This bit of news should give all the rightwing nuts a twist in their jockstraps.
Lets see after winning the popular vote in 2000, the Oscar and now the Nobel Prize, what's next? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101200364.html?hpid=topnews Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize By Howard Schneider and Debbi Wilgoren Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 12, 2007; 11:28 AM 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." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a joint project of the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, has been monitoring evidence of climate change and possible solutions since 1988. The science showcased by the panel and Gore's advocacy have helped to "build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change," the committee said. "Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced clear scientific support." As with last year's award to Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus, whose pioneering use of small loans to the very poor contributes to the stability of developing nations, this year's prize focused on an issue not directly involving war and peace, but seen as critical to maintaining social stability. In highlighting the IPCC's science and Gore's advocacy, peace prize committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said the hope was to use the power of the prestigious award to focus on an issue of planetary importance. "I want this prize to have everyone . . . every human being, asking what they should do," Mjoes said. The panel said global warming "may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the Earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states." Highlighting those risks, and the role people play in both creating and potentially mitigating them, has defined public life for Gore since he lost the closely fought 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. >From that difficult race, in which he won the popular vote but lost the >electoral college in a case ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, he >emerged as a controversial figure -- ridiculed by opponents as an >environmental extremist, and hailed by supporters as "the Gore-acle" for his >foresight on such issues as the Internet and climate change. In a statement, Gore, 59, said he was honored to receive the prize. He said he would donate his half of the approximately $1.5 million award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit he chairs that works to educate the public about climate change and mobilize global support for action. The award could affect the upcoming presidential race: Gore's supporters have repeatedly urged him to run, and the luster of the peace prize may add to that push. A Web site, http://Draftgore.com, is collecting signatures encouraging him to vie for the Democratic nomination, an appeal extended in a New York Times ad this week in advance of the Nobel committee's annual announcement. But Gore, who spent a quarter century in elected office as a congressman and senator from Tennessee and as Bill Clinton's vice president, has seemed disinclined to re-enter the fray. He has focused more on undertakings such as last summer's "Live Earth" concerts, which promoted environmentalism in a series of star-studded rock-and-roll shows around the world. 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). In separate statements, the two winners praised each other. IPCC members said they were surprised -- and pleased -- that their heavy lifting on the science of climate change had won a place alongside Gore's more high-profile, celebrity-endorsed efforts. Gore said the award was "even more meaningful" to him for being shared with the scientific organization. The IPCC is "the world's preeminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years," Gore said. "I can't believe it. Overwhelmed. Stunned," IPCC chairman Rajendra K. Pachauri said from his office in New Delhi, according to the Reuters wire service. "We would have been happy even if he had received it alone because it is a recognition of the importance of this issue," Carola Traverso Saibante, a spokeswoman for the IPCC , told the Associated Press. Gore's signature climate-change effort was his 2006 film documentary, in which he narrated the effect of fossil fuel use on the planet. Once considered a fringe idea, the conclusion that human activity is damaging Earth's climate has become the underpinning for major governmental efforts around the world -- its premise now accepted even by former skeptics, including President Bush. But controversy remains over the details and how to respond to them. A British court, for example, this week ruled that Gore's film contained nine scientific errors and could not be shown in British schools without other material presented along aside it -- even as it said the film's broad conclusions were well documented. Bush in particular, while saying the United States wants to take a leadership role in addressing climate change, has rejected some of the immediate steps, such as mandatory emissions limits, that Gore and others believe are necessary. In a news briefing aboard Air Force One en route to a presidential appearance in Florida, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Bush learned of the award this morning. "Of course, he's happy for vice president Gore, happy for the International Panel on Climate Change scientists, who also shared the peace prize." Fratto said. "Obviously it's an important recognition, and we're sure the vice president is thrilled." In response to questions, Fratto dismissed the idea that the award sends a message to Bush about his own policies, and he said Bush would not be pressured to adopt such measures as mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. A Gore appearance before Congress last March captured the tenor of the debate. A month after "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Academy Award, he urged lawmakers to take strong steps, such as freezing new emissions from cars and power plants. With television cameras broadcasting the hearings around the world, Gore told the lawmakers that global warming posed the most dangerous crisis in American history. He sparred with several Republican lawmakers who disputed his findings and maintained that the risks of human-induced climate change are overstated. "This is not a normal time. We are facing a planetary emergency," Gore said in the Senate hearing. "I'm fully aware that that phrase sounds shrill to many people's ears. But it is accurate." Reaction to the award also reflected the continuing controversy, with Gore's critics continuing to lambaste the former vice president and question his work. "Al Gore doesn't understand the science behind climate change or he deliberately misrepresents it," said Joseph L. Bast, whose conservative Heartland Institute denies the global warming crisis and accuses Gore of a "snow job." But the comments from others showed how widely the issue has taken root, and how serious the ramifications can be. 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. Joseph Zacune, a London-based spokesman for Friends of the Earth, said that by honoring both Gore and the somewhat obscure IPCC, the Nobel academy was recognizing both the public face of the movement to slow global warming and its behind-the-scenes actors. It was also, he said a vindication of the environmental movement's longtime efforts. "There can be no question of the urgency to stop climate change," the group Friends of the Earth said in a statement. "Now is the time for action." European Commission President Jos¿ Manuel Barroso hailed the work of Gore and the IPCC as "an inspiration for politicians and citizens alike," wire services reported. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Enterprise web applications, build robust, secure scalable apps today - Try it now ColdFusion Today ColdFusion 8 beta - Build next generation apps Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:244145 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
