The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Al Gore, the former American vice president, and to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work to alert the world to the threat of global warming.
Gore, “is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” the Nobel citation said. The United Nations committee, a network of 2,000 scientists, has produced two decades of scientific reports that have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” the citation said.
In New Delhi, Rajendra Pachauri, an Indian scientist who leads the United Nations committee, said he was overwhelmed at the news of the award. “I expect this will bring the subject to the fore,” he said.
“I’m only a symbol of a much larger organization, the IPCC, and it’s really the scientific community that contributed to the work of the IPCC,” Pachauri said, according to Reuters. “They’re the real winners of this award,'” he said.
Pachauri has it right. Living in a nation where politics and superstition are damned near inseparable, I’m pleased to see prestige and political stature offered to work that suggests science should lead ideology.
Does Al Gore deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?
He deserves is just as much as Yasser Arafat deserved it in 1994.
If you understand liberal logic, it makes perfect sense.
Let’s hope that Gore enters the Presidential race. Hillary will still get the nomination, but the fight between Gore, Clinton and Obama will be priceless.
#64 – bobbo,
I’m confusing the human species with one that only evolved 200,000 years ago and has not been shown to be capable of surviving the type of climate that would be available if the earth warmed to the temperatures of 55,000,000 years ago.
One of the things that happens, remembering that the ocean covers 70% of the planet’s surface, is that the ocean warms. Ever notice how clear and beautiful the ocean is in the tropics? It’s because there is a lot less oxygen and hence, a lot less life, in it. As the tropical range moves out in both directions to about 60 degree latitude, there will be a lot less life in the ocean. The ocean is, like the planet, is narrower where the globe is narrower. So, the wide and large part of the ocean will be largely dead. (It’s already about 90% dead for the species on which we depend due to overfishing) It will be a lot worse if we reach anywhere near the temps from 55 MYA. We would also witness large(r) scale desertification than we already have due to the extreme heat.
It is not clear we can survive that at all. It is very clear that we could not do so with 9 gigapeople.
#65 – jbenson2,
Let’s hope that Gore enters the Presidential race.
Nothing would unite the democrats more. No one would have a chance of beating him. He doesn’t have all the baggage of Hillary. He has an excellent presence. He has better experience nationally and internationally than anyone else in the running. He’d be a shoe-in.
#60, the London Judge also listed these 9 errors, the film was propaganda.
Error one
Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.
The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr. Gore’s “wake-up call”. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water — “but only after, and over, millennia.”
Error two
Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”
Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.
Error three
Gore: The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the Ocean Conveyor” — the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.
Judge: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.
Error four
Gore: He asserted — by ridiculing the opposite view — that two graphs, one plotting a rise in CO2 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.
Judge: Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.
Error five
Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.
Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
Error six
Gore: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.
Judge: “It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”
Error seven
Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.
Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.
Error eight
Gore: Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long distances — up to 60 miles — to find the ice”.
Judge: “The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm.” That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued — “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.
Error nine
Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.
Judge: The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult.
#27:
1) Believing in democratic freedom enough to give your life for the cause DOES qualify someone in my book.
2) Al Gore’s size is a factor. He’s eating like a pig, which means it takes more resources to keep up with his ever growing belly. Plus since he eats so much, he has to take bigger “dumps” which put a further strain on sewer and water resources. I won’t even mention the extra methane gas he lets go from his ass. All of which means he’s adding to our problems, not helping.
“Living in a nation where politics and superstition are damned near inseparable, I’m pleased to see prestige and political stature offered to work that suggests science should lead ideology. ”
I dont understand this. This line is as mindless as Bush’s understanding of middle east. Yes, superstition is a way of life. But believe me, it doesnt stick anywhere close to politics in this land.
Congrats to Al Gore.
#68 – azdavesoulsearcher,
Confusion between courtroom proofs and scientific proofs is a hallmark of apologetics. Let’s not make the same mistake about something that will affect our lives in a meaningful way.
#69 – Big A,
If you’re so concerned about the effects of obesity, perhaps you should pay attention to new LipoBlow ™.
Seriously though, when optimizing anything, you attack the points that can make a real difference first. If you want to start with obesity, don’t start on just one person. In fact, start from the cause, corporate america, high fat fast foods, high fructose corn syrup, etc.
Why didn’t the Nobel Committee make any mention of Gore’s fight against manbearpig?
So Al Gore’s obesity was caused by Corporate America?
So apparently fearmongering is OK if it creates a cause for action. By that logic the neo-cons should get a Nobel Prize for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and the Iranian president(you don’t have to actually effect change to win).
As one example of Gore’s fearmongering, he claims a sea level rise of 20 feet, while his co-winners the IPCC has a concensus estimate of 1 foot.
#75 – Frank,
Excellent logic you use there. I state that we should not look at one individual, but look at the cause of a wider problem. So, you take it back to the individual.
#76 – MikeN,
Al Gore claimed there would be a 20 foot rise in sea level when/if the Greenland ice cap melts. This is incorrect. The correct amount is 7 meters or closer to 23 feet. This is not the same as saying that the sea will rise 20 feet in any particular amount of time. But, keep trying. I’m sure you’ll find a reason to rebury your head in the sand and pretend the future will be fine and nothing humans can do can really affect the whole biosphere. Go on believing that if it makes you happy. But, it just might make a lot more of us dead a lot sooner than we need to be.
#75 – Actually Big Al is doing his part. He’ll be making the announcement soon when testing is done and he’s a big as Michael Moore, but what he’s done is found a way to sequester carbon within his own body…
I thought he got it for inventing the internet? Wow! So he actually got it for inventing global warming?
Seriously though, how does one go about buying carbon offset credits? I’ve got a bunch I’d like to sell.
But if no one makes an effort to change on an individual basis, how will larger problems get solved?
#80 – Frank IBC,
By sitting on our asses and blogging, obviously.
#79 – actually he did both. Before the Internet you never heard about global warming and in fact, the big fear was global cooling. You could logically infer then, that the Internet caused global warming.
If Gore runs for president again, he may want to make sure that the state he lives in and represented in the Senate, would vote for him in the first place. That did not happen in 2000! Maybe Tennessee knows something that the rest of don’t! Just a thought…..
#83 – Dan,
So, you think it’s a serious issue that W didn’t win Maine??!!? I don’t. I have many other issues with him, but not that.
I may be wrong, but President Bush is from Texas, correct? He may have grown up there but is was the Gov of Texas, correct?
I memory serves me right, Mr. Gore was raised in Tennessee and his father was in Congress from Tennessee too, correct?
Not sure about Gore. I consider W to be from Maine and be somewhat of a phony for the Texas accent. I could be mistaken about that though. His political career is all Texas, AFAIK.
#85
Why not lambaste Bush for not winning CA in 2000? That would be equally irrelevant. Gore was a senator from Tennessee in addition to it being his home State. Had Bush not won Texas you might have a comparison. The fact of the matter is that had Gore convinced his fellow State citizens to vote for him, he probably would have won in 2000.
#88 – Thomas,
“Cause W’s from Maine not California.
So much rancor and division, and for what? Some complain about Kyoto, some rant over an old election, some complain about the prize itself, some complain about how we can’t predict the future, and some just lay blame. Is any of this even relevant?
The fact is that Al Gore raised awareness about climate change, and was working towards this end far before it was hip to do so, and since climate effects food and water availability, a common cause of wars, it was an appropriate prize. Regardless of whether it was caused by us or not, it is beyond argument by the sane, what with the northwest passage open now, that the climate is changing. Even worse, our ability to predict how it would change is very poor, and it is changing much faster than expected. Greenland, in particular, is melting so fast that it is experiencing earthquakes as the thinner ice relieves pressure on the crust If it continues at this pace, we’ll all have to deal with billions of environmental refugees worldwide within just a few years. Reducing CO2 is neigh futile, we need to start building cities and greenhouses inland as quickly as possible to save lives. But change is hard, and embracing change is even harder.
I am confident mankind can survive, unless some fool chooses to create an Armageddon because he thinks he can order the heavens about. We are very clever, after all, and a bit of adaptation is not beyond us.
Did anyone comment, yet, that Al Gore is on the Board of Directors of Apple? Will there be a limited edition Nobel Prize iPod?
#90
How do you figure that he is “from Maine”: just because his family has a summer home there? That’s idiotic. Bush was born in Texas, spent most of his time in Texas and was governor of Texas. He has lived in Texas from the time he got out of Harvard in 1977 until he was elected in 2000. The man comes by his accent honestly.
It was laughable that Gore did not win his own State in 2000. You simply barked up the wrong tree for a rebuke. It would have been safer to state that Gore was removed from Tennessee for eight years prior to the 2000 election and thus was not as connected with the people of Tennessee as Bush who was the presiding governor of Texas at the time of the election.
Over ninety comments? Damn. Did I read them all? Nah, just the first three or four, and yeah, this whole deal goes off my creepy scale.
#84, pedro;
Apparently you are confused over the difference between a “fact” and an “opinion.”
Your comment was the latter.
#93, Thomas;
Actually, you’re wrong. Bush was born in Connecticut.
…Which doesn’t help the rest of your argument.