Gore wins the Nobel prize together with U.N Climate panel

[Volum]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSOSO00080620071012

OSLO (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for raising awareness of the risks of climate change.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.

Was it right to give the peace prize to Al Gore and the Climate panel?
Does the work they do really have anything to do with promoting peace?
Where there no better candidates?

Discuss.

 

[philippe]

Was it right to give the peace prize to Al Gore and the Climate panel?
Does the work they do really have anything to do with promoting peace?
Where there no better candidates?

Discuss.

I agree, i have nothing against Gore or his efforts but a nobelprice of peace, what's next? '08 football gets nobel price?
Eh, they should have given it to a person who is less known like the group Tiananmen Mothers, which represents families of those killed in the 1989 massacre in Beijing

 

[Ball Lightning]

He shouldn't get the "PEACE" prize, but he should get the prize for waking up the world to global warming. But i will say he is one of the most influental persons this decade that has done good for the entire world.

But a peace prize...... thats a bit of a stretch.

 

[Arwon]

It's especially valid when you consider that last year it was Muhammad Younis and the Grameen Bank.

Frankly it's good to see the world starting to use a broader understanding of what constitutes "peace" and "security" and how you get them. It's a victory for the broad definition of Human Security, and a signal of a seachange in the academies of the world.

What good is safety from conflict if you're forced off your land and facing starvation due to climate change? I mean, entire countries like Bangladesh and Tuvalu are threatened by rising sea levels, entire regions like Western Africa are threatened by desertification and crop failure. There's areas where the biggest threats to "peace" are, indeed, global warming related. The word "environmental refugee" is starting to gain currency. Global Warming is a peace and security issue.

 

[Ball Lightning]

That is a excellent point Arwon, and we see many of these low lying countries already under sea level, and we need people like Al Gore to have a voice and get the islanders story out there.

 

[woody60707]

huh? This wasn't that big a deal in the US. (Al Gore's movie) Did anyone outside the US care that much more?

 

[bhsup]

How stupid. Oh look, I think I'll point out how mother nature makes earthquakes and try to awaken the world to the danger of earthquakes. Give me my peace prize now.

 

[Rambuchan]

It's especially valid when you consider that last year it was Muhammad Younis and the Grameen Bank.

Frankly it's good to see the world starting to use a broader understanding of what constitutes "peace" and "security" and how you get them. It's a victory for the broad definition of Human Security, and a signal of a seachange in the academies of the world.

What good is safety from conflict if you're forced off your land and facing starvation due to climate change? I mean, entire countries like Bangladesh and Tuvalu are threatened by rising sea levels, entire regions like Western Africa are threatened by desertification and crop failure. There's areas where the biggest threats to "peace" are, indeed, global warming related. The word "environmental refugee" is starting to gain currency. Global Warming is a peace and security issue.

Exactly what I was going to say. Nice put there sir

VRWCAgent: Consider why wars take place in the first place. (hint: over resources and land mainly).

 

[bhsup]

Rambuchan: Consider that we have no control over mother nature deciding to re-enact that common cycle she's been subjecting the earth to for eons. Gore just got a peace prize for pointing out natural behavior of this planet.

Kudos to the Nobel committee, they topped themselves in the "stupid choice for peace prize recipient" this year. Maybe next year they can give it to those gang leaders in the 90s in the USA who held a "gang summit" to try to figure out how to stop the violence....you know, crazy solutions like obeying the law freakishly never occured to them.

 

[Rambuchan]

Rambuchan: Consider that we have no control over mother nature deciding to re-enact that common cycle she's been subjecting the earth to for eons. Gore just got a peace prize for pointing out natural behavior of this planet.

The IPCC, better qualified and informed to judge and advise on the matter than either you or I, threw out this notion wholesale.

Kudos to the Nobel committee, they topped themselves in the "stupid choice for peace prize recipient" this year. Maybe next year they can give it to those gang leaders in the 90s in the USA who held a "gang summit" to try to figure out how to stop the violence....you know, crazy solutions like obeying the law freakishly never occured to them.

Whilst this is commendable, it is hardly significant to World Peace.

 

[Arwon]

VRWC, what's your opinion on last year's winner? Surely starting a bank for poor people is hardly the stuff of World Peace either?

Edit: Or the 2004 winner, Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who campaigns against soil erosion... known to many as "the Tree woman"?

 

[skadistic]

I was hoping they would give it to another terrorist like when Arafat got his.........

 

[philippe]

Okay i get the point, but i still think they should have waited a time to let the hype blow away and the election of '08 pass , so any personal gain suspicion would be invalid. but last years winner IS a winner for peace becuase welfare=stability=peace

 

[MobBoss]

This just proves to me how pervasive politcal correctness is.

 

[JollyRoger]

This just proves to me how pervasive politcal correctness is.

A Baptist White male from a privileged background that for 8 years was a heartbeat away from holding the most powerful position in the world = politically correct winner of a prize?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Do you even know what the term "Political Correctness" actually means?

EDIT: If the Nobel Prize was in any way politically correct they would have a Nobel Prize for Mathematics by now I think. Alfred Nobel's wife had an affair with a mathematician.

 

[Integral]

but last years winner IS a winner for peace becuase welfare=stability=peace

Agreed. Dr. Yunus' work definitely deserved a Nobel prize. Microfinance is becoming key to economic development.

They couldn't give him the prize in Economics because that usually goes to researchers, not implementers.

I'm undecided as to whether Mr. Gore's film about global warming is on the same level as Dr. Yunus' contributions to real-world development.

-Integral

 

[MobBoss]

A Baptist White male from a privileged background that for 8 years was a heartbeat away from holding the most powerful position in the world = politically correct winner of a prize?

Do you even know what the term "Political Correctness" actually means?

EDIT: If the Nobel Prize was in any way politically correct they would have a Nobel Prize for Mathematics by now I think. Alfred Nobel's wife had an affair with a mathematician.

Again, please explain to me how Gores 'the world is gonna end' film is about world peace?

Answer: its not.

However, it is hugely politically incorrect to even attempt to argue that he is wrong or incorrect. Its akin to gospel to a very many people. So, yes, this is a very politically correct decision and statement in my opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Right so the environmentalists might be offended if Al Gore didn't win the Nobel Peace prize and the comittee decided to award him the prize because of this. OK.

I haven't seen the film by the way.

 

[JollyRoger]

However, it is hugely politically incorrect to even attempt to argue that he is wrong or incorrect.

How do you figure that? There have been public debates on the subject with people taking the other side without being ostracized as politically incorrect by a broad spectrum of the public. I don't think you can point to one person that has been fired for calling someone a greenie.