Planet Wins Nobel Prize

Those of you who are cherry picking facts are sure acting holier than thou.
1) Gore was working on remodeling his home for quite some time before the Nobel was awarded - not just after winning. Local statutes had to be changed before he could have the work done, and as soon as allowed, the work was done (before the award was announced).
2) He flies commercially whenever possible and uses public ground transportation when he can. He took a high-speed train when he went to receive the Nobel, and took a shuttle service from the airport in Bali (yes, after a commercial flight). I never said he wasn't ever in a limo - get real! But there are times when public transportation is not practical and places where it's not available.

Never at any point did I imply that everyone's home should not be respectable, however it is not unreasonable to expect his home to be nicer than mine. I was not the Vice President, and neither were you. Should he give it ALL away to charity (rather than just large amounts of it) and live the life of a pauper - would that satisfy you? If so, then you should be willing to do nothing short of the same thing. Are you?

He never suggested that we all abandon our cars, live in caves, eat tree bark, and beat our clothes against rocks. He's saying there is a way to provide energy in a more sustainable way - however, for most people on the planet, those ways remain impractical due to the blockade efforts by the greedy oil and coal industries. They have kept us relying on their products, while spewing false information, in order to quash the competition. Why don't you examine the way the CEOs of Exxon (et al) are living while you're at it?! You're looking only for things that you can rag on Gore about, but you don't want to check out the execs of Haliburton or Blackwater.
Gore's efforts ARE for the greater good of the planet. He is educating the world!
Who benefits from Cheney's efforts? Cheney!
The double standard is crystal clear.

Look at the bigger picture before you continue your biased diatribe.

Al Gore's call to drastically reduce Global GHG is undeniably good idea. However, he and other politically correct wealthy enviros seems to personally do so by purchasing carbon offset credits. While this may seem fine and well, at some point somebody has to actually take personal responsibility.

It is a lot more pleasant to sit in a fancy conference room discussing the problem than being out on the street actually dealing with the problem. This may be because today one is more likely to receive the one finger sign than a peace award while actually negotiating traffic including well intentioned people perhaps headed to green award ceremonies.

So, what can EVERYBODY do?

I urge any person who thinks of themselves as green, or environmentally sensitive, or whatever to start by personally taking at least one day a week off from driving. Bike, walk, or ride the bus or train at least one day every week. Put yourself where it really counts. Tell your friends to do this too. If everybody in the USA took just one day a week of from dependence on the personal internal combustion engine, we could be way ahead pretty quickly. You may even enjoy it..............

Happy biking and Walking...

Lead the way Al! Set an example for us all to follow. You haven't done that yet, will you REALLY do that in the future?

Dear tkdveg,

Next time you watch An Inconvenient Truth (as I am sure you have bought the DVD and proudly display it in your home and also know the words by heart) please look at the cars Al either drives himself or is being chauffeured in. You are unfortunately blinded by the glam and smart graphics (he doesn't use Billyware) in the movie/doccie. He drives a big American SUV to go to his farm, no Prius or hybrid Lexus if he really needs the ground clearance. He is also constantly shown being driven around in the back of big cars. No hydrogen-BMW or Prius.

With regards to Al being unselfish. Did you attend one of his shows? How much did you pay? Do you have any idea how much money he makes with this? This is a business venture for him. He has completely bought into the idea of the green industry.

And then of course there is the typical US version of environmentally friendly. Buy carbon credits so you can continue polluting merrily. Let some else do the work. So he is installing colar panels (endorsed maybe?). Nice! How about reducing his electricity usage? Any good environmental engineer will be able to show that if you go upstream and clean up the process it's better for the environment.

I am sorry, but charity starts at home. One needs to do what one says. Don't preach without practising. How about preaching to your son that speeding in a hybrid vehicle is still bad for the environment because you use more fuel and electricity? But Al knows he will get away with it because of all the die-hard bunny-huggers coming to the great green god Al's defence and hanging on his every word without looking critically at what he does.

So he achieved a lot in his life and is entitled to luxury. Sure thing, but he preaches the green gospel where we all need to make sacrifices on behalf of mother earth. I don't see very many of them from his side.

I don't disagree with what he said. We all need to make a difference, both individually and as business. What I do have a problem with is his credibility. It's like Britney or Paris or Al's former boss for that matter trying to lecture on chastity.

An Inconvenient Truth would have packed a much bigger punch if it was just Al on stage without all the sentimental fluff added to pull the heartstrings and forcing one to go all emotional. Pollution prevention requires actual neurons firing, not heartstrings fluttering.

It is terribly disappointing to see posted here comments by otherwise intelligent people who have been mislead about Al Gore. Comments referring to his house using 20x the energy of others and his use of private jets and huge limos are simply incorrect. These are false stories that have been around for many years now, and are dragged back out, at times such as this, when he is back in the spotlight and people have nothing else to hang on him.

First, his historical home in TN is having solar panels installed, now that he has finally been able to have the local restrictions updated to allow them. This house also serves as an office, for Al, Tipper, and his staff. He also purchases carbon credits as needed to offset his energy use, thus becoming carbon-neutral. This is the best option at this point in time.

Second, Mr. Gore takes his shoes off just like everyone else, as he flies on commercial flights whenever possible. He does not have a private jet, but has to occasionally use one when the destination or schedule required it. He drives a hybrid car, and is not chauffeured around all day long in a giant limo.

This man was the Vice President of the United States, for crying out loud; he's entitled to have a respectable home and office, appropriately staffed, and to travel as necessary by the nature of his work in educating the world on these critical global issues without such jaded critique.

It is sad that so many people feel it necessary to relentlessly bash this unselfishly dedicated and honorable man. Al Gore has spent more than 30 years working on the behalf of Americans and humans throughout the world, and he is certainly deserving of the greatest respect.

I am glad for Al that he won the Peace Prize on behalf of the planet. However, in his groundbreaking documentary he is seen being chauffeured in huge gas-guzzling limos and also driving around in a huge SUV. According to various articles that I have read his energy consumption at home is 20 times the state average (also echoed by rfpinor above). He probably also flew in his private jet to collect the prize.

Ctutt had it spot on by saying that Al needs to walk the talk before he has any eco-cred.

There are many people urging Al to stand for US President, but he won't. He is busy making far more money from presenting his Inconvenient Truth than George Dub-ya is making as prez.

Make no mistake, the essence of his message is clear and undeniable: we all need to do our bit, because every bit helps. But change also starts at home. Therefore, well done Al, but clean up your own act as well.

Coert Welman
Environmental Engineer
South Africa

Upon conceding the Nobel peace Prize. A few uncomfortable truths about Al Gore. Nazanin Amirian for Kaos in "la Red" U.S. ex Vice-president Al Gore has been named one of the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007, "for his efforts to build and disseminate greater knowledge about climate change". Two errors were made by the committee to reach that decision: that of not finding in their list of candidates any real defender of peace, and that of being ignorant of the curriculum of the ex vice-president. For Al Gore is not a man of peace, nor does he aspire to save the earth with his ecological vision. As to pacifist, we have only to recall that it was the Clinton-Gore administration that bombed Yugoslavia, Albania, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Zaire, and Liberia, using all types of destructive munitions including projectiles containing depleted uranium, causing the death of tens of thousands of civilians and collaterally causing irreparable environmental damage whose effects upon the land, air and water will last hundreds of years. The honorable Committee ought to know, on the other hand, that this hero of the ecology, while he was vice-president 1993 - 2000) of the most polluting country in the world, at the time he had put himself in charge of all environmental matters for his country, both domestic and international, refused to sign the Kyoto Accord, the international agreement to reduce the greenhouse emissions that cause warming of the planet. In his documentary he hides the truth when he affirms, "We are all responsible." He does not say that in reality 20 per cent of humanity, principally the multinationals, commit 80 per cent of the aggressions against the environment, or that the energy consumption of an average citizen of the First World is 70 times greater than that of a citizen in the developing countries. Al Gore's own house consumes 20 times more energy than the house of an average U.S. family! Another pearl in the ex vice-president’s crown is his defense of biofuels, or energy cropping as a measure to reduce the pollution of the atmosphere. Thus corn and soy are substituted for the growing of potatoes and rice, the staple food of hundreds of millions of poor people of the planet, and as a result food security is ended. The current campaign for monoculture production of raw materials for biofuel is already causing the desertification of large areas, destroying forests, pastures and taking land from traditional crops in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia), as well as Asia and Africa to feed the "eco-cars". A deforestation that will increase the greenhouse gas emissions because of soil drainage and intensive agriculture, and hence will precisely speed up global warming. Behind all this the interests of multinational agrobusinesses involved in biofuels are hiding.

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Let's give a big cheer to the thousands of scientists on the IPCC who shared the Peace Prize with Gore. Even now the climate changes are occurring too fast for any scientific panel to effectively keep up with them, but that it is not a reason for the deniers to disparage their priceless work.

I am thrilled that Al Gore has awakened to the inconvenient truths that set men free! Mother Earth must be celebrating with this great man, who is willing to stand by her side, when so many are only concerned with the abuse of nature's resources. May this Nobel Prize be only the beginning of the awards and recognitions to be poured upon Mr. Gore's awakened mind. He may have lost an election, but he has certainly won an important war!!

BIG UPS, Mr. Gore. Let's see more and more and more.

It is good the the climate disruption issue won the nobel prize.
It may be too late given how societies are not really taking serious actions. Bush and the Congress being some of the worst.
But Gore, who should be president, has done his best to raise the issue.
Right on.

Doug La Follette
Wisconsin Secretary of State
Box 7848, Madison, WI. 53707
608-266-8888 fax 608-266-3159

"Technology is of no use to us if it is used without respect for the earth and its processes"
- Aldo Leopold

It is a great news, it is becoming mainstream, so there is hope to save the planet! Thank you Al for making IPCC work heard by the general public.

I was deeply saddened when I heard that Al Gore received the Nobel Peace prize, not because I don't believe that it shouldn't go to people that are doing good work for our planet but because people like David Suzuki, that have been doing incredible work for many years, don't get acknowledged for their work. Maybe Dr. David Suzuki needs to have a rock concert to get a Nobel Peace prize...but I truly hope he never stoops to that level.

I think he needs to walk the walk before he talks the talk. He has zero credibility with me. He's all blow and no go!

Congratulations for the long neglected planet. The scientific proof can no longer ignored and now we need the will of the government and the people to make change.

A concern of mine is the coal industry and it is imperative that there be a moritorium on coal.

There is an effort on the website www.archtecture2030.org concerning climate change and sea level rise and the consequences to the United States. There is an assumption that it will only happen to people in poor countries, but we are seeing it with the continued drought in the Southeast and Southwest.

"Great news for the planet" is what I wrote the other day on my blog on climate change for the Foreign Policy Association. I also said: "You might think that the Peace Prize and saving ourselves from catastrophic climate change are not a natural fit. Well they are. In fact, Making Peace with the Planet, as the great Barry Commoner titled one of his books, may be the ultimate expression of creating and building peace."

I am deeply grateful to the Nobel Committee for its recognition and to Mr. Gore & the IPCC for their work. It's inspiring to see world leaders taking advantage of their access to a global audience to educate and motivate action on THE issue of our day. Each important environmental issue, from wetlands destruction and river pollution to rain forests and endangered species is intimately linked to climate change; and, EVERY element of life is touched by this issue, including health, education, and economic security. Mr. Gore, the IPCC, and the Nobel Committee have opened the door to a more holistic, integrated approach to environmental work.

In addition to detailing climate dynamics and the increasing impact of industrialized societies on the atmosphere, the IPCC and Gore link resource issues to human communities. The words and work of Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya come to mind. Ms. Waangarai has said, "[t]he environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that. I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance." Like Maathia, the current Laureates combine science with social engagement and politics; their work points up the need for compassionate, informed governance - something we (in America, especially) desperately need.

As our institutions change, academic professionals in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities have a role to play; and, institutions and individuals outside the academy have a role that is arguably more important - to become creatively involved in a global transformation.

As a result of the attention the Gore/IPCC award has earned, new opportunities arise for an entrepreneurial spirit to inform the transformation of all of our communities. The work of Paul Hawkin and Amory and L. Hunter Lovins (Natural Capitalism) and other visionary thinkers like William McDonough, join Gore and the IPCC in offering ways we can all work to move beyond the modes of industrial society. I have new hope and an invigorated optimism because of the inspiring work of the new Nobel Laureates.

A thousand blessings on them.

On the same day that I heard about the Nobel Peace Prize, I also listened to another disconnected piece of news coming over a US radio station that broadcasts here in Finland at certain times of day. This was bemoaning the length of time that Americans waste commuting to work. According to this news piece, each American spends on average of 9 full days a year behind the wheel of their car simply travelling to work.

This clearly is a waste of time; but what struck me was the deduction that was being made. The newsreader explained that the problem was that the highway building programme had failed to keep pace with the speed of the expansion of urban sprawl. The implication was more roads with greater capacity. This would be one way to reduce commuting times. But, had no one in America paused to think a little deeper about a reaction to Al Gore’s call for action?

Will it be possible to persuade Americans that urban sprawl itself might be the problem? Commuting times can be reduced by building and living in more compact communities – communities in which we reclaim the space currently dedicated to cars. This is one way to make real progress towards reducing our negative affect on the Earth’s climate.

Peter McManners
petermcmanners.com

This Nobel is an overdue public acknowledgement of the great need for all governments, all countries, and all the peoples of the world to cease selfish pettiness, and to instead admit that our selfish actions do have global consequences.
We can no longer use fences and borders to pretend we are separate. We are at the tipping point, and those of us who see this bear the weight of ensuring that this momentum continues. Those who see are obligated to lead the way. No more time can be wasted - we must all now take bold action toward change throughout the world,... otherwise there will never be peace in our world, or in that of our children.

Karen Coghlan - The more popular the idea that world harmony requires us to develop an intelligent, balanced lifestyle and eliminate our reliance on dwindling fossil fuels the more likely that lots of people will want to make changes and expect more from their leaders concerning sustainable consumption. The Nobel prize has a powerful cachet and will convince many who were previously a little dubious. Bravo to the Committee!

Douglas T. Hawes - This sure added another nail to George Bush's coffin and that of the Republican Party. They don't look good being on the wrong side of the Nobel Comm.