Gore’s Nobel
The Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to be about, you know, peace. In awarding this year’s Nobel to Al Gore and the IPCC the prize committee had to pile one mass of tenuous speculations (about how climate change would lead to widespread violence and strife) on top of another (whether climate change will occur and how it will occur) in order to justify its choice. This is a travesty in a world filled with real violence where one needn’t speculate about its proximate causes, and where men and women are risking their lives every day in order to stop this violence or ameliorate its consequences. All Al Gore risks in his jetset Jeremiad is jet lag. And perhaps death by exploding ego.
I realize it is old news but having read your post rekindled some of my angry feelings I attempted to set aside since.
I cannot agree with you more!
I still become very enraged thinking about the recognition Gore was given. By no means do I attempt to diminish the importance of climate change as it relates to future generations (I’m talking years and years from now, our great-grandchildren’s grandchildren), however, in comparison to achievements of other laureates, this one becomes of very little importance.
In fact, I find it insulting that Al Gore has been put right next to other great Nobel Peace Prize recipients, such as Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama and, of course, Lech Walesa (and I am not saying that just because I am Polish), who truly deserve the recognition and to whom Al Gore clearly does not compare.
As it has been defined by Alfred Nobel’s will, the award should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” I do not quite see Al Gore fitting this description, especially not with his over-20-times-the-national-average household energy usage and waste against which he has been preaching so fervently.
Perhaps the awarding committee should consider re-naming the prize to Nobel Piece Prize because this certainly was a “piece of work”.
Comment by Monika Latigo — March 25, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
Monika–I hear you, loud and clear. I agree with your very succinct and articulate deconstruction of the award. And I laughed out loud at your suggested renaming. I couldn’t improve on that if I tried. Thanks!