Tabloid Iltalehti published a report on Monday highlighting the most frequent users of parliament's taxi card during the autumn term.
MPs can use the card to pay for work-related trips, but not daily commutes to the parliament building.
Chief among taxi riders during this time period was Joakim Strand from the Swedish People's Party, who was hailed as the new "taxi king" of Parliament by IL.
Between 1 September 2023 and 31 January 2024, Strand took 116 trips, followed closely by Heikki Autto (NCP) who tallied 114 taxi trips.
However, Merja Kyllönen (Left) accrued the highest total taxi fare during this period at 3,826.50 euros. Coming in second and third place were Strand and Autto, respectively.
During the autumn term, MPs paid for a total of roughly 4,300 journeys with the taxi card and the cumulative cost of the trips was 150,000 euros, IL noted.
Electric avenue
Rural-focused newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus wrote that Finns are ready for electric cars, but gaps in the charging network are preventing many people from switching to the plug from the pump.
While much of southern and western Finland are covered by a dense charging network, charging options become more sparse further north and east.
In January, the Automobile and Touring Club of Finland (ATCF) and the charging company Virta conducted a joint survey about whether people in Finland would change to a fully electric vehicle.
Among the respondents, 29 percent have already decided to make the switch to electric, 31 percent are still considering, and 49 percent said they felt they did not have sufficient access to charging facilities.
For charging station operators like the firm Virta, many are not generating a significant profit because the total volume of customers is still relatively low. The costs entailed in a fast-charging station can be upwards of 100,000 euros and operators generally focus on main roads and population centres, hoping to recoup their costs quickly.
Finland's fleet of fully electric cars is growing though — last year the total number went up from just under 45,000 to almost 84,000.
Human-free Finland
A Helsingin Sanomat feature highlighted what Finland would be like if humans never arrived 11,000 years ago.
HS spoke with Søren Faurby, Associate Professor of Macroecology and Macroevolution at the University of Gothenburg, to gain a better understanding of what this human-free fantasy might look like.
Mammoths roaming the fells of Finnish Lapland, rhinoceroses in the forests, and pods of porpoises all on the Baltic Sea would be possible if humans never arrived in the region that is now Finland, Faurby told HS.
Faurby further speculated that other large Ice Age fauna could be common. Wild horses could have spread all over the country, with aurochs — the Ice Age ancestor of the modern cow — present in southern Finland. More marine mammals, like seals and porpoises, would swim in the Baltic Sea, and there would be larger stocks of salt and freshwater fish.
Much of the Finnish landscape would be covered by forests, but there would still be open meadows and groves, even without human intervention.
The feature pondered other aspects of a human-free Finland, noting how even before Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and other early humans were already having an immense impact on the environment.
The article also noted that the human footprints of Finland would be difficult to erase if humans were to leave the country. Besides built-up areas of concrete and asphalt that would be inhospitable to wildlife, the natural environment would also have to grapple with glass, plastic, chemicals and other artificial substances.
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