Raw Elbows (from rubbing up against so many important people....)

So today I sat right behind Her Royal Highness, the Swedish Crown Princess, Victoria. Yep, you read correctly. When I say right behind, I literally mean right behind, I could have touched her. However, I was expressly told by Eric to behave and not do anything to embarrass the group. It is true that the royal family has no political authority in Sweden, but the fact that she was there brought a lot of media coverage and light to the issues we have been discussing. She opened the debate saying how pleased she was to be there and that she had faith in the conference to bring about the needed changes.
After her remarks, the final debate began. There were so many high ranking important people there to discuss the sustainability.
The panel included, a representative from the US Embassy (who was very pleased to meet us and wants to see us in Stockholm!), the Canadian ambassador, a representative from Russia, the chairwoman of the Sami Parliament, and many others. I was impressed with the way they handled themselves after they were asked some very pointed questions. It was quite inspiring to see so many high ranking people so committed to stop the conversation and continue the action. They all made a pledge to do everything in their power to do what needs to be done.

The panel stated that the resources and the money is there, we just need to allocate it differently. As the ambassador from Canada stated, "We have been fighting in wars for thousands of years. We're good at war, we're pretty experienced. We're new to this sustainable thing." I also learned that Russia is responsible for 50% of worldwide carbon reduction in the last 20 years.

To wrap up the discussion, the head of the conference thanked the participants for their responses. She stated, in response to the questions which were asked of them, "Young people can be very rough. They are very direct. Thank god for that." The evening's remarks ended with "Thank you very much. Now let's go out and change the world."