[D66] A Nobel for Sweden's Greta Thunberg?

[A.OUT]

On 26-09-19 16:46, A.OUT wrote:
> A Nobel for Sweden's Greta Thunberg? A tough decision for prize committee
> By
> MAGGIE FICK
> reuters.com
> 5 min
> View Original
>
> OSLO (Reuters) - Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg’s shaming of world
> leaders and air travelers over climate change has won her millions of
> admirers and attracted many new followers to her cause.
>
> But it just might cost her the Nobel Peace Prize.
>
> Thunberg, one of few people whose nomination has become known before the
> awards ceremony, is the bookmakers’ favorite to win the prize next month.
>
> At 16, she would be the youngest recipient of the $930,000 award won by
> the likes of Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev. She
> would be the first to win the prize for environmental work since former
> U.S. vice president Al Gore shared it in 2007 for raising awareness of
> climate change.
>
> But Thunberg’s youth, outspokenness and confrontational approach - the
> very factors that have made her the global face of climate change
> activism - present challenging questions for the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
>
> Her shaming of those who choose to travel by airplane - #flightshame –
> raises hackles among some people. The denunciations of world leaders by
> a teenager alienates others.
>
> While liberals see her as courageous for telling the truth about climate
> change, right-wing critics depict her as a liar or hypocrite, suggest
> her parents have manipulated her or portray her as the ringleader of a
> socialist conspiracy.
>
> “It’s been a while (since Gore was awarded the prize in 2007) ... so
> that would boost her chances,” Sverre Lodgaard, a deputy member of the
> award committee from 2003 to 2011, told Reuters.
>
> “The problem is that the principle of ‘flight shame’ brings her chances
> ... down. Shame is not a constructive feeling to bring about change.”
>
> Thunberg, who does not usually take media requests directly, did not
> immediately respond to requests for comment made through her father,
> Svante Thunberg, and to an email account set up to handle media queries.
>
> Greta Thunberg has hit back at her critics, denying she is paid for her
> activism or is being “used” by anyone.
>
> She wrote on Facebook in February that “there is no one ‘behind’ me
> except for myself. My parents were as far from climate activists as
> possible before I made them aware of the situation.”
> “A VERY HAPPY YOUNG GIRL”
>
> Thunberg rose to global prominence last year by taking time off school
> to demonstrate outside Swedish parliament about the lack of action to
> combat climate change. Inspired by her weekly protest, millions of young
> people protested around the globe last Friday to put pressure on
> governments to act.
>
> This week, after sailing to New York in a zero-carbon emissions vessel,
> she accused leaders at the U.N. climate summit of stealing her dreams
> and childhood with empty words on climate change.
>
> “How dare you?” she asked.
>
> Her comments did not go down well with U.S. President Donald Trump, who
> has questioned climate science and has challenged every major U.S.
> regulation aimed at combating climate change.
>
> Retweeting footage of her speech, he mocked Thunberg by saying: “She
> seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and
> wonderful future. So nice to see!”
>
> Thunberg responded by changing her Twitter biography to: “A very happy
> young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”
>
> Trump also suggested he ought to receive the Nobel Peace Prize himself
> “for a lot of things if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.”
>
> With Nobel Prize winners inevitably thrust into the spotlight, the
> committee will consider Thunberg’s age and how a teenager would cope
> with even more intense public scrutiny than she is already under,
> Lodgaard said.
>
> Five years ago, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai won the
> award at the age of 17, but her candidacy was less divisive than Thunberg’s.
>
> “It is a tremendous burden to give a Nobel to a teenager,” said Asle
> Sveen, author of several books about the prize.
>
> Even so, he and Lodgaard say Thunberg still has a chance of winning.
>
> The award committee could opt to reduce the weight of expectation on
> Thunberg by sharing the prize between her and someone else, or simply
> decide her behavior has shown she is mature beyond her years, they said.
>
> “They would have seen and heard her and she would have come across as
> thoughtful and effective. She could be a very good candidate,” Lodgaard
> said.
> THE DEFINITION OF PEACE
>
> Also possibly counting against Thunberg is a debate in academic circles
> about whether environmental activism counts towards peace, as defined in
> Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s will, even though Gore shared his
> award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
>
> “The argument ‘for’ is that the science shows we are experiencing a
> dramatic change of climate and we could have extreme conditions, with
> consequences in terms of war and refugees,” Sveen said.
>
> “The argument ‘against’ would be: does a prize to the environment fall
> outside the boundaries of Nobel’s will? This was an argument used when
> Al Gore and the IPCC won in 2007.”
>
> Apart from Thunberg, other leading possible contenders for the award
> include Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for the reconciliation he
> forged in 2018 with Eritrea.
>
> The neighbors fought a war that killed more than 70,000 people from 1998
> to 2000 and failed to implement a 2000 peace deal. Also counting in
> Abiy’s favor is his lifting of bans against opposition parties, said
> Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
>
> Abiy, who took office in April 2018, is pushing Ethiopia towards new
> democratic freedoms, though rights groups say more needs to be done to
> heal wounds after years of government repression.
> Slideshow
> Slideshow
>
> Reporters Without Borders, or the Committee to Protect Journalists,
> groups that campaign for freedom of the press, could also be recognised.
>
> “There is very distinctly a case for this in the age of fake news,” said
> Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
>
> Pope Francis, the United Nations Refugee Agency and its head, Filippo
> Grandi, are also mentioned among possible contenders for the price in
> recognition of their work towards refugees and as a way to highlight the
> right to asylum, under pressure in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
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