Siv Jensen
Encyclopedia
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal
politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party
. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister
in the 2009 parliamentary election
.
, Norway
to self-employed
Tore Jensen (1926–1989), and Monica Kjelsberg (born 1939), owners of a shoe store during her childhood. While she holds that her neighbourhood
was a nice place to grow up, her home was the scene of numerous burglaries
. Her parents where divorced around 1980, and her father soon moved to Sweden
. Her mother was for a short while active in the Ullern
Progress Party, until finding out that politics was "not her thing". Besides three half-sisters, she has one younger brother and one younger sister, Nina Jensen, a noted leader for the Norwegian WWF
. Her great-grandmother was the early feminist
Betzy Kjelsberg
.
Jensen is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics. In September 2006, a biography on Siv Jensen was released, written by Martine Aurdal, chief editor of the feminist magazine Fett, later chief editor of the left-wing
news magazine Ny Tid
.
, one being her socialist-turned best friend. Jensen however soon found herself strongly opposed to their views. She joined the Progress Party around 1988, having partly been introduced to the party through her mother, though she had found her own views to closely fit those of the party herself. Sometime before this, she had also shortly been a member of the Young Conservatives
, but left after a mere week after attending a meeting where she didn't feel comfortable.
She was elected deputy Member of Parliament
for Oslo in the period 1993-1997, and has since 1997 been a regular Member of Parliament. During the early 1990s conflict within the party started by many younger libertarians, Jensen stood firmly by party chairman Carl I. Hagen
. In 2001 she said Hagen had been like a father figure for her, and she expressed a great admiration of him. She became first deputy chairman of the Progress Party in 1998, and parliamentary leader of the party in 2005. In 2006, Carl I. Hagen, the prominent chairman of the party since 1978 resigned to become vice president of parliament, and Jensen assumed leadership of the Progress Party temporarily for two years, until finally being elected as regular chairman at the national convention of the party in 2008. While many had been speculating about the viability of the party and its future after a resignation of Carl I. Hagen, a 2004 survey actually showed that Jensen had a better approval rating than Hagen, which was explained by her not being as controversial. Many had also predicted a more moderate
course for the party with her being the leader, but she has however stood firmly by the policies of the party.
Since becoming chairman of the party in 2006, the Progress Party even became the largest party in Norway in many opinion polls, led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and continued to poll above 25 percent during the following years. With the recent popular support, Jensen has managed to increase the party's appeal to voters and has built bridges to liberal-conservative parties, such as the Conservative Party
, the party likely to join the Progress Party in an eventual government.
In May 2009, Jensen held a lecture in the British House of Commons at the invitation of Conservative Party
MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind
. Media director Alex Try of the think tank
Henry Jackson Society
, who was responsible for the arrangement, said that the main background for the invitation was her "engagement in questions about terrorism and challenges attached to the multicultural society." Up to one-hundred MP's, business leaders and key persons in British politics was expected to show up at the arrangement. Jensen said that "we have much to learn from the British, but when it comes to the immigration policy I think Britain has failed completely".
In 2011, Aftenposten
wrote that the Progress Party during Jensen's leadership, experienced their "two best national elections".
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
, and she has in Britain been called a "Norwegian Margaret Thatcher". She therefore holds many Thatcherite
policies, such as "there is no alternative to market economy
".
speech in Drammen
in 2009, Jensen stated, after a traditional recurring claim by political opponents that she and the Progress Party is populist
, that "if populism is to try to solve the everyday problems of people, then I'm proud to lead a populist party".
, Sweden
city district of Rosengård
to illustrate failed integration policies. She also claimed that Sharia law had replaced Swedish law and that emergency staff were afraid of driving into certain areas. While Mattias Gardell
ridiculed the claims, the debate itself was welcomed by Norwegian Liberal Party MP Abid Raja and left-wing newspaper Klassekampen
. The statements were highly controversial in Sweden, and the Progress Party accepted an invitation to a tour around Rosengård by the mayor and police chief of Malmö. Jensen did not join the tour herself, which was instead attended by party colleagues Per Sandberg
, Per-Willy Amundsen
, Solveig Horne
and Mazyar Keshvari
.
Further, in March 2009, she stated that the fight against radical Islam "is the most important fight of our time." She said that she, as a classical liberal, would always fight against such ideas and movements as communism
and nazism
, and that radical Islam "is a dark and scary ideology." She also accused the other parties of being cowardly, ignoring the questions raised by the Progress Party, and claimed that "it is probably an expression of the fact that they don't understand what's happening in society around them. They close their eyes and try to present themselves as tolerant and liberal, when in fact they are deeply intolerant." Both these controversies resulted in large popular gains for the Progress Party in polls.
In response to an incident in early February 2010, where thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Oslo, she changed her claim of a "sneak-Islamisation" of Norway, to instead claim that the debate now was about a full-blown Islamisation. During the demonstration (a response to newspaper Dagbladet
publishing a Muhammad
cartoon in the context of a news story) activist Mohyeldeen Mohammad
had notably "warned" of a 9/11 or 7/7
in Norway to applause from the crowd.
, and claims to "not [be] afraid to defend Israel's right to defend itself." She visited the Israeli city of Sderot
in the summer of 2008, and experienced Hamas
bombing first hand, and said that she and others had to "run for the air-raid shelter". She strongly opposed the Norwegian government's decision to recognise Hamas as she holds that "you don't negotiate with terrorists, you just don't."
In January 2009, in light of the Gaza War, she also held an appeal at a demonstration called "Let Israel live" in support of Israel in Oslo. The Progress Party's general Israel-policy, supported by the appearance at the demonstration by Jensen and the fact that Christian Democratic Party leader Dagfinn Høybråten
had not joined the demonstration, resulted in many Christian Democratic voters fleeing to the Progress Party. Soon after, the Norwegian Police Security Service went public, fearing that Jensen might be the target of an attack by "some". Jensen herself did however not fear any trouble. While political scientists had speculated that the Progress Party would lose more voters than they would gain by this strong support for Israel, polls rather seemed to show a slight increase in support for the party.
, Jensen said in December 2008 that "we can see that climate changes are happening, but they have been happening for as long as the world has existed. The question is whether they are man-made or not, or whether they are dangerous or not. Just some 30 years ago, all these scientists said that the world was getting colder, and now they have changed their mind and say that the world is getting warmer. So is that what's happening, or isn't it?" Regardless, she is largely supportive of expanding and researching into renewable energy production. In January 2010 she attacked the IPCC
, accusing the report from the panel of being based on fraudulent data. She referred to the erroneous statement of Himalayan glacier
s melting by 2035, ice melting predictions by Al Gore
and Jonas Gahr Støre
, questions of statistical sampling
, and emails from climate scientists at the Climatic Research Unit.
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party
Progress Party (Norway)
The Progress Party is a political party in Norway which identifies as conservative liberal and libertarian. The media has described it as conservative and right-wing populist...
. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Norway
The Prime Minister of Norway is the political leader of Norway and the Head of His Majesty's Government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Stortinget , to their political party, and ultimately the...
in the 2009 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open...
.
Early and personal life
Jensen was born in the capital city of OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to self-employed
Self-employment
Self-employment is working for one's self.Self-employed people can also be referred to as a person who works for himself/herself instead of an employer, but drawing income from a trade or business that they operate personally....
Tore Jensen (1926–1989), and Monica Kjelsberg (born 1939), owners of a shoe store during her childhood. While she holds that her neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...
was a nice place to grow up, her home was the scene of numerous burglaries
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
. Her parents where divorced around 1980, and her father soon moved to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Her mother was for a short while active in the Ullern
Ullern
Ullern is an affluent borough of the city of Oslo, Norway.- History :The borough has its name from an old farm, Norse Ullarin. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the Norse god Ullr. The last element is vin, meaning pasture or meadow. In Medieval times, the farm belonged to the...
Progress Party, until finding out that politics was "not her thing". Besides three half-sisters, she has one younger brother and one younger sister, Nina Jensen, a noted leader for the Norwegian WWF
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
. Her great-grandmother was the early feminist
Feminist movement
The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...
Betzy Kjelsberg
Betzy Kjelsberg
Betzy Alexandra Kjelsberg , born Betzy Aleksandra Børresen, was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party, being the first female board member of the party, Norway's first female factory inspector from 1910–1936, and a member of the feminist movement. Kjelsberg was born in Svelvik, Vestfold. Her...
.
Jensen is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics. In September 2006, a biography on Siv Jensen was released, written by Martine Aurdal, chief editor of the feminist magazine Fett, later chief editor of the left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
news magazine Ny Tid
Ny Tid
Ny Tid is Norway's only international news magazine, published in Newsweek-format every Friday. Politically, its history and editorial line is on the left side of the political spectrum and, until its recent sale, it was founded and owned by the Socialist Left Party of Norway...
.
Political career
Her political interest was according to herself sparked at her school, Marienlyst skole, where discussions were common in class. These discussions would include two students who were members of the Socialist YouthSocialist Youth (Norway)
Socialist Youth is the youth league of the Socialist Left Party of Norway.The current head of the organisation is Olav Magnus Linge. SU considers itself a revolutionary party and wants to gain popular support for socialism in Norway. In this respect it differs from SV, the mother party.SU...
, one being her socialist-turned best friend. Jensen however soon found herself strongly opposed to their views. She joined the Progress Party around 1988, having partly been introduced to the party through her mother, though she had found her own views to closely fit those of the party herself. Sometime before this, she had also shortly been a member of the Young Conservatives
Norwegian Young Conservatives
Norwegian Young Conservatives is a Norwegian youth party. Its ideology is liberal conservatism, and the party is in many ways more liberal than its mother party, Conservative Party of Norway. Henrik Asheim succeeded Torbjørn Røe Isaksen as leader in 2008.- Leaders :...
, but left after a mere week after attending a meeting where she didn't feel comfortable.
She was elected deputy Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Oslo in the period 1993-1997, and has since 1997 been a regular Member of Parliament. During the early 1990s conflict within the party started by many younger libertarians, Jensen stood firmly by party chairman Carl I. Hagen
Carl I. Hagen
Carl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...
. In 2001 she said Hagen had been like a father figure for her, and she expressed a great admiration of him. She became first deputy chairman of the Progress Party in 1998, and parliamentary leader of the party in 2005. In 2006, Carl I. Hagen, the prominent chairman of the party since 1978 resigned to become vice president of parliament, and Jensen assumed leadership of the Progress Party temporarily for two years, until finally being elected as regular chairman at the national convention of the party in 2008. While many had been speculating about the viability of the party and its future after a resignation of Carl I. Hagen, a 2004 survey actually showed that Jensen had a better approval rating than Hagen, which was explained by her not being as controversial. Many had also predicted a more moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
course for the party with her being the leader, but she has however stood firmly by the policies of the party.
Since becoming chairman of the party in 2006, the Progress Party even became the largest party in Norway in many opinion polls, led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and continued to poll above 25 percent during the following years. With the recent popular support, Jensen has managed to increase the party's appeal to voters and has built bridges to liberal-conservative parties, such as the Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Norway
The Conservative Party is a Norwegian political party. The current leader is Erna Solberg. The party was since the 1920s consistently the second largest party in Norway, but has been surpassed by the growth of the Progress Party in the late 1990s and 2000s...
, the party likely to join the Progress Party in an eventual government.
In May 2009, Jensen held a lecture in the British House of Commons at the invitation of Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind
Malcolm Rifkind
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC MP is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland , Defence Secretary and...
. Media director Alex Try of the think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
Henry Jackson Society
Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a non-partisan association. The society's goals include the promotion of "democratic geopolitics". The society is named after after Henry M. Jackson, the late Democratic Senator from Washington State...
, who was responsible for the arrangement, said that the main background for the invitation was her "engagement in questions about terrorism and challenges attached to the multicultural society." Up to one-hundred MP's, business leaders and key persons in British politics was expected to show up at the arrangement. Jensen said that "we have much to learn from the British, but when it comes to the immigration policy I think Britain has failed completely".
In 2011, Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
wrote that the Progress Party during Jensen's leadership, experienced their "two best national elections".
Political views
Economy
A big political role model for Jensen is former UKUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, and she has in Britain been called a "Norwegian Margaret Thatcher". She therefore holds many Thatcherite
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
policies, such as "there is no alternative to market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
".
Populism
During a May DayMay Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
speech in Drammen
Drammen
Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...
in 2009, Jensen stated, after a traditional recurring claim by political opponents that she and the Progress Party is populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, that "if populism is to try to solve the everyday problems of people, then I'm proud to lead a populist party".
Islam and immigration
In February 2009, Jensen held a speech where she warned about what she called "sneak-Islamisation" (snikislamisering) of Norway. The speech turned out to be highly controversial among the other mainstream parties. She used the immigrant-heavy MalmöMalmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
city district of Rosengård
Rosengård
Rosengård, literally "Rose court", is a city district in Malmö, Sweden. As of 1 January 2007, the population was 21,955, of which 60 percent were born outside of Sweden. In 2008 a total 86% of the population in the city district was of foreign background...
to illustrate failed integration policies. She also claimed that Sharia law had replaced Swedish law and that emergency staff were afraid of driving into certain areas. While Mattias Gardell
Mattias Gardell
Hans Bertil Mattias Gardell is a Swedish scholar of comparative religion. He is the current holder of the Nathan Söderblom Chair of Comparative Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden....
ridiculed the claims, the debate itself was welcomed by Norwegian Liberal Party MP Abid Raja and left-wing newspaper Klassekampen
Klassekampen
Klassekampen is a Norwegian daily newspaper, which styles itself as "the daily left-wing newspaper".Klassekampen was founded in 1969 with a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist platform. Until recently, it was owned by The Workers' Communist Party...
. The statements were highly controversial in Sweden, and the Progress Party accepted an invitation to a tour around Rosengård by the mayor and police chief of Malmö. Jensen did not join the tour herself, which was instead attended by party colleagues Per Sandberg
Per Sandberg
Per Sandberg is a Norwegian politician, currently Member of Parliament and deputy leader for the Progress Party.-Early and personal life:...
, Per-Willy Amundsen
Per-Willy Amundsen
Per-Willy Amundsen is a Norwegian politician and Member of Parliament for the Progress Party. He is currently the party's Spokesperson on Energy Issues.-Early and personal life:...
, Solveig Horne
Solveig Horne
Solveig Horne is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party.She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Rogaland in 2005. She had previously served in the position of deputy representative during the term 2001–2005.Horne was a member of the executive committee of Sola municipality...
and Mazyar Keshvari
Mazyar Keshvari
Mazyar Keshvari is an Iranian-Norwegian politician of the Progress Party of Norway.Keshvari, who was born in Iran, and his family emigrated to Norway in 1986. He has made his mark in the Norwegian public sphere as a staunch opponent of the Iranian theocracy. He also supports gay rights and defends...
.
Further, in March 2009, she stated that the fight against radical Islam "is the most important fight of our time." She said that she, as a classical liberal, would always fight against such ideas and movements as communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, and that radical Islam "is a dark and scary ideology." She also accused the other parties of being cowardly, ignoring the questions raised by the Progress Party, and claimed that "it is probably an expression of the fact that they don't understand what's happening in society around them. They close their eyes and try to present themselves as tolerant and liberal, when in fact they are deeply intolerant." Both these controversies resulted in large popular gains for the Progress Party in polls.
In response to an incident in early February 2010, where thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Oslo, she changed her claim of a "sneak-Islamisation" of Norway, to instead claim that the debate now was about a full-blown Islamisation. During the demonstration (a response to newspaper Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
publishing a Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
cartoon in the context of a news story) activist Mohyeldeen Mohammad
Mohyeldeen Mohammad
Mohyeldeen Mohammad is an Iraqi Norwegian Islamist, student and political activist. He became a controversial figure in Norway after stating that the country is at war with Muslims and warning the Norwegian people with an 11 September happening on Norwegian soil...
had notably "warned" of a 9/11 or 7/7
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
in Norway to applause from the crowd.
Israel
Jensen is a staunch supporter of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and claims to "not [be] afraid to defend Israel's right to defend itself." She visited the Israeli city of Sderot
Sderot
Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,700. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...
in the summer of 2008, and experienced Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
bombing first hand, and said that she and others had to "run for the air-raid shelter". She strongly opposed the Norwegian government's decision to recognise Hamas as she holds that "you don't negotiate with terrorists, you just don't."
In January 2009, in light of the Gaza War, she also held an appeal at a demonstration called "Let Israel live" in support of Israel in Oslo. The Progress Party's general Israel-policy, supported by the appearance at the demonstration by Jensen and the fact that Christian Democratic Party leader Dagfinn Høybråten
Dagfinn Høybråten
Dagfinn Høybråten , is a Norwegian politician and the former leader of the Christian Democratic Party. He was the director of the National Insurance Administration from 1997 to 2004, but barely attended to the position because he was a government minister in Bondevik's First Cabinet from 1997 to...
had not joined the demonstration, resulted in many Christian Democratic voters fleeing to the Progress Party. Soon after, the Norwegian Police Security Service went public, fearing that Jensen might be the target of an attack by "some". Jensen herself did however not fear any trouble. While political scientists had speculated that the Progress Party would lose more voters than they would gain by this strong support for Israel, polls rather seemed to show a slight increase in support for the party.
Global warming
About global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, Jensen said in December 2008 that "we can see that climate changes are happening, but they have been happening for as long as the world has existed. The question is whether they are man-made or not, or whether they are dangerous or not. Just some 30 years ago, all these scientists said that the world was getting colder, and now they have changed their mind and say that the world is getting warmer. So is that what's happening, or isn't it?" Regardless, she is largely supportive of expanding and researching into renewable energy production. In January 2010 she attacked the IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
, accusing the report from the panel of being based on fraudulent data. She referred to the erroneous statement of Himalayan glacier
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
s melting by 2035, ice melting predictions by Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
and Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having been appointed to Jens Stoltenberg's second cabinet on 17 October 2005. He represents the Norwegian Labour Party.-Personal life:...
, questions of statistical sampling
Sampling (statistics)
In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population....
, and emails from climate scientists at the Climatic Research Unit.