Teen lives in cave for a year for the environment

[Second Summer]

Sogn - Today, April 22, is Earth Day 2014 and what better way to celebrate than to give an example of one teenager's aims to reduce her environmental impact on the world. To that end, this 19-year-old student has lived in a cave for almost a year.

Ida Beate Løken, a student from the Sogn Agriculture and Horticulture School in Norway, moved into a cave for almost a year with only a good quality sleeping bag to protect her from the harsh Norwegian winter.

Ida decided to move into the cave in May 2013, saying she wished to reduce her environmental impact to close to nothing. She told Norway’s TV2 network, "It's much more fun to stay there."

Read more: Norwegian teen lives in cave for a year for the environment (Digital Journal, 22. April 2014)

Edit: Note that the article has a video containing an interview that gets interrupted when Ida discovers a homeless cat.

 

[Trinity]

Thank you for sharing this. I found it really inspiring (coming from someone who really struggles with the cold and almost moved to Hawaii at one point).
I loved the cat... it was like she was getting her priorities right and had no need to impress the camera
The story offers a wonderful reminder to connect with nature and how we really don't need all the things we think we need.
Anyway, thank you. I really appreciate the post.

 

[Second Summer]

By the way, when I went to uni in Oslo many years ago, there was a former astrophysics student who lived in a cave right next to the uni subway station. He lived there for years and years, and we could often see him at the station, even when there was snow on the ground. Unfortunately, I think he struggled a bit in the mental health area, which may explain why he never took a shower, and was dressed in rags. Nevertheless, I always admired his determination.

This reminds me of an article I read last year in Philosophy Now, called Epicureanism: The Hobo Test.

[...] The bad side of philosophy that hardly anyone writes about, is that some philosophies cause people to become hobos. When I use the term ‘hobo’, I’m not referring to just any homeless person – that is, I’m not referring to a handicapped person, an alcoholic, or someone else whose homeless situation is a result of his or her misfortune. Rather, by ‘hobo’, I’m specifically referring to a person who has lived by his or her philosophical convictions and is miserable as a result. No one wants his philosophy to lead him under a dark bridge somewhere, draped in a used sleeping bag, his only defense a rusty pocket knife. Rather, he wants the good life. But what is the good life? And how, you may ask, does all this tie into Epicureanism? [...]

 

[rainforests1]

Living Simply in a Dumpster - The Atlantic
Somewhat similar:a person living in a dumpster.