[Vision2020] Gore Shares Nobel Peace Prize With U.N. panel

[Tom Hansen]

>From CNN -

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

Gore shares Nobel Peace Prize with U.N. panel

 

"An Inconvenient Truth," a 2006 documentary featuring Al Gore, won two
Academy Awards this year. 

http://tinyurl.com/25lu9e

 

(CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their
work to raise awareness about global warming. 

 

In a statement, Gore said he was "deeply honored," adding that "the climate
crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to
all of humanity."

 

The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million
prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization he founded
that aims to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming. 

 

The White House offered an initial reaction to the Nobel win by President
Bush's 2000 opponent. "Of course, we're happy that Vice President Gore and
the IPCC are receiving this recognition," said deputy press secretary Tony
Fratto.

 

During its announcement, the Nobel committee cited the winners "for their
efforts 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 award ceremony will be held December 10 in Oslo, Norway.  Watch why Gore
won the Nobel prize >

 

In recent weeks, Gore has been the target of a campaign to persuade him to
enter the 2008 presidential race.

 

A source involved in Gore's past political runs told CNN that he definitely
has the ambition to use the peace prize as a springboard to run for
president.

 

But he will not run, because he won't take on the political machine
assembled by Sen. Hillary Clinton. If the senator from New York had faltered
at all, Gore would take a serious look at entering the race, the source
said. But Gore has calculated that Clinton is unstoppable, according to the
source.

 

Gore repeatedly denied he has any plans to run again, but this week a group
of grass-roots Democrats calling themselves "Draft Gore" took out a
full-page ad in The New York Times in a bid to change his mind. Watch more
on the movement to draft Gore 

 

"Your country needs you now, as do your party, and the planet you are
fighting so hard to save," the group said in an open letter.

 

"America and the Earth need a hero right now, someone who will transcend
politics as usual and bring real hope to our country and to the world."

 

The Nobel committee praised Gore as being "one of the world's leading
environmentalist politicians."

 

"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater
worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," said Ole
Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee. 

 

In making the announcement, Mjoes said, "Through the scientific reports it
has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has 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."

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 to
study climate change information. The group doesn't do independent research
but instead reviews scientific literature from around the world.

 

The U.N.-sanctioned group was formed by the World Meteorological
Organization and U.N. Environment Program.

 

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "delighted" with the news
that Gore and the IPCC will share in prize.

 

A spokeswoman for the IPCC, which draws on the work of 2,000 scientists,
said the panel was surprised that it had been chosen to share the award with
Gore and praised his contribution to environmental campaigning.

 

"We would have been happy even if he had received it alone because it is a
recognition of the importance of this issue," spokeswoman Carola Traverso
Saibante said, The Associated Press reported.

 

The Nobel caps a series of prestigious awards associated with Gore,
including two Oscars this year for the 2006 documentary film, "An
Inconvenient Truth," which followed him on a worldwide tour publicizing the
dangers of climate change.

 

Last month, he also picked up an Emmy -- the highest award in U.S.
television -- for "Current TV." The show, which Gore co-created, describes
itself as a global television network giving viewers the opportunity to
create and influence its programming.

 

Previous American recipients of the peace prize include former Presidents
Carter in 2002, Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

 

In 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shared the award with North
Vietnam's Le Duc Tho. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received the honor in
1964.

 

Gore was vice president for eight years under President Clinton. He won the
Democratic presidential nomination in 2000 and ran against Bush.

 

But he failed in his bid for the White House -- despite winning more popular
votes than Bush -- when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his challenge over
voting results in Florida, securing an Electoral College majority for Bush.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Don't tell me why I can't.
Show me how I can."

- Author Unknown 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20071012/59797cd1/attachment-0001.html