Hm, So I’m listening to National Public Radio today and I hear that our illustrious President has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As I listen, I learn (ignoramus that I am) that the committee for the prize is located in Norway as opposed to Sweden, home of the other Nobel Prizes. Interesting. As I listen to the story, surprised that a man with few global accomplishments is getting the award, I remember all the way back to yesterday when news broke that Norway upped it’s emissions reductions to 40% below 1990 by 2020 at the Bangkok session of the climate talks.
In their statement on the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave their reasons, along with seeking to end nuclear proliferation, for choosing President Obama:
“Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.” –Nobel Prize Committee
And they also endorsed President Obama’s statement that:
“Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”
Indeed, now IS the time for a global response, a global response led by the United States and other industrialized nations to arrive at a treaty in Copenhagen that is fair ambitious and binding. And just so you know, Mr. President, Copenhagen isn’t too far away from Oslo where you will be accepting your award on Dec. 10, so how about you hop over and save the negotiations after you are awarded ‘Mr. World Peace.” This isn’t global pageantry, this is survival.
frankly, it looks like norways emissions reductions are a joke…they are a larger oil exporter than iraq and saudi arabia – their reductions are in-country, they are merely paying for offsets elsewhere in the world.