Al Gore: Nobel Swarming Toward Gore’s Global Warming?

Try to say that really fast ten times.

UPDATE: The Nobel Peace Prize Goes to………
Tonight it was announced that Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPPC, are sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee says the recipients merit this award “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change…”

My first thought presently about Mr. Gore winning this prize is that I bet he dearly wishes his dad were still alive to see this moment in his son’s life. More later.

Here is the rest of the committee’s statement:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

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.

Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent.

Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world’s leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.

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.
Oslo, 12 October 2007

Background of the Peace Prize: Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time. In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control.

Here’s the article I posted at TMV yesterday:

>>>>>Al Gore: Nobel Swarming Toward Gore’s Global Warming?
Try to say that really fast ten times.
Seriously, here’s the likely answer: From the San Fran Chronicle website:

Carla Marinucci: UPDATE – Gore cancels appearance at Boxer fundraiser

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office just contacted us to say former Vice President Al Gore has been called “overseas” for a trip related to his work on global warming and has canceled his scheduled appearance Thursday in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Boxer’s re-election effort. So the Boxer fundraiser — which was to include Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne — is off until Nov. 9.

Here’s a note Boxer sent supporters about the change:

I just got a call from Vice President Al Gore. He told me that he needs to travel abroad tomorrow for an exciting and urgent mission that could result in a major breakthrough in the fight against global warming.

Unfortunately, this means that we must postpone our Thursday, October 11th event with him until Friday, November 9th. I wanted to be sure to e-mail you tonight in case you were planning on attending…

Well, what else could possibly be so compelling across the drink that would take The Gore from The Boxer’s table?

In other Nobel news: the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Doris Lessing from Britain, “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.” One interesting item, she is 87 years old and was born in Kermanshah, Persia.

Do you remember the 2006 Nobel winner in Literature? Mr. Orhan Pamuk, from Turkey, nearly 56 years old.

And for 2005? Well his initials are HP. No, not Harry Potter. Harold PInter from Britain, 77years old.

Elfriede Jelinek from Austria, John M. Coetzee from South Africa, Imre Kertész from Hungary, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad (VS) Naipaul from the United Kingdom, and Gao Xingjian from France (he was born in China)… are the other Literature Nobel awardees for this century thus far.

In case you were hoping to be considered for the prize in Lit: here is what the Nobel decision committee had to say about other Nobel winners’ works:

Gao Xingjian: “for an Å“uvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama”

VS Naipaul: “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”

Imre Kertérz: “for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”

John M. Coetzee: “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”

Elfriede Jelinek: “for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society’s clichés and their subjugating power”

Harold Pinter: “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”

Orhan Pamuk: “who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”

I know, I know, first thought=wrong thought in this case. We will NOT win a Nobel by writing a bitter, ingenious set of books about the historicity of the outsider who is eaten by barbarians whilst eschewing prattle. No.

I know, I know, we all want to know who writes the bracing quotes about the Nobel authors; is it fiat by committee, or does one poor soul chosen by a black dot lottery have to hole up with a coffee urn and blank pages while sweating out a concise ultra-literate phrase for each writer… one that is acceptable to all the other judges.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the cross-outs: Um, “This astute, no no, cross that out, This enlivening, no no, cross that out, ah, this exceptionally smooth… what’s wrong with smooth? Smooth is too a word. Smooth is definitely a venerable old word, what do you mean too colloquial? Jingoistic, surely you jest, just exactly who do you think you are talking…

And the beat goes on.