Al Gore and IPCC Win Nobel Peace Prize

As widely predicted, Al Gore has added the Nobel Peace Prize to his Oscar and Emmy Awards.

Former vice president Al Gore and a United Nations panel that monitors climate change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for their work educating the world about global warming and pressing for political action to control it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as “the single individual who has done most” to convince world governments and leaders that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and poses a grave threat. Gore has focused on the issue through books, promotional events and his Academy Award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Gore joins other Americans who have won the prize, both as political leaders and for advocacy work:

Gore joins a short list of other senior U.S. political figures to be honored with the peace prize, including former president Jimmy Carter in 2002; then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1973; secretary of state Cordell Hull in 1945; then-U.S. President and League of Nations founder Woodrow Wilson in 1919; and then-President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.

Gore’s award, however, is based largely on his advocacy work. In that regard, he joins the company of Americans such as anti-landmine campaigner Jody Williams (1997), Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Elie Wiesel (1986) and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1964).

The award resulted in the anticipated attacks from global warming deniers, as well as praise from those who recognized his achievement, and the impact on issues of war and peace:

Jan Egeland, a former U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and now a peace mediator and director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said the world’s initial “climate wars” were already being fought in parts of Africa where a lack of water has brought farmers, nomads and animal herders into conflict.

The Nobel Committee also noted that global warming “may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth’s resources.”

The award also fueled speculation as to whether Gore will run for president in 2008. Gore continues to deny that he is running but keeps the door open with answers such as that he has “no plans” to run. Many of those close to Gore who have been interviewed are playing down the chances. Some have speculated that Gore was waiting for the prize to announce plans to run, but others feel that now that he has won he has a global platform to speak out about global warming and has less need for political office. They note that Gore is also young enough to wait until 2012 but that could be difficult if he has to run against an incumbent, especially from his own party.

3 Comments

  1. 1
    Francis W. Porretto says:

    Mind telling us what Gore’s “global warming” crusade has to do with the advancement of global peace — the supposed point of the Nobel Peace Prize?

    This looks to me like another attempt by Oslo to embarrass the Bush Administration. It won’t work any better than the last one.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    “Mind telling us what Gore’s “global warming” crusade has to do with the advancement of global peace”

    This is explained in the post.

    “This looks to me like another attempt by Oslo to embarrass the Bush Administration.”

    The Bush administration does a good enough job on its own of showing how inept it is. While this award does highlight their incompetence in ignoring such a crucial issue, I doubt this was their motivation.

  3. 3
    Steve Savage says:

    I guess Bush has yet to win any nobel prizes now or in the future.

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