Nobel Peace Prize

[George Jung]

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize for climate campaign

Mr Gore in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, that has won critical acclaim and legal brickbats
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Philippe Naughton and Sophie Tedmanson
How the Sunday Times predicted Gore's victory

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today for warning the world about the dangers of global warming, and leading the campaign to persuade governments and individuals to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

The former US vice-president will share the £750,000 prize with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations panel which has worked for two decades to establish consensus on the science of man-made warming.

Mr Gore said tonight that climate change is the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces at the moment and said it is time to “elevate global consciousness” about the challenges of global warming.

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"I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honour and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency," said Mr Gore, who will donate 100 per cent of his prize money to the IPCC.

“It truly is a planetary emergency and we have to respond quickly.”

With his wife Tipper grinning widely by his side, Mr Gore would not answer any questions after his statement, including whether or not he would run for President.

The prize puts Mr Gore's name on what is perhaps history's most illustrious list, alongside such campaigners for freedom, democracy and human values as Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King.

He is not the first environmentalist to win the peace prize, which was given to Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan campaigner for sustainable development, three years ago. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said however that Mr Gore was one of the first politicians to understand the risks of climate change, and described him as "probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding" of the challenge it presents.

Mr Gore said today that he was "deeply honoured" by the award. He added: "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

Mr Gore has become the international poster boy for the green movement, organising a chain of Live Earth rock concerts this year which attracted hundreds of music stars and celebrities to help raise the profile of climate change.

He is best known for presenting An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 documentary laying out the risks of global warming - although a UK High Court judge criticised it this week as "alarmist". The film won this year's Oscar for best documentary.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2644486.ece

[angela515]

Good job, I loved the movie and I am glad he's raising awareness. 

[boxman55]

Mr Gore said tonight that climate change is the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces.
I would of thought terrorism would be the most dangerous, but seeing how Clinton and Gore did nothing to stop it I can see why he thinks that way. Boxman

[George Jung]

Mr Gore said tonight that climate change is the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces.
I would of thought terrorism would be the most dangerous, but seeing how Clinton and Gore did nothing to stop it I can see why he thinks that way. Boxman

That is exactly how Bush wants you to feel.  Terrorism is not even close to being more dangerous than Mother Nature.  Think about it.  Seriously.  Think about the WORLD wide effects of climate change v.s. a few terrorist.  The world encompasses so much more than the U.S.

[vandie]

Good job, I loved the movie and I am glad he's raising awareness. 

Raising awareness is great, but coming from a hypocrite who doesn't practice what he preaches is a tall order.

[Bill Peckham]

Mr Gore said tonight that climate change is the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces.
I would of thought terrorism would be the most dangerous, but seeing how Clinton and Gore did nothing to stop it I can see why he thinks that way. Boxman

If half of what we think we know about global warming is true, people will look back fifty years from now on the claims that the "War on Terror" was the defining challenge of this century and see it as a sick, sad joke -- which will also be the one sentence summary of the Bush presidency.

It is crazy to think we should be laying awake at night quaking in fear that a group of maybe several thousand people with no actual, serious military capabilities will establish some sort of universal sharia law and behead Christians across the world. Al-Qaeda's goals are absurd, clearly absurd and if it wasn't for our administration's misadventures propping them up as a threat we could have rolled them up three or four years ago. The fact that a relatively small group of people with lunatic goals can knock down giant office buildings and murder a huge number of people is something we should worry about and guard against but it does not come close to representing the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces.

Personally I wouldn't give global warming the title either. I believe the most dire existential threat is the impact of an H5N1 pandemic flu year. Something I would rate as likely over a three year time frame. Certainly the threat of a pandemic flu year is more relevant to people on dialysis but also, I think, to the world generally.

[BigSky]

Mr Gore said tonight that climate change is the most “dangerous and urgent challenge” the world faces.
I would of thought terrorism would be the most dangerous, but seeing how Clinton and Gore did nothing to stop it I can see why he thinks that way. Boxman

Very true.

[boxman55]

That is exactly how Bush wants you to feel.  Terrorism is not even close to being more dangerous than Mother Nature
President Bush never has and never will control my feelings about things. My reason stems from terrorist attacks, which there has been numerous. (because we are all adults here, I don't see the necessity in listing them all) You could say there has been numerous tornados also but, in my mind thats not the same or worse, like you seem to think.
Boxman