However, bonus points for donating ALL the money to a worthy cause

[holly_evolving]

Maybe it's just me...

I definitely think that Al Gore deserves recognition for the hard work he's done to promote awareness and understanding of global warning. He's gone to a lot of places and participated in a lot of research. He's spoken very eloquently on the topic. I suppose he's been the ambassador for global warming in the 21st century.

But the Nobel Peace Prize? How does being a harpy for a serious, dangerous issue that anyone with half a brain already knows about make him a world peace worker? He's not the first, the best, or the brightest, just the most prolific. And even that's arguable.

Eventually, the global climate threats will cause drastic depletions in the world's resources, which will likely cause serious conflicts worldwide. And if Gore had, oh, I don't know, accomplished something to prevent those conflicts, or undo some of the damage done, I could see the logic.

But help me out here, cause I don't get how being an (albeit justified) alarmist equates to a Peace Prize Laureate.

Comments

[sororbabylon.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that PRIVATE JET he rides around on!!!

[demethos.livejournal.com]

I think it's because he's been campaigning for environmental awareness for almost 30 years. Seriosly, he dedicated his early career to it. From Wiki:

"Gore was one of the first politicians to grasp the seriousness of climate change and to call for a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases. He held the first congressional hearings on the subject in the late 1970s."[61] During his tenure in Congress, Gore co-sponsored hearings on toxic waste in 1978–79, and hearings on global warming in the 1980s.[62]"

[jenn-girl.livejournal.com]

Regardless of what they say I think it was political. The Nobel people wanted to emphasize the importance of his message and couldn't fit him anywhere. Either that or our world is so fucked up right now that no one is working for peace.

[cosmic-hiccup.livejournal.com]

He did share the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is made up of over 2,000 people. They deserve it because they have been working meticulously for 20 years studying climate change, which is unbearably complicated, and their reports, because they're never good news, have largely been ignored until recently. He deserves it because he used his political and celebrity voice to bring global attention to a global issue in a serious way. The problem is that even people with a whole brain don't understand what global climate change can do, that it won't just make the world hotter, it won't just make the seaside towns disappear. It will change ocean currents, which can make the planet uninhabitable for us. And he has done more than anyone else in the world to educate the public about that, and how to prevent it.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

I think it would have made more sense to create a new category for Environmental Protection or something similar, and award that. It's been how long since there was a new category added?

I think that the Peace Prize should be awarded for work that prevents or solves conflict, and I don't think that he has done either of those things. That doesn't mean that I don't think he should be recognized at all, just that I think this particular recognition is misplaced.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

I just don't think that environmental awareness=conflict resolution.

[ryssalee.livejournal.com]

You've brought up a really interesting point about the prize. I'm actually writing a short article on it for this week's paper--a Hillsborough resident contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's work. It's definitely a question I'll ask when I call him later today.