family Hansson which includes several businessmen and lawyers.

Early life

In October 1976 he and two other ( Harald Hjort and

Knut Are Tvedt Knut Are Tvedt (born 29 April 1952) is a Norwegian encyclopedist. He is the editor of the encyclopedias ''Store norske leksikon'' and ''Oslo byleksikon''. His main interests are the history and politics of Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital an ...

) built a dam over the creek in front of the entrance of present-day Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. (This resulted in their ironic press release being printed by Aftenposten, under the title "Vandalism on power facilities at Middelthunsfallene": "Upon inspection of the facilities on 23 October partial destruction due to vandalism, was confirmed. The dam has been removed and the water is now running its original course - of no use to society.")

Activism resulting in imprisonment

As a student he was among the environmental activists that protested the construction of a

hydroelectric power plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

in the Alta river in

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

during the

Alta controversy The Alta conflict or Alta controversy was a series of protests in Norway in the late 1970s and early 1980s against the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Alta River in Finnmark, Northern Norway. Timeline *Inhabitants of the vil ...

. He and a fellow student (Jørn Thomassen) were convicted of sitting down on a road meant for "construction traffic". In court he was sentenced for civil disobedience, and he spent 30 days in Oslo kretsfengsel. In 2014

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

said that "The fines, in the order of orwegiankroner ten thousand were too high for the students so they both chose the option of having themselves imprisoned for a few weeks. It felt okay. Because they regretted nothing."

Career

Hansson has a Cand. real degree in biology from the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

. He wrote a master's thesis (hovedfag) on polar bears. He has worked as an adviser in the Norwegian and been a researcher for

Norwegian Polar Institute The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI; ) is Norway's central governmental institution for scientific research, mapping and environmental monitoring in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The NPI is a directorate under Norway's Ministry of Climate and Envir ...

and

Norad North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

. He led the Norwegian chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature from 2000 to 2012. Since 2012 he has been leading the Oslo Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Research ( CIENS).

Parliamentary election

In the

2013 Norwegian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 8 and 9 September 2013 to elect all 169 members of the unicameral Storting. The centre-right coalition obtained 96 seats, while the incumbent red–green coalition government obtained 72 seats and t ...

Hansson candidated for the first spot on the party's Oslo ballot against the party's national spokesperson Hanna Marcussen and narrowly won. The party got 5.6% of the votes in Oslo in the election 9 September 2013 and Hansson was the only person from the Green Party who got a seat in the parliament as the national result was 2.8% and below the 4% threshold for levelling seats. It was the first time that the Greens got a representative in the parliament. He was re-elected to the Storting following the 2021 election, along with party leader Une Aina Bastholm and Lan Marie Berg. The party overall received 3,9% of the vote, just shy of the 4% threshold for levelling seats. In April 2024, he announced that he wouldn't seek re-election in

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Political priorities

Hansson argues that consumption in Norway needs to be reduced in order to cope with the environmental challenges. During the 2013 campaign for the Greens he suggested that it would be a good idea if the economic welfare was brought back to the level it was in the 1980s, about half of the current level.Lars Molteberg Glomnes et al (17 August 2013)
Miljøpartiet De Grønne over 5 prosent på stortingsmåling
''

''. Retrieved 16 September 2013 Among his political priorities are more focus on

wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...

and saving the polar bear.

Family

He resides in Bærumsmarka. He is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansson, Rasmus Green Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian environmentalists Scientists from Oslo Bærum politicians 1954 births Living people Prisoners and detainees of Norway Norwegian prisoners and detainees 20th-century Norwegian zoologists Members of the Storting 2013–2017 Members of the Storting 2021–2025