posted on October 12, 2007 07:32:16 AM new
Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO (AP) — Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.
Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, had been widely tipped to win the prize. The win is also likely add further fuel to a burgeoning movement in the United States for Gore to run for president in 2008, which he has so far said he does not plan to do.
"His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change," the citation said. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the administration of President Bush for criticism.
But, in a nod to the 2008 elections, he said "I am very much in support for all who support changes."
"Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president," Mjoes said. "Many did not listen ... but he carried on."
Gore, who was in San Francisco as Friday dawned, issued a statement through his office that said, in part:
"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. ... 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.
"My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100% of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis."
The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.
In its citation, the committee said that Gore "has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians" and cited his awareness at an early stage "of the climatic challenges the world is facing.
The committee cited the IPCC for its two decades of scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming."
It went on to say that because of the panel's efforts, global warming has been increasingly recognized. In the 1980s it "seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent."
"It was a surprise," said Carola Traverso Saibante, spokeswoman for the IPCC. "We would have been happy even if (Gore) had received it alone because it is a recognition of the importance of this issue."
The prize decision was greeted with skepticism in some circles, however.
"Awarding it to Al Gore cannot be seen as anything other than a political statement. Awarding it to the IPCC is well-founded," said Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist.
He criticized Gore's film as having "some very obvious mistakes, like the argument that we're going to see six meters of sea-level rise," he said.
"They (Nobel committee) have a unique platform in getting people's attention on this issue, and I regret they have used it to make a political statement."
This year, climate change has been at the top of the world agenda. The U.N. climate panel has been releasing its reports; talks on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate are set to resume; and on Europe's northern fringe, where the awards committee works, concern about the melting Arctic has been underscored by this being the International Polar Year.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said the prize would help to continue the globally growing awareness of climate change.
"Their contributions to the prevention of climate change have raised awareness all over the world. Their work has been an inspiration for politicians and citizens alike," he said in a statement.
In recent years, the Norwegian committee has broadened its interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts outlined by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in creating the prize with his 1895 will. The prize now often also recognizes human rights, democracy, elimination of poverty, sharing resources and the environment.
"We believe that the Nobel Committee has shown great courage by so clearly connecting the climate problems with peace," said Truls Gulowsen, head of environmental group Greenpeace Norway.
The Nobel Prizes each bestow a gold medal, a diploma and a $1.5 million cash prize on the winner.
In London, meanwhile, a British judge, ruling on a challenge from a school official who did not want the Gore documentary shown to students, ruled that the film contains nine scientific errors or omissions.
High Court Judge Michael Burton said he had no doubt that the points raised in An Inconvenient Truth about the causes and likely effects of climate change were broadly accurate, but in a ruling published Wednesday he wrote that they were made in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration."
Gore's film "is substantially founded upon scientific research and fact," Burton said. "Albeit that the science is used, in the hands of a talented politician and communicator, to make a political statement and to support a political program."
The government's plan to show the film in English secondary schools violated laws banning the promotion of partisan political views in the classroom, Burton said. But he said the screenings could go ahead if they were bundled with written guidance to teachers designed to prevent Gore's views from being promoted uncritically to children.
On Thursday, Doris Lessing, author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic The Golden Notebook, won the Nobel Prize for literature.
On Wednesday, Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces. On Tuesday, France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the physics award for discovering a phenomenon that lets computers and digital music players store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.
Americans Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, and Briton Sir Martin Evans, won the medicine prize Monday for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes.
The prize for economics will be announced Monday.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
posted on October 12, 2007 08:08:51 AM new
Congrats to Gore, but you are wrong. Gore did not create the internet despite what all the neocons like to claim
Bush however created the internets. "In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid, and the envious. - John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester
posted on October 12, 2007 08:23:12 AM new
You are right Logan... He didn't create the internet... he created the "internets". Seriously though, he played a significant role in making the internet accessible to all.
I was joking when I wrote that title. I suppose I should have clarified it.
I am happy to see Gore receive such an accomplished award. Of course, as the day progresses we will see the neocons rear their ugly butts and start attacking him instead of celebrating such a wonderful accomplishment.
posted on October 12, 2007 09:45:45 AM new
Think tank: Withdraw Gore film's Oscar
Citing court ruling, compares situation to sports stars found to be 'cheats'
Posted: October 12, 2007
11:21 a.m. Eastern
Al Gore stars in 'An Inconvenient Truth'
On the eve of Al Gore's award of the Nobel Peace Prize, a think tank wrote the president of the Academy Awards asking that the Oscar given to his film "An Inconvenient Truth" be taken back in response to a British High Court ruling that found 11 serious inaccuracies in the documentary.
Dr. Muriel Newman, director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, told Academy President Sid Ganis and Executive Director Bruce Davis "the situation is not unlike that confronting sports bodies when their sports stars are found to be drug cheats."
"In such cases, the sportsmen and women are stripped of their medals and titles, with the next place-getter elevated," she said, according the Australian Associated Press. "While this is an extremely unpleasant duty, it is necessary if the integrity of competitive sport is to be protected.
British High Court judge Michael Burton ruled Wednesday Gore's documentary should be shown in British schools only with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination. The decision followed a lawsuit by a father, Stewart Dimmock, who claimed the film contained "serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush."
The Nobel panel announced today Gore won the peace prize along with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to spread awareness of "man-made climate change" and to lay the foundations for fighting it.
But Newman, the AAP reported, pointed to the British ruling, which requires teachers to tell students of 11 inaccuracies in Gore's film.
Al Gore
"The truth, as inconvenient as it is to Al Gore, is that his so-called documentary contained critical distortions that are quite contrary to the principles of good documentary journalism," Newman said. "Good documentaries should be factually correct. Clearly this documentary is not."
"In Inconvenient Truth" won Oscars in 2006 for best documentary and best original song.
Dimmock took the British government to court after then-Environment Secretary David Miliband launched a plan to send "An Inconvenient Truth" to all British schools, announcing the scientific debate over man-made global warming "is over."
The judge, however, sided with Dimmock, who alleged the documentary breached the Education Act of 1996 by portraying "partisan political views."
The court ruled the Guidance Notes to Teachers must make clear that:
* The film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument.
* If teachers present the film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination.
* Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.
The inaccuracies, according to the court, are:
1. The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government's expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
2. The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The court found that the film was misleading: Over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
3. The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that it was "not possible" to attribute one-off events to global warming.
4. The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that this was not the case.
5. The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr. Gore had misread the study: In fact four polar bears drowned, and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
6. The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream, throwing Europe into an ice age: The Claimant's evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
7. The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
8. The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt, causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
9. The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting; the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
10. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by seven meters, causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact, the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40 centimeters over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
11. The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on October 12, 2007 11:02:04 AM new
Seems like Bear is upset with Gore getting a Nobel prize. Why? Because some of the points in the Gore's film MAY NOT BE truthful.
Typical hypocrite. Bear is criticizing Gore, but let's compare Gore's truths to Bush's truths about the Iraq War.
Bush has been WRONG about mostly everything he has said about the Iraq War. But Bear and the rest of the 30% that supports Bush seem to forget about that "Inconvenient Truth"
"In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid, and the envious. - John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester
posted on October 12, 2007 11:10:43 AM new
Dr. Muriel Newman:
Newman has courted controversy for her conservative moral views, even among members within her own party, who believe that such conservatism is anathema to what they see as the party's classical liberal doctrines.
The doctor is just another wack job like Bush where people in her own party do not agree with her views. Sounds a lot like our Cheerleader in Chief. "In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid, and the envious. - John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester
posted on October 12, 2007 11:13:52 AM new
Congratulations to Al Gore!
Bear, there isn't a film or document by or about a Democrat that hasn't been the object of right wing media mudslinging. In fact they rush to denigrate any distinction of any kind regarding Democratic political figures including their distinguished military service and awards. Your derogatory article after the award of a Noble Peace Prize to Al Gore is just another reflection on their lack of integrity and a reflection on your thoughtless lack of understanding for posting it here.
The British department of education distibuted the DVD to all publicly state (i.e. publicly financed) schools in the country. The good news about that is that 3 million school kids in Britain will watch it.
I hope that millions of American children will watch it too!
posted on October 12, 2007 12:29:28 PM new
Bear, there isn't a film or document by or about a Democrat that hasn't been the object of right wing media mudslinging. In fact they rush to denigrate any distinction of any kind regarding Democratic political figures including their distinguished military service and awards. Your derogatory article after the award of a Noble Peace Prize to Al Gore is just another reflection on their lack of integrity and a reflection on your thoughtless lack of understanding for posting it here.
You just cant accept the fact that global warming ISNT a proven fact, but a POLITICAL fund raising agenda for Gore. There isnt a shred of PROVEN FACT in any of Gores assumptions.
I hope that millions of American children will watch it too!
Well they are a CAPTIVE audience for the lame brained liberal educators controlling the schools of today.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on October 12, 2007 06:56:30 PM new
I find it so amusing that those who prove their lack of education are the same ones who attack education. BearPorn learned everything from Nascar.
posted on October 12, 2007 10:23:34 PM new
It is SO AMUSING to watch the neocons trying to detract from Gore's Nobel Prize. Jealous? Sean Hannity, today, nearly tripped over his tongue trying to downplay the achievement. Toooooo funny to watch.
_____________________
There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi
They are even jealous of the category, Peace, in which they can't compete.
Today I read a note from a winger who said,"if you need proof that there's a liberal bias, just note that they have a Nobel Peace Prize, but there is no Nobel War Prize."
posted on October 13, 2007 10:58:28 AM newI find it so amusing that those who prove their lack of education are the same ones who attack education. BearPorn learned everything from Nascar.
Really supprized YOU arent a fervent NASCAR supporter, after all they only turn left...
So what has global warming got to do with WORLD peace, not a dam thing
Gore Peace Prize Win Called 'Sad Day for Nobel Legacy'
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
October 12, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - While supporters of Al Gore and his stance on global warming celebrated the former vice president's win of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, skeptics of man-made climate change dismissed the award as another example of the Nobel committee naming someone "Liberal of the Year."
"Al Gore should probably get a prize for most travel in a private jet, but not the Peace Prize," said Myron Ebell, director of global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). He also called the award, which was shared with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "a sad day for the Nobel legacy."
Giving Gore the annual prize was "an unfortunate and misguided move by the Nobel committee," Ebell said, because "the energy-rationing policies he espouses would perpetuate the poverty and human misery associated with political instability and conflict."
Timothy Ball, a retired climatologist who leads the National Resources Stewardship Project, told Cybercast News Service that Friday's award "just makes a travesty of the whole concept of Nobel Prizes."
"This tells me everything I need to know about Nobel Prize winners," he said. "I notice they just gave one to the guy who discovered holes in the ozone layer - but there are no holes in the ozone."
Ball also said that previous Prize recipients unfairly "trumpet" their wins. "They say 105 Nobel Prize winners say that global warming is a problem," using the concept that "if you got a Nobel Prize in one very specialized area, somehow that makes you clever in all the areas."
"That's rubbish," said Ball.
The scientist also had a basic question on Gore receiving the prize for his efforts to combat global warming: "What on earth has that got to do with peace?"
In a statement congratulating Gore on Friday, Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, addressed that issue.
"In the Nobel committee's words upon awarding the 2004 Peace Prize to Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai: 'Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment,'" Pope said.
"The committee clearly sees the work of Gore and the IPCC in a similar light, as those who work staving off the conflicts by uniting strange bedfellows behind the common cause of protecting humanity's only home," he said.
Pope added that Friday's announcement "underscores the need for more of our leaders to take a stand and meet the challenge of global warming head-on."
However, Iain Murray, director of projects and analysis at CEI, told Cybercast News Service that any action taken regarding global warming must be considered carefully.
"If the reason the Nobel Prize committee gave Gore the Peace Prize was for drawing attention to the possible future conflicts associated with climate change, then they really should have taken a look at what Gore's policies would do to the world, if they would actually improve or worsen the situation," he said.
Murray pointed to "The Challenge of Global Warming: Economic Models and Environmental Policy," a study done by Yale University economist William Nordhaus.
It estimated "how much global warming will cost the world if unchecked, assuming that the U.N. IPCC that he shared the prize with are completely correct in all their assumptions," said Murray.
If the world's temperature were to rise by three degrees, "that would cause $22 trillion in damages," Murray said. "However, Gore's policies will reduce that damage from warming to $10 trillion, but at a cost of $34 trillion.
"So Gore's policies will cost the world $44 trillion, twice the cost of unchecked global warming," he added. "If global warming is going to cause disruption and conflict, what will Gore's policies do when they're twice as damaging?"
Amy Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, told Cybercast News Service that she believes "this whole global warming thing will never live up to the catastrophic predictions."
"Even if it turned out to be a correct theory, we're not going to have a cataclysm in the next three decades" as climate change alarmists claim, she said. "Of course, Al Gore will be retired by then, so it won't matter."
Ridenour also said she wasn't impressed by Friday's announcement.
"I think the way the Peace Prize has to be looked at is liberals anointing another liberal as Liberal of the Year," she said. "With that award, the committee determining the winner tries "to make a statement, and it's always a statement about liberalism."
"In that sense, who better than Al Gore?" Ridenour asked. "He's pulled the wool over a lot of people's eyes in the past year" through his lectures and the film "An Inconvenient Truth."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, several global warming skeptics said on Thursday that the former vice president deserves an award - but for his efforts as a propagandist on the issue of climate change.
On Friday, CEI Senior Fellow Mario Lewis criticized Gore's film because it "purports to be a non-partisan, non-ideological exposition of climate science and moral common sense. In reality, it is a colorfully illustrated lawyer's brief for global warming alarmism and energy rationing."
Regarding "An Inconvenient Truth," Ridenour added that "liberalism, like marriage, is the triumph of hope over experience" because liberals "write things that aren't true and hope it'll turn out fine - and they won't get caught."
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It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on October 13, 2007 11:15:21 AM new
Really a sad situation for bear. He can only insult with his own words and ALWAYS needs a C&P to say anything else.
Bear, it's not "supprized" , it's "surprised".
Gore, and about 2,000 other scientists won the Nobel PEACE prize because global warming will contribute to wars over water, food and territory.
That's why it's imperative we start doing something about it now.
Anyone who thinks the earth expands to hold all the polluters AND keep providing clean water, food and other necessary things like open spaces ...
is just a brain dead idiot.
Anyone who thinks we can just keep pouring poison after poison into our soil and water and nothing will come of it is a brain dead idiot.
ALL the proof is in, even if common sense can't even make the FACTS plain to some.
posted on October 13, 2007 04:36:09 PM new
ROFLMAO!!!!
CNSNews.com??? Talk about a right winged waste of binary code.
CNS = Conservative Nazi Service. They are nothing more than another FOX News (but relatively unknown), claiming to be unbiased. That is hysterical that BearPorn can't even pull information from a credible news source.
CNS, Worldnetdaily, NewsMax, Wall St. Journal and The Washington Times all appeal to readers like Bear.
Most news sources are simply megaphones for the Bush administration.
As opposed to ALL THE letter networks, Media Matters & moveon.org that propagate the lies created by the leftwing nut base.
So when you cant defend the information or article, the lefts only option is to attack the source.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
[ edited by Bear1949 on Oct 18, 2007 08:02 AM ]
