Why did Gore win the Peace prize? What's global warming to do with peace?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

I am a little confused. Wouldn't the proper prize be a scientific prize? Don't get me wrong, when I heard the news this AM I literally cheered (it scared my cats).

[LisaM]

1. Well, since most wars are based on OIL

And most wars have been based on the mis-use of our natural resources over the years, and since the corporations have soared to power since the Industrial Age, I think it's well given.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. Does the comitee give an explanation for it?

I'd like to see what they say oficially.

[bananas]

34. Yes, on their website: large-scale migration, resource wars, He is probably the single individual...

From the statement on the Nobel website:

...
"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."
...
"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."
...

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/press.html

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007

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

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

38. Sweet - thanks for the link

:hi:

[flvegan]

7. Soon, wars will be over water.

Another inconvenient truth.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

13. hmmm - I hadn't thought of it that way

:thumbsup:

[sandnsea]

2. As the planet dies

there will be wars as people become displaced, farming changes, water dries up, etc. This is the most serious issue facing the planet. Would we even know if it weren't for Al Gore? Very well deserved award, imo. And I'm not even an Al Gore fan. I cried. One moment of sanity in an othewise bleak world.

[bigscott]

40. the planet wont die!!

it will get sick to the point it kills most of the life on it (including US) but the planet herself wont die

[sandnsea]

44. We can kill the planet

Radiation alone can kill the planet. Altering the climate that creates the weather patterns that allows all this growth, can kill the planet. I think deluding ourselves into believing we aren't powerful enough to kill the planet, is the exact thing that almost guarantees we will.

[renie408]

49. I think we are 'powerful' enough (stupid enough??) to kill ourselves

but I doubt we'll 'kill' the planet.

I defy even human beings to wipe out cockroaches. Seriously.

Plus, there is life at the bottom of the ocean. I think the surface of the planet might become uninhabitable and we may have a manmade mass extinction, but life will still exist somewhere and would eventually return. Think about the meteor that struck the earth and created the gargantuan crater on the east coast of Mexico. Life on this planet survived that.

[kestrel91316]

45. Who said the planet would "die"? Earth will continue, even if

we humans manage to kill off virtually all the life on it (which we are capable of doing and seem to be working overtime to accomplish).

[sandnsea]

55. Killing off all life

Is essentially killing the planet. It's incredible to me that people would be nonchalant about the concept of killing all life on a planet. We're so fucking arrogant.

[dionysus]

60. not really.

the earth will be fine, after a few hundred million years or so, all new life will evolve.

we'll be long gone of course ;)

[pitohui]

63. that is certainly not a given, it is naive to think new life will evolve, quite likely it won't

life can only exist within a very narrow range of conditions, hence we are discovering that where we once thought life would be common in the universe, it's rare

for instance, when i was a child, we expected any day to learn of life on venus, proof of life on mars, even life on some of the more interesting saturn moons

none of it came to be

life is just not as resilient as we believed, that's why earth could go a billion years in days gone by and not have much of any organisms above the single celled status until the cambrian explosion

[bdamomma]

53. it will be us to go, but the planet will still go on.

[againes654]

3. The climate changes will affect natural resources which leads to

wars over those resources. Ever heard of the oil war in Iraq?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. It's due to the potential to save lives and ease suffering by averting global warming.

[donsu]

6. if all of the world doesn't work in peace we will all die

no military will save us from climate change

World! stop driving one day a wk.

do something!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. But the peace prize usually goes to people who are working against

miltary conflict, right? I'm not too well informed in this matter - hence my question.

[JuniperLea]

27. Nope...

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/


Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature AND for peace.

[kestrel91316]

46. Uh, NO.

That's not a qualification. There are many paths to peace.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

47. Uh, OK

I didn't know - that's why I asked. What's with the snotiness?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

What do you think is going to happen when 2 billion people don't have a place to live?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. I don't know.

Why are you answering my question with a question?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Guess.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

17. What

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Guess.

Two or three billion refugees. What do you think they're going to do?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

23. I don't feel like playing guessing games

Just communicate

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

35. The reason Al Gore won the peace prize is readily apparent.

All it takes is a little critical thinking.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

37. ok - what do you think?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

39. Guess.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

41. no

[asthmaticeog]

51. If you've got a point to make, make it.

Otherwise you're just being a stupid asshole. Which shoe fits?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. I already made my point.

Post #35.

[JVS]

59. Show some respect! It's the circle of life dammit

[asthmaticeog]

62. ...

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
Therell be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

:hug:

[JVS]

58. Now you're answering interrogatives with imperatives! You're incorrigible!

[kestrel91316]

50. Why are you pretending you don't know what will happen when

hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people are refugees and/or starving?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

64. Give it a rest already

Christ

[Blue-Jay]

67. Guess.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Are you kidding?

If global warming continues there will be massive drought, water shortages, food shortages and starvation, resulting in millions of deaths and displaced refugees. And, eventually, more wars.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

10. No I'm not kidding

I was just wondering

[meegbear]

11. 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.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/

This would be under humanitarian.

[Bandit]

14. Republicans are waging a war on the environment

Gore is fighting that war toward a peaceful earth.

[MelissaB]

16. From MSNBC:

...snip

The Nobel committee often uses the coveted prize to cast the global spotlight on a relatively little-known person or cause. Since Gore already had a high profile some had doubted that the committee would bestow the prize on him.

In recent years, the committee has broadened the interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts outlined by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in creating the prize with his 1895 will. The prize now often also recognizes human rights, democracy, elimination of poverty, sharing resources and the environment.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

19. Cool - thanks!

:thumbsup:

[MelissaB]

26. Welcome!

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

52. Do you always expect others to do ALL your thinking for you?

[MelissaB]

57. wrong place! deleted

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

61. Excuse me?

What are you talking about?

[asthmaticeog]

65. Jeez, I'll never ask for information again...

...lest I be thought unoriginal. :eyes:

[Eurobabe]

29. thank you!

:applause:

[Canuckistanian]

18. You'll understand completely in about 10 years

I find this a remarkably visionary choice for the Peace Prize.

If ever humanity has been threatened before, it's nothing compared to the coming disasters of Global Warming.

Al offers us a glimpse of hope that it can be partially reversed, ultimately saving millions of lives.

In the end, it's up to future generations to take up his cause.

This is a great start.

[Mrs. Overall]

21. Please look at the list of past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize:

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/peace.html

They come from a variety of backgrounds and causes.

The 2004 winner, WANGARI MAATHAI, ran for public offices and is an environmentalist.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

24. I see. That's very informative

I appreciate it

[Cetacea]

22. Something to do with potentially saving billions of lives I suppose

Including non-human lives as well.

[JuniperLea]

25. It's not exclusively for peace related issues...

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/

[Eurobabe]

28. How's bout so everybody doesn't fight over resources?

:eyes:

[cascadiance]

30. For basically the same reasons that environmental activist Wangari Maathal won in 2004!

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/press.html

She was big in the area of Kenya, etc. keeping the tree population up in africa by founding the Green Belt Movement there, which promoted many locals there actively replanting trees, etc. to prevent the desertification of many parts of Africa.

The Nobel committees are (and HAVE BEEN) increasingly conscious that people who help protect our ecosystems and people's ability to live within them well contributes to world peace instead of a struggle to survive and thrive in a dog eat dog battle for resources that leads to wars, opression, etc. in the unsustainable rush of preying on our resources that happens today.

[progressivebydesign]

31. Predictions say that water wars will be an issue as things heat up. n/t

[Az]

32. Peace is not just about human conflict

It is about saving people from chaos and strife. And as Global Warming gets worse it is going to bring chaos and strife.

[Cerridwen]

33. Because peace is more than just lack of war

I could go on and on trying to explain it, but there is a very succinct quote from JFK's "Strategy of Peace" that I think will do a much better job than a thesis paper by Cerridwen. :D

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

The whole speech can be viewed at this link

[Katherine Brengle]

36. I would argue that most of the turbulence in the world right now

is because we are all fighting over increasingly limited natural resources.

As those resources become even more limited, peace will become impossible.

If we can come together and reverse our destruction, there is a chance.

[BootinUp]

42. Its a good question... one answer might be

that global warming will lead to greater and greater strife in certain parts of the world if it is not reversed.

[kestrel91316]

43. You must be joking. You don't get the connection???

Climate change >>>>> crop failures and flooded cities >>>> famine and social disruption on a globally unprecedented scale >>>> WAR and DEATH

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

48. Read the whole thread please

thanks

[Totally Committed]

56. Norman Borlaug (Nobel Peace Prize - 1970): The Man Who Fed the World

The Man Who Fed the World
How a poor Iowa farm boy came to be one of humanity's greatest benefactors.

BY RONALD BAILEY
Tuesday, September 5, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970? You may be forgiven for not remembering, given some of the prize's dubious recipients over the years (e.g., Yasser Arafat). Well, then: Who has saved perhaps more lives than anyone else in history? The answer to both questions is, of course, Norman Borlaug. Who? Norman Borlaug, 92, is the father of the "Green Revolution," the dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity that swept the globe in the 1960s. He is now the subject of an admiring biography by Leon Hesser, a former State Department official who first met Mr. Borlaug 40 years ago in Pakistan, where they worked together to boost that country's grain production. "The Man Who Fed the World" describes, in a workmanlike way, how a poor Iowa farm boy trained in forestry and plant pathology came to be one of humanity's greatest benefactors.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1944, Mr. Borlaug accepted an invitation from the Rockefeller Foundation to work on a project to boost wheat production in Mexico. At the time, Mexico was importing a good share of its grain. Working at plant breeding stations near Mexico City in the south and near Obregon in the northwestern part of the country, Mr. Borlaug and his staff spent nearly 20 years breeding the high-yield dwarf wheat that sparked the Green Revolution. (Using two stations allowed them to plant two crops a year instead of one, doubling the speed of research.) The key to their success was painstakingly cross-breeding thousands of wheat varieties to find those resistant to highly destructive "rust" fungi. They also changed the architecture of the wheat, from tall gangly stems to shorter sturdier ones that produced more grain.

It was an achievement that made Mexico self-sufficient in wheat by the late 1950s and, when later deployed throughout much of the developing world, forestalled the mass starvation predicted by neo-Malthusians. In the late 1960s, lest we forget, most experts were speaking of imminent global famines in which billions of people would perish. "The battle to feed all of humanity is over," biologist Paul Ehrlich famously wrote in "The Population Bomb," his 1968 best seller. "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now."

As Mr. Ehrlich was making his dark predictions, Mr. Borlaug was embarking on just such a crash program. Working with scientists and administrators in India and Pakistan, he succeeded in getting his highly productive dwarf wheat varieties to hundreds of thousands of South Asian peasant farmers. These varieties resisted a wide spectrum of plant pests and diseases and produced two to three times more grain than traditional varieties. Mr. Borlaug's achievement was not confined to the laboratory. He insisted that governments pay poor farmers world prices for their grain. At the time, many developing nations--eager to supply cheap food to their urban citizens, who might otherwise rebel--required their farmers to sell into a government concession that paid them less than half of the world market price for their agricultural products. The result, predictably, was hoarding and underproduction. Using his hard-won prestige as a kind of platform, Mr. Borlaug persuaded the governments of Pakistan and India to drop such self-defeating policies. Fair prices and high doses of fertilizer, combined with new grains, changed everything. By 1968 Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat, and by 1974 India was self-sufficient in all cereals. And the revolution didn't stop there. Researchers at a research institute in the Philippines used Mr. Borlaug's insights to develop high-yield rice and spread the Green Revolution to most of Asia. As with wheat, so with rice: Short-stalked varieties proved more productive. They devoted relatively more energy to making grain and less to making leaves and stalks. And they were sturdier, remaining harvestable when traditional varieties--with heavy grain heads and long, slender stalks--had collapsed to the ground and begun to rot.

Hence the Nobel Prize. The chairman of the Nobel committee explained why it had chosen Mr. Borlaug in this way: "More than any other single person of this age, has helped to provide bread for a hungry world. We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace."

Whether bread induces peace is a question for another day. It certainly kills hunger and saves lives. Contrary to Mr. Ehrlich's bold pronouncement, hundreds of millions of people did not die for lack of food. Far from it. Despite occasional local famines caused by armed conflicts or political mischief, food is more abundant and cheaper today than ever before in history. It is an absurd travesty that Mr. Ehrlich is still much better known than Mr. Borlaug, but perhaps Mr. Hesser's biography can begin to right the balance.

Entire Article:


http://www.manwhofedtheworld.com/wall_street_journal_article.htm


TC

[Lorien]

66. The effects of climate change will create the worst violence in human history

over resources. Water, food, energy, even land. The wars sparked over those effects will make Iraq look like a mere scuffle by comparison. The human suffering (as well as the suffering to all other life forms on earth) will be far beyond what any of us can presently imagine.