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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Norway no longer best place to live

    .The UN list still puts Norway at the top of its Human Development Index when measured strictly in terms of prospects for “a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living.”When adjusted for the planetary pressures that include the climate crisis and collapse of biodiversity, however, Norway dove 15 spots down to a relatively lowly 16th place. Norway ranks as seventh-highest in the world in terms of its “material footprint per capita” of 37.9 tons of carbon equivalents. In terms of carbon emissions per person, Norway ranks among the 30 largest offenders at 8.3 tons per capita.
    Ireland, which ranked second behind Norway last year, took over the newly measured top spot on the Human Development Index given its much lower material carbon footprint (21.5 tons) and lower carbon emissions per capita (8.1 tons). It was followed by Switzerland and the UK, despite the UK’s own oil industry. Ranked in terms of its contribution to planetary pressures per capita, the UK jumped 10 spots, thanks in part to its large population and relatively low emissions, less than a third of the US’ and Canada’s.
    Norwegian leaders, especially those still firmly defending ongoing development of the oil industry, thus received a rude wake-up call Tuesday morning. Publication of the United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP)’s annual “Human Development Report” has pushed them off their pedestal in terms of what the UN now believes is most important. Prime Minister Erna Solberg can no longer be able to claim that Norway is really best any longer, given the weight the UN is placing on Norway’s own carbon footprint which is especially large in terms of the country’s small population of just under 6 million.
    New measurement methods
    The UNDP revolutionized the way the world should view progress when it moved away from using economic growth as the sole measure of development in the 1990s. Human development, measured “by whether people in each country have the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they value” helped propel Norway into the top spot on the UN’s first such report and it has remained at or near the top since.

    Now that “freedom and opportunity” also hinges on each country’s carbon footprint and other contributions to pressure on the planet, at a time “in which human activity has become a dominant force in shaping the planet.” The UNDP report stresses how many scientists believe that for the first time, “instead of the planet shaping humans, humans are knowingly shaping the planet.”
    Emissions like these from Norway’s biggest oil refinery at Mongstad have contributed towards spoiling Norway’s ranking at the top of the UN’ best places in the world to live. PHOTO: Statoil / Øyvind Hagen
    Norway, which has long tried to maintain a positive environmental and climate-friendly image, is known for generously funding other countries’ efforts to cut emissions or save rain forests. Until this past year, however, Norway’s own emissions have continued to rise as the country protected its oil and gas industry as its most important source of jobs and wealth.
    Pressure has been growing on Norway, however, from the UN’s strong recommendations to shut coal operations on Svalbard (which Norway has done) and curtail its oil industry, especially in the Arctic. The Norwegian government has also had to defend itself against a lawsuit filed by climate-concerned citizens who claim Norway is violating their constitutional rights to a healthy environment, with a Supreme Court decision anxiously awaited.
    A majority of Norwegian politicians on both the left and the right continue to defend the oil industry because of the jobs it creates, especially after the Corona crisis has cost so many in other industries like travel and tourism. The government can point to its global initiative to clean up the seas and cut transport emissions by promoting the use of electric vehicles. Its reluctance to save wolves and other predatorsunder pressure from the farming lobby hurts its efforts to preserve biodiversity, however, and even state oil company Equinor realizes it can’t “greenwash” any longer. It’s now launching serious alternative energy projects.
    Oil exploration continues, controversially
    Yet
    oil exploration, not least into Norway’s Arctic regions, continues and is even encouraged. The new UNDP report is sending yet another message to the Norwegians to think differently, even while stressing their same old arguments that Norway’s oil and gas industry is much more environmentally friendly than other countries’ oil and gas industries. The Norwegians can also take comfort that their standing could have been worse: Iceland dove 26 spots because of per capital emissions higher than Norway’s, and Finland fell 19 spots. Other countries suffered much worse, with Luxembourg, Australia and Singapore among big losers under the new adjustments.

    The UNDP’s measurement methods can likely be debated, but signal that climate and the environment have a major impact on human development. It was former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland who first highlighted the need for sustainability at the UN in the late 1980s. She talked about “our common future” then, and now that future is here.
    See the full UNDP report here (external link to the UNDP’s own website).
    The countries now topping UNDP’s Human Development Index include Ireland in 1st place followed by Switzerland, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Belgium and France. The US, meanwhile, fell a whopping 45 spots (from 17th to 62nd place) and Canada fell 40 spots (from 16th to 56th), also because of their overall carbon footprints.
    Warning: Be cautious if you are a fragile pink

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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  3. #3
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    Luckily chico's never been in Norway . . . but he has been to Oslo


    I always found Norway to be the least interesting Scandi country - best thing about it was the live lobster sales at the airport to take back to Holland or France after a trip.

  4. #4
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    Who on earth said Norway was the best place to live? certainly not a norvie.

  5. #5
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    when adjusted for " not fcuking feezing " - FNQ tops the rankings

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Haven't been there in a long time, but I do remember getting a serious case of wankers whiplash in this place. Norwegian women, bloody hell.

    Josefine Vertshus

  7. #7
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Who on earth said Norway was the best place to live?


    We really don't have to inquire as to who makes this shit up.
    Same homogenous disconnected circle.

  8. #8
    I Amn't In Jail PlanK's Avatar
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    The world happiness report puts Norway at #5
    Ireland way down at #16

    World Happiness Report - Wikipedia

    Having a bigger carbon footprint makes you happier.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by HuangLao View Post
    We really don't have to inquire as to who makes this shit up.
    Same homogenous disconnected circle.
    Low crime rates, generous welfare state, long life expectancy, first class infrastructure, low unemployment, almost 100% literacy coupled with excellent education, cultural freedom, material wealth, easily accessible green spaces etc.

    The kinda place most Thais (and many others) would give their right arm to live.

  10. #10
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    Buckaroo Banzai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    Norway no longer best place to live
    As indicated by the mass exodus of Narwhals from the area.

  11. #11
    On a walkabout Loy Toy's Avatar
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    ^ Over the years I have befriended quite a few Scandaholigans, particularly from Norway, and they avoid their home country like the plague preferring the warmer climate in S.E Asia.

    I've never been there so cannot personally comment.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Loy Toy View Post
    ^ Over the years I have befriended quite a few Scandaholigans, particularly from Norway, and they avoid their home country like the plague preferring the warmer climate in S.E Asia.

    I've never been there so cannot personally comment.
    They've already earned the money to be able to choose where they can live.

    Unfortunately, as romantic as it may seem to us in our ivory towers, sitting under a banana tree and ploughing your fields from 5 until 5 for a measly few hundred baht a week isn't a particularly pleasant way to live.

    See Pattaya's countless go-go bars for evidence of this.

  13. #13
    I Amn't In Jail PlanK's Avatar
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    Norway no longer best place to live-ad86vgj_460s-jpg

    Do the Scandi's drink like they do to open the blood vessels and feel warmer? Or does the alcohol work like anti-freeze?
    It would explain why Scandi's on holiday drink like their life depended on it.

  14. #14
    or TizYou?
    TizMe's Avatar
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    I tested the temperature in our pool today because I think its been getting a bit too chilly.
    It's 25°C or 77°F

    I couldn't handle Norway in the summer..
    The water temperature in most parts of the sea is 2–7 °C in February and 8–12 °C in August.
    Brrrr

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TizMe View Post
    I couldn't handle Norway in the summer..
    Yeah; and I couldn't handle Indonesia at all

    It is modern-day slavery: migrant workers from Indonesias East Nusa Tenggara

    Each to his own

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by helge View Post
    Yeah; and I couldn't handle Indonesia at all

    It is modern-day slavery: migrant workers from Indonesias East Nusa Tenggara

    Each to his own
    Thats a little bit testy, are you upset about his comment about Norway?

  17. #17
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    The most impoverished places in indo (nusa trenganau, madura) are mostly Christian. Hats off to those Dutch colonialists.

  18. #18
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    Who wants to bet that none of the people that wrote that report have ever even been to any of the countries they rate let alone outside their little office..

  19. #19
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    Whether through dire misfortune or drinking habits I came to have a few norvie friends in Pattaya and Ubon. There (drinking and joking away their ultra-generous norvie social welfare benefits), they all pretty much came out with the same gripes:-

    !- Piss is expensive. Yeah, it sure is.
    2-
    The beer is Piss. (never had the privilege)
    3- Muzzie problems, (especially Oslo & Bergen). zzzzz
    4- The roads outside of the big metro's are shite.
    5- Boring

  20. #20
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    I've spent many years regularly working in Norway and have many good Norwegian friends and many good memories of the place.

    I think it's easy to criticise somewhere, safe in the knowledge you have a wad of money in the bank and a superb healthcare system to run back to should an emergency arise. The vast majority of the world's population don't have that benefit.

    It may be boring to some, but the Norwegians I know ski through the winter and go out in their boats during the summer. They definitely work to live rather than live to work, and through the summer after finishing work at 4pm they have seven plus hours of daylight to go catching crabs and you can catch cod from the beaches.

    But the place is hugely expensive due to such high tax. The reason you see drunk Norwegians on holiday is that they can't afford to back home... 12 quid a pint and don't even thing about a whisky chaser.

    Personally I wouldn't want to live there but the working conditions are great and the people are wonderful. It's safe, no police corruption and cars even stop at zebra crossings... you walk anywhere near a crossing and every car within 50m skids to a halt... it's straight to jail for hitting a pedestrian. Mind you, you can serve the sentence just at weekends to avoid losing your job.

    I think many of the world's population would swap their lot for that, given the chance.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Whether through dire misfortune or drinking habits I came to have a few norvie friends in Pattaya and Ubon. There (drinking and joking away their ultra-generous norvie social welfare benefits), they all pretty much came out with the same gripes:-

    !- Piss is expensive. Yeah, it sure is.
    2-
    The beer is Piss. (never had the privilege)
    3- Muzzie problems, (especially Oslo & Bergen). zzzzz
    4- The roads outside of the big metro's are shite.
    5- Boring
    I wonder who the Imm wants to get rid of, now with the 800,000 for 6months

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    are you upset about his comment about Norway?
    No

    He does seem to be a girl though

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    The most impoverished places in indo (nusa trenganau, madura) are mostly Christian. Hats off to those Dutch colonialists.
    Not quite true, but I guess the central government has nothing to do with funding and infrastructure spending there - or not, as the case is.

  24. #24
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    ^^^^ Well said. They ain't so bad off really. Fjords & Norwegian Blues.


    Erm, that was a reply to Mendips post.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    The reason you see drunk Norwegians on holiday is that they can't afford to back home... 12 quid a pint and don't even thing about a whisky chaser.
    They can't afford "it" back home. we get it, Maybe they should take a leaf out of the Aussie and Pommy playbook, Get pissed while your on holiday because , you are on holiday.

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