Explaining Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize

[complain jane]

I visit other sites with a mixed political viewpoint and I like to combat the Freepers.

Usually I'm ok finding the info I need to back up what I want to say.

Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to word the response to those who are trying to say Al Gore does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because his work does not affect "peace", and that the whole prize has become a political statement.

Obviously that conclusion is arrived at only taking the most pedestrian interpretation of the name of the prize... and my response so far as been to use the Wikipedia definition of the Nobel Peace Prize:

The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

...and add to it that the reader might try to find the parallel between the global warming crisis, and fraternity between the nations.

That alone is common sense for most of us..... but dealing with those that couldn't care less about "fraternity between the nations", I figured I'd stop in and try to find something a little more substantial than what I threw together.

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Consider that war is waged over limited resources

....such as fuel, water and arable land. The first is a major cause of global warming, the latter two are diminished by it.

Solving global warming is political; it requires a wholly different political vision than Dick Cheney's, which is that of fighting for strategic control of the world's energy resources.

Solving global warming is amenable to peace, in making the entire planet more habitable, which increases the total amount of resources available.

[EST]

2. You're fine.

There are some things it just isn't worthwhile to do...

[NanceGreggs]

3. Gore's work, IMHO, IS promoting 'fraternity between nations' ...

... by establishing goals that can only be achieved through international cooperation on a grand scale, and bringing people around the globe together for a common cause that will benefit all.

"The most or the best work for fraternity between the nations" means just that, between the nations - not necessarily between the governments of nations, but between the people of all nations.

In that regard, I think Mr. Gore has done, and continues to do, an outstanding job.

[TheDoorbellRang]

4. Why not use the reasoning the Nobel committee used?

...Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They 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...

...By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/press.html

[complain jane]

5. THANK YOU!

[complain jane]

6. Thank you to all who added to this!

[complain jane]

7. Here's a video someone sent me

http://nobelprize.org/cgi-bin/asxgen.asx?id=755&type=announcement&year=2007