Al Gore Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

mc mark · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

hate to break this to you, but there wasn't a presidential election in 06.
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oh good lord

Well if anything, idiot boy, NY.ca has managed to derail the thread.

Congrats to Mr Gore!

Deckard · Oct 12, 2007

HayesStreet said:

Congratulations to Gore. I like Gore. I was a supporter when he won the first election. I think he would make a great President. Gore/Clinton would be hilarious.
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Yes, I think he'd make a great President as well, especially compared to what we've been suffering through. Clinton running as VP would be ironic, but effective in the general election. If I remember correctly, the most recent poll in New Hampshire had Gore running 3rd, and he isn't a candidate and has repeatedly said he's not going to be a candidate. I hope he changes his mind.

And I like what mc mark said earlier. Why can't we congratulate a fellow American who just won the most prestigious prize for public service in the world? We can speculate about Gore's political future, but the nut of this thread is that he just won the freakin' Nobel Peace Prize. As Americans, we should be proud.

D&D. Impeach Bush for Promoting Torture.

basso · Oct 12, 2007

Batman Jones said:

A lot of red states have done that sort of thing locally. The fact remains that if winning your home state is a criteria for winning the presidency, you can ex off Rudy and Mitt - the two GOP frontrunners. And if doing something that hasn't been done in a long time (or ever) is a criteria for winning, you can ex off Hillary.
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i disagree about Rudy. i think he wins NY, although i wouldn't want to underestimate the clinton machine. but i'd happily x-off hill!

rimrocker · Oct 12, 2007

Batman Jones said:

Rudy would likely win New York City?!?!?!?! You are so far gone. Rudy has about as good a chance of winning NYC as Hillary does of winning Utah.
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Shhh! We need to encourage this type of thinking, not squash it. If they are so concerned about showing Hillary up in NYC, let them spend lots of money there.

Anyway, back on topic...

Prize Caps Year of Highs for Gore
By JIM RUTENBERG

For Al Gore, winning the Nobel Peace Prize today is the latest twist in a remarkable decade of soaring highs and painful lows. In the span of the last decade he went from being the vice president to being the presumptive Democratic nominee for president to winning the popular vote for president only to lose in the Electoral College — after an intervention by the Supreme Court made his 537-vote loss in Florida official.

Mr. Gore’s decision to give up the fight after the Supreme Court decision left some of his more die-hard supporters bitter, and he by and large retreated from public view for several years. He rarely inserted himself in the public debate, though he did venture out to speak against the invasion of Iraq before it happened. But, associates have said, it was during that quasi-exile that Mr. Gore broke free of the political consultancy that had come to surround him to find his true voice, returning to the environmental issues to which he had devoted his early political career.

Even before Mr. Gore won an Emmy for his so-called “user generated” cable television network, Current, or an Oscar for his film on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” he was growing in stature for another reason: his early opposition to the Iraq war.

He had initially voiced it in 2002 in an address that his newly galvanized supporters now describe as uncannily prescient and unfairly dismissed, though it was seen as a politically off-kilter at a time of great popularity for President George W. Bush.

The Prize certainly comes as vindication to Mr. Gore, whose early dedication to environmental issues had earned him the derisive nickname “Ozone Man” — “Ozone,” for short — from President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 presidential campaign.

And, the administration of the current President Bush had appeared to work quickly to undo many of Mr. Gore’s initiatives upon taking over the White House, generally casting doubt on some of the theories on climate change — and man’s role in it — that Mr. Gore had espoused, though in recent months and years White House aides have argued that their arguments on global warming have been overblown. (Reuters this morning quoted Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, as saying, “Of course we’re happy for Vice President Gore and the IPCC for receiving this recognition.)

Mr. Gore’s victory was certain to reverberate quickly in the hair-trigger presidential campaign trail, with Democrats poised to use it against the Republicans, though it was just as likely to prompt debate on cable news and conservative talk radio about the value of such prizes, and the perceived, anti-Bush bias of institutions like the Nobel Foundation.

The Web site of Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign put on its home page a flattering picture of Mr. Gore and a big banner headline “Congratulations!”

Former Senator John Edwards released a statement shortly after 5 a.m., Eastern time, congratulating Mr. Gore and saying, “His leadership stands in stunning contrast to the failure of the current administration to pursue policies that would reduce the harm of global warming.”

Senator Barack Obama said in a statement, “By having the courage to challenge the skeptics in Washington and lead on the climate crisis facing our planet, Al Gore has advanced the cause of peace and richly deserves this reward.”

But if many of Mr. Gore’s supporters get what they want, the crop of Democratic candidates will have Mr. Gore as a new primary campaign opponent soon.

As predicted, the awarding of the Nobel Prize immediately intensified calls for him to enter the Democratic nominating contest for president and speculation over whether he would. The rumors that he would win it had already helped a grassroots movement to draft him into the race raise tens of thousands of dollars for advertisements.

The Washington Examiner this morning quoted the Democratic strategist and former Bill Clinton election mastermind James Carville as saying at the Palm Restaurant in Washington on Thursday night, “I still think there’s a 25 percent chance that Gore gets in,” and “I don’t think it’s too late.”

Mr. Gore’s aides, and, on one or two occasions, Mr. Gore himself, have said he is not interested in running for president when his main goal has been raising public awareness of global climate change and man’s role in it. But they have been coy, refusing to absolutely say “no,” and, in the process, giving the various groups now dedicated to drafting him into the race reason to continue their efforts.

Associates of Mr. Gore, however, have said they truly believe he does not want to run but speculate that he does not have reason to tamp down the presidential talk when it serves to keep the focus on him and causes he is pursuing with a perceptibly pure heart — a perception that could change with a presidential run.

“You never say never in politics but I think he’s having such a big impact on the issues that he cares about that if he decided to run for president he would just be viewed in a fundamentally different way,” said Chris Lehane, a former aide and spokesman for Mr. Gore’s 2000 campaign. “Once you become a candidate for president then you have a completely different lens.”

Yet Mr. Gore’s newly charged supporters hope that the Nobel Prize will now cause him to make another attempt to win the prize they believe is rightly his — the White House.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/us/12cnd-gore.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
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Batman Jones · Oct 12, 2007

basso said:

i disagree about Rudy. i think he wins NY, although i wouldn't want to underestimate the clinton machine. but i'd happily x-off hill!
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Well sure, but you thought we would win the Iraq war too.

mc mark · Oct 12, 2007

This is beautiful!

And yet this is a fitting bookend, with Gore receiving this accolade while the sitting president grows daily an object of greater disapproval, disapprobation and collective shame. And let's not discount another benefit: watching the rump of the American right detail the liberal bias of the Nobel Committee and at this point I guess the entire world. Fox News vs. the world.
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rimrocker · Oct 12, 2007

This article says it better then my previous post... is it really that hard to understand that climate changes could easily cause armed conflicts?

Award Underlines Danger of Climate Change
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

The Nobel Peace Prize committee made a powerful statement today that the consequences of increasing carbon emissions could be as dangerous as the ravages of war.

The award to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reflects a growing conviction on the part of scientists, politicians and economists that emissions and the global warming they produce will lead not only to more pollution but could also create economic mayhem, social upheaval and conflicts between nations or groups trying to survive in an increasingly hostile natural environment.

“This prize is an indication of the degree to which we’ve realized in the past few years that what happens in the environment is not just about natural resources but has so many different dimensions,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, which helped found the intergovernmental panel.

“It recognizes that changes in the environment are likely to manifest themselves in tensions and conflicts.”

Indeed, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which has for years maintained a “Doomsday Clock” to monitor the risk of global disaster from nuclear weapons, this year increased its warning level for the first time not because of weaponry but because of the threat posed by global warming.

Some scholars believe that climate-related conflict is already upon us. “I believe there are many places that are in, or on the edge of, conflict because of climate change already, and this prize is a warning that on our current trajectory of climate change the risk will get a lot worse — these will be the conflicts of the 21st century,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York.

He said that climate change had already helped ignite conflicts and wars in a swath of the world that extends from the Sudan in Africa, through the Middle East and to Afghanistan. “All of these are in dry lands that have had significant environmental stress, which is probably related to climate change,” he said.

A recent United Nations report concluded that land degradation and desertification in the Darfur region of Sudan helped set the stage for the devastating tribal and ethnic conflicts of the last few years as poor people increasingly competed for depleted resources. “But for the environmental stress, I doubt this would have exploded,” Mr. Sachs said.

Large-scale migrations from Africa to Europe are already on the increase at least in part because climate change has made traditional livelihoods, from farming to fishing less viable, experts say.

If global warming continues on its current course, the Himalayan glaciers will melt, according to the most recent I.P.C.C. report, ultimately reducing the water supply of hundreds of millions of people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. “It does not take a lot of imagination to see that this will have drastic economic and social effects and lead to conflicts,” Mr. Steiner said.

But the potential for conflict spawned by climate change is not limited to the poor countries of the world. Already, as polar ice melts, countries are scrambling to claim newly accessible waterways and resources.

The United Nations panel and Mr. Gore have in their separate ways insisted that the world to find a global strategy for limiting climate change and adapting to climate shifts that are already inevitable. Many others have joined forcefully in the mantra that peace and prosperity depend on the success in this quest — including former President Bill Clinton, under whom Mr. Gore was vice president; Sir Nicholas Stern, who was the chief economist of the World Bank; and business leaders like Richard Branson.

In a report prepared for the British government and released last December, Sir Nicholas suggested that projected climate change could shrink the global economy by 20 percent and plunge the world into recession.

At a conference in New York earlier this month, Mr. Clinton noted that the world population was expected to rise from 6.5 billion to 9 billion in the next 43 years, a period in which further warming is projected, even if emissions were brought under control.

“Most of those people are going to be born in countries not able to support their current populations, which gives a certain quaint air to the illegal immigration debate in Congress.”

Those conditions will make 2007 “look like a Sunday afternoon picnic,” Mr. Clinton said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/world/13peaceq.html?pagewanted=print
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rhadamanthus · Oct 12, 2007

rimrocker said:

This article says it better then my previous post... is it really that hard to understand that climate changes could easily cause armed conflicts?
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If you think climate change is source of potential armed calamity, I invite you to look into the "water problem" and become considerably more alarmed.

NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

Batman Jones said:

Hate to break this to you but the next president of the United States will be a liberal Democrat. In other words, according to the recent epiphany you've experienced as a result of making a fool of yourself online and being mocked for it, he or she will be anti-American.
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hillary is not a liberal democrat if that's what you are talking about. And Pelosi isn't running for president.

I really think you are just losing your cool man. Resorting to calling people "dorks" and bring in your gang of mc mark and company to drag yet another thread into a ny.ca bashing topic.

you guys must really have no life.

Achilleus · Oct 12, 2007

rhadamanthus said:

If you think climate change is source of potential armed calamity, I invite you to look into the "water problem"
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hmmmm

Batman Jones · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

And it cost Gore the election. Had he won his homestate, he would be president today most likely.

Tennessee isn't a deep southern state, it's not alabama. Anyone who thinks it's a deep red state hasn't been there.
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When was the last time a Republican won New York, "New Yorker?"

I've been to Tennessee many times. I have friends there and my girlfriend's sister lives there. I was just there a few months ago.

NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

Winning the nobel peace prize for being a climate activist is clearly political and anti-American. This is meant to make America look bad, not something we should be proud of.

And it puts a stain on the Nobel committee. Al Gore is not trying to create peace, he's trying to lower emissions.

I guess the Nobel Prize committee decided that no one is promoting peace in the world, so might as well give it to Gore.

Deckard · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

hillary is not a liberal democrat if that's what you are talking about. And Pelosi isn't running for president.

I really think you are just losing your cool man. Resorting to calling people "dorks" and bring in your gang of mc mark and company to drag yet another thread into a ny.ca bashing topic.

you guys must really have no life.
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Would it be at all possible to not make this thread about you?

D&D. Impeach Bush for Promoting Terrorism.

Batman Jones · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

hillary is not a liberal democrat if that's what you are talking about. And Pelosi isn't running for president.

I really think you are just losing your cool man. Resorting to calling people "dorks" and bring in your gang of mc mark and company to drag yet another thread into a ny.ca bashing topic.

you guys must really have no life.
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Hillary is a liberal Democrat. She's not popular with the netroots and she's been very hawkish wrt foreign policy but a lot of liberals have, including Gore and JFK for just a couple examples.

I'm not losing my cool. I didn't bring any gang into this thread. And I only called you a dork because you are one.

Batman Jones · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

Winning the nobel peace prize for being a climate activist is clearly political and anti-American. This is meant to make America look bad, not something we should be proud of.

And it puts a stain on the Nobel committee. Al Gore is not trying to create peace, he's trying to lower emissions.

I guess the Nobel Prize committee decided that no one is promoting peace in the world, so might as well give it to Gore.
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Oh. Man. This is seriously your best post ever.

mc mark · Oct 12, 2007

NewYorker said:

Winning the nobel peace prize for being a climate activist is clearly political and anti-American. This is meant to make America look bad, not something we should be proud of.

And it puts a stain on the Nobel committee. Al Gore is not trying to create peace, he's trying to lower emissions.

I guess the Nobel Prize committee decided that no one is promoting peace in the world, so might as well give it to Gore.
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From Mr Gore

"We face a true planetary emergency," Gore said. "The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
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NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

Batman Jones said:

When was the last time a Republican won New York, "New Yorker?"

I've been to Tennessee many times. I have friends there and my girlfriend's sister lives there. I was just there a few months ago.
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Maybe you should get to know the people. You'll find you aren't in a red state, well, depends on what part of tennessee of course.

Ronnie won in 1984. Ronnie, and then Rudy....hmmmm.

NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

Deckard said:

Would it be at all possible to not make this thread about you?

D&D. Impeach Bush for Promoting Terrorism.
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sure, ask the guys to leave out their personal vendettas. I'd be so happy to see that. But I don't expect it.

NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

Batman Jones said:

Hillary is a liberal Democrat. She's not popular with the netroots and she's been very hawkish wrt foreign policy but a lot of liberals have, including Gore and JFK for just a couple examples.

I'm not losing my cool. I didn't bring any gang into this thread. And I only called you a dork because you are one.
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I consider Hillary to be a moderate - she panders a bit to the base.

Please keep your cool, I don't want to see you guys derail another thread.

NewYorker · Oct 12, 2007

rhadamanthus said:

If you think climate change is source of potential armed calamity, I invite you to look into the "water problem" and become considerably more alarmed.
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this is an excellent point of view.

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