| Now, on to the pics.
This is Olso City Hall where the award ceremony is held:
All the ambassadors arrived by car, mostly in Mercedes, BMW and Volvos. Apparently, the ambassadors didn't get the message that this year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to combat climate change. Arriving in the most gas guzzling SUV was the US ambassador:
The Prime Minister of Norway (head of a center left coalition) and his wife were more in the spirit of the event and arrived by foot:
Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri arrive for the ceremonies. This is my best pic. The other pictures (where he walked right past me) were a little blurred as everyone around me wanted to get a good picture of them:
King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway with Crown Prince Haakon and his wife Princess Mette Marit:
And here's the ultimate WTF moment of the day. Two Ron Paul supporters from Norway (they're not Americans, I asked). They said he was for freedom and peace. Uhm, yeah. Whatever.
If you want to get more news on the ceremony I suggest you go to Aftenposten (a Norwegian newspaper). They have an English language website with frequent updates.
Two hours from now (6pm local, 12pm EST) is the traditional torchlight parade in honor of the Nobel laureates. I'll take more pictures and update after I get back. In the meantime you can read this diary by a Norwegian living in the US and light a virtual, carbon free torch here.
UPDATE:
Here's the final part of Al Gore's acceptance speech:
The world needs an alliance - especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where earth is in the balance. I salute Europe and Japan for the steps they've taken in recent years to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia, which has made solving the climate crisis its first priority.
But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 emitters -- most of all, my own country -- that will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before history for their failure to act.
Both countries should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment.
These are the last few years of decision, but they can be the first years of a bright and hopeful future if we do what we must. No one should believe a solution will be found without effort, without cost, without change. Let us acknowledge that if we wish to redeem squandered time and speak again with moral authority, then these are the hard truths:
The way ahead is difficult. The outer boundary of what we currently believe is feasible is still far short of what we actually must do. Moreover, between here and there, across the unknown, falls the shadow.
That is just another way of saying that we have to expand the boundaries of what is possible. In the words of the Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, "Pathwalker, there is no path. You must make the path as you walk."
We are standing at the most fateful fork in that path. So I want to end as I began, with a vision of two futures - each a palpable possibility - and with a prayer that we will see with vivid clarity the necessity of choosing between those two futures, and the urgency of making the right choice now.
The great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote, "One of these days, the younger generation will come knocking at my door."
The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: "What were you thinking; why didn't you act?"
Or they will ask instead: "How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?"
We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource.
So let us renew it, and say together: "We have a purpose. We are many. For this purpose we will rise, and we will act." |
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