GOre and friend top candidates for peace price

[Stig]

I wonder if he's flying in his "eco friendly" private jet to get there? Hope his bought a LOT of carbon credits for the trip and the hot air we'll hear from his speech.

On a side not, too bad old Nobel Peace prize winner Arafat isn't around. He and Al could fly around training suicide bombers to blow up anyone that disagreed with them.

So, Bush should have got one after destroying everything Clinton made?
Or for the War in Iraq maybe, afterall, he did improve the situation there, without Hussein, it's a real peace there now.


@Kraz, nowadays it's only named Nobel Prize for Peace, so many have gotten it for something that had little to do with peace. It's about doing something for the world ... and most of the time that somehow involves peace.

[HoreTore]

@Kraz, nowadays it's only named Nobel Prize for Peace, so many have gotten it for something that had little to do with peace. It's about doing something for the world ... and most of the time that somehow involves peace.

No, it's named Nobel's Peace Prize, not for peace...

It's role has been debated a lot here in norway over the last years, as it has shifted it's position quite dramatically to also include things that indirectly affects war and peace, like working against poverty(grameen bank) and enviromentalism(like al and the chick 3-4 years ago).

I for one is not very happy about this.

[Louis VI the Fat]

If, like the Nobel committe, one accepts that there is a grave climatic danger and that climatic upheaval will cause increased instability and poverty in especially the more vulnarable states of the world, then the Peace prize is very logical. I can see why maybe the Algoracle should not have won it, but I do see why it should've been the Peace Prize. Plus, let's face it, there's no way you could grant 'An Inconvenient Truth' a scientific Nobel prize.

Like with wars, one can argue that peace must sometimes be made pre-emptively. Which brings us nicely to the second part of this post, contemporary American politics:

'I do think in this case it's a very American issue, for both it's detractors and supporters'.

Oi, you're right. I shamefully overlooked that. From an American perspective, this all does have an acute relevance to domestic politics indeed.

'USA politics does matter to a lot of other countries, however, as a result of all of the "leader of the free world" crap etc. It is not entirely without merit to assume active participation by those impacted.'

Quite right. I, too, know the programs of half of the American presidential hopefuls more than a year before the election, but I can't name the current presidents of Bangladesh or Nigeria. (These two nations together also represent 4% of the world's population)

And it is true that it's the very status of former VP of the USA that won Al Gore a Nobel price. It is not his message itself - millions have said the same thing better before him - it is the global impact Gore's words have.
(When, say, the vice president of South Africa makes a hugely important scientific breakthrough nobody listens: where's that Nobel price for Thabo Mbeki, who discovered that aids is caused by poverty, not by a virus? And why was no Nobel chemistry price ever granted to the Great Chemistry Leader Elena Ceausescu?)

But I had two somewhat different points in mind, firstly the irony that both the most self-absorbed Americans and America's fiercest critics share the thought that America is the root and cause of everything in this world. Which had no direct bearing on anything said in this thread.
And secondly, related to the point above but more directly related to this thread, that this thought is a mistake. Not everything in this world can be traced to America. Neither all good nor all ills in this world. Poverty in Africa can't, corrupt politicians in the Arab states can't, the troubles of the welfare state in Europe can't. And the Nobel Peace prize can't. Which, as Prole was so kind to point out, is all nice and dandy but utter rubbish since the Gore Peace prize is a very direct American issue with a very direct connection to contemporary American politics.

it was nice they gave literature to Doris Lessing

She's not American, hence nobody is paying attention.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Excellent statement Louis. Merci mille fois.

[Husar]

She's not American, hence nobody is paying attention.

I noticed the name and wanted to ask whether she has any connection to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing?

I know he's a bit older but they could still be related.

After looking it up myself, apparently not, except if her second husband Gottfried Lessing has a connection to...well, not that important.

[naut]

Louis, very eloquently put.

[Devastatin Dave]

[QUOTE=Stig]So, Bush should have got one after destroying everything Clinton made?
The only thing Clinton make was a spunk spot on a fat chicks blue dress.
@Kral... You don't give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone that was an active terrorist. And remember, it was the Clinton (the Gore was VP in)administration that authorised the bombing of Serbian residential area and rejected the Kyoted treaty the first time. Gore and most of his supporteres are more full of #### than a Thanksgiving turkey.

[Xiahou]

This just further denigrates the Nobel prize. Apparently the message is that it's ok to be a fear monger who distorts the facts, just so long as you're "raising awareness" about an already popular cause...

[Crazed Rabbit]

Why the hatin' on Gore, guys? He's just trying to save us from 110% guaranteed doom, and he's super serial.



CR

[Tribesman]

@Kral... You don't give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone that was an active terrorist.

Thats funny , it has being given to lots of people who were active terrorists . Just like its been given to people who were called traitors .

[Kralizec]

So, Bush should have got one after destroying everything Clinton made?
Or for the War in Iraq maybe, afterall, he did improve the situation there, without Hussein, it's a real peace there now.


@Kraz, nowadays it's only named Nobel Prize for Peace, so many have gotten it for something that had little to do with peace. It's about doing something for the world ... and most of the time that somehow involves peace.

Al Gore is getting the prize because his work is a "solution" to a purely hypothetical cause for war. When something's explicitly called a prize for Peace, you'd expect that the achievement has made some tangible contribution to resolving a conflict, or preventing the outbreak of one.

Maybe there should be an extra catagory for people who have made some lasting contribution to the world in a way that's not easily placed under the existing headers (physics, peace, chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature)
But then again, I frankly don't think Gore would deserve that one either.

@Kral... You don't give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone that was an active terrorist.

I don't see why not, actually. The Oslo accords were a major breakthrough and the prize was a recognition of that, plus he had to share it with the other party. But given the rather political track record of the Nobel committees it is a bit awkward that Arafat got one.

[Stig]

@Kral... You don't give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone that was an active terrorist.

Time Magazine wanted to make Osama Bin Laden Person of the Year 2001, but wasn't "allowed". Guess who spoke up.

[Byzantine Mercenary]

Firstly was the prize not given just to gore, it was gore and...

''The U.N. climate panel, officially called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), groups 2,500 scientists and issued a series of reports this year blaming mankind for global warming and outlining solutions.''

What we have is what is potentially the biggest threat to mankind, these scientists are attempting to find solutions...

It would seem that some of you think global warming a scare tactic, well i agree that some proponants of man attributed climate change have exagerated effects (often due to it being difficult to work out the severity) however there is little doubt amoung the experts that we are the cause and that there will be consequences.

Now we have a choice, do nothing in the hope that we are wrong, or take action to prevent this threat (such action need not be too destructive).

Consider whether the desision not to improve the new orleans levys was cost effective? but on a global scale...

[Tribesman]

What we have is what is potentially the biggest threat to mankind, these scientists are attempting to find solutions...

Oh come on whens it gonna stop , next thing they will be giving people the award for research on improving food production .

[Byzantine Mercenary]

Oh come on whens it gonna stop , next thing they will be giving people the award for research on improving food production .

these things may not be as fancy as killing people, but they are still important...

[HoreTore]

I still believe Mordechai Vanunu should've gotten the prize.

Like I've said the last 3-4 years...

[Byzantine Mercenary]

Al Gore and the IPCC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC...

So im going to issue a challenge, i challenge everyone in this thread to read their report, in full and see what you think of it. Please try and aproach this without bias forget what you currently believe and see what you think.

Thanks.

The summary comes in three parts:
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/..._Print_SPM.pdf
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM13apr07.pdf
http://www.mnp.nl/ipcc/pages_media/F..._SPM_final.pdf

[AntiochusIII]

Okay, I've got confession to make here: I like Al Gore. He's a real American success story. Became Vice President, took on the Presidential Race, won the popular vote even when he lost the election, and even then still obstinately refused to fade into obscurity. Quite the opposite. While his victorious opponent George W. Bush sits in the imperial White House quietly watching his achievements, his reputation, and even his relevance falling apart, the man who lost the election gets rich, gets the Nobel Prize, gets to raise issues, gets to be controversial, and gets talked about on a regular basis.

Who cares if he's right or wrong, or whether he deserved the Nobel Prize or not? He made his place in history like a real American Dream hero (snobby East Coast Ivy League version, though); a Gatsby, one could say. And to hell with the trivialities like "hypocrisy" and "accuracy." People only raise those kinds of issues when they know they've lost the Rat Race.

[Viking]

Gore has done a great job with creating awareness about the global warming issue. In the future the climate changes might very well lead to armed conflicts, thus his work does really got something to do with the Peace Prize.
His video contained scientifically mistakes yes...but the human-caused global warming is still true, which is the whole point of the video anyway LOL.