Al Gore Accepts Nobel Peace Prize Today in Norway

(OSLO, Norway) - Nobel Prize winner Al Gore made his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway today, underscoring the message that the earth is at risk, and people need to become active and do what is necessary to reverse negative trends, like global warming.

Gore said he had a purpose that he has tried to serve for many years, and he added that he has prayed that God would show him a way to accomplish it.

"Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life’s work, unfairly labeling him “The Merchant of Death” because of his invention — dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace."

And so Gore explained that seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name.

Gore says that years ago tomorrow, he read his own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken — if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought the former Vice President a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve his purpose.

"Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, 'We must act.'"

Gore says the human species is confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential. But he says there is hopeful news as well: he says we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst — though not all — of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

He says that despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So Gore says today, "We dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun."

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.

The Nobel Prize winner says that in the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter.

"Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water due to massive droughts and melting glaciers. Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods. Peoples in the frozen Arctic and on low-lying Pacific islands are planning evacuations of places they have long called home. Unprecedented wildfires have forced a half million people from their homes in one country and caused a national emergency that almost brought down the government in another."

He says the list goes on and on, and that the very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed.

"We never intended to cause all this destruction, just as Alfred Nobel never intended that dynamite be used for waging war. He had hoped his invention would promote human progress. We shared that same worthy goal when we began burning massive quantities of coal, then oil and methane."

In the years since this prize was first awarded, the entire relationship between humankind and the earth has been radically transformed. And still Gore points out, we have remained largely oblivious to the impact of our cumulative actions.

"Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now, we and the earth’s climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: Mutually assured destruction."

Gore concluded his speech today by saying, "The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: 'What were you thinking; why didn’t you act?'"

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Godsofchaos December 30, 2007 11:49 am (Pacific time)

Did you know Hitlar won the Nobel Peace prize? To me the accuracy of who desrsves the Nobel Peace prize has already been tarnshied.

Taxman Cometh December 14, 2007 1:32 pm (Pacific time)

As I predicted the Global Socialist party at work, see below: Global Carbon Tax Urged at UN Climate Conference BALI, Indonesia – A global tax on carbon dioxide emissions was urged to help save the Earth from catastrophic man-made global warming at the United Nations climate conference. A panel of UN participants on Thursday urged the adoption of a tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.” “Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, told Inhofe EPW Press Blog following the panel discussion titled “A Global CO2 Tax.” Schwank is a consultant with the Switzerland based Mauch Consulting firm Schwank said at least “$10-$40 billion dollars per year” could be generated by the tax, and wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.” The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”

Global Coolio December 14, 2007 8:46 am (Pacific time)

BOSTON (Reuters) - New England dug out on Friday from a record-setting storm that dumped 10 inches of snow on Boston, more than the city typically sees in the entire month of December.

Jefferson December 13, 2007 11:04 am (Pacific time)

People (regarding global warming's top spokesman) how much do you [think] you really know about Algore? His father ,Al Sr., was a senator who in the mid-1960's voted against all civil right's legislation (all of it!). Also while a senator he managed to use his political influence to bring Al back from Vietnam (he was safer there than in his current home where he uses ten times the amount of energy than the average household- a matter of Tennesse public record!) before he served even just 1/2 of a normal tour. Al then proceeded to have some bigtime academic failures, first flunking out of seminary training (imagine another "Rev Al" Note:Al Sharpton bypassed seminary training, he was ordained at the age of 10, another con job!) then flunked out of law school. Al decided to do some newspapering, but a good con man that he was, politics was his calling. Now this morbidly obese individual (who hinted that it was he who invented the internet) is taking that fantastic intellect [yeah] of his and telling you things about the planet's environment that only he (and his fellow shills) know about, heck with the "peer review" articles calling him what he is...a con!. He tells you all the information is in, the debate is over, and those who challenge him (or his fellow shills) should be scorned and ignored. As I said previously, maybe Henry remembers, the way the left gets and increases their power is to create fear or develop an environment of fear, while demonizing those that provide different viewpoints/facts. It is facts and their exposure that is absolute anathema to these far left individuals, think of them as similar to those midway barkers you see at carnivals and circuses...they have been around since Western Civilization began, and most likely before. It is a genetic condition, they will always be with us, ergo, keep vigilant, and you will see how easy they are to pick out. From my personal perspective, I enjoy debating, but the far left does not, suffice that is why they demonize people like those of us who like to look at all sides of a topic.

Jefferson December 12, 2007 6:26 pm (Pacific time)

So Henry are you doubting that the Pope (see 12/12 post at 1:40 p.m.) has a right to put forth his opinion? I'll throw in with him and the "empirical scientist's" out there who know that this Algore agenda is nothing more than a scam, but if you want to knock the Pope, knock yourself out. I'm sure he will say a prayer for all those misguided people out there, including you Henry. Oh by the way Henry, did you ever read how the Romans around 2000 years ago talked about the great wine made from those lush grape fields in what is now England? Then it got too cold for good grape production until around the 14th century and once again great wine. Not much grape growing (commercially) going on there now, maybe soon, you think? People did you know that in the Netherlands they are now charging a fee/tax if you fire up the ol'barbecue because it's heating up the planet? More and more creative little taxes/fees will the far left moonbats create if allowed to continue with this scam, i.e. , man has a negligible impact on climate.

Jefferson December 12, 2007 2:33 pm (Pacific time)

People remember your science courses as a child? Fill a glass with ice so it is over the rim, them put in some water and make a hash mark at the water level. When the ice melts is the water level still at the hash mark? Yes! Note the ice pack in Anartica is at record levels, and Greenland, as well as glaciers historically, ebb and flow. Relax people, it is a scam to get more taxes/fees from you. But yes we need to improve are energy resources and eliminate pollution whenever we can, but man's impact on any type of global warming is simply not relevant. See below article: Arctic Sea Ice Re-Freezing at Record Pace The Daily Green ^ | December 12, 2007 | Dan Shapely The record melting of Arctic sea ice observed this summer and fall led to record-low levels of ice in both September and October, but a record-setting pace of re-freezing in November, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. Some 58,000 square miles of ice formed per day for 10 days in late October and early November, a new record.

Henry Ruark December 12, 2007 6:27 am (Pacific time)

To all: Generalized denial of realities seen and documented by millions is phenomenon always associated with neocon nonsense. Our ineffable idiot throws his little-bit in face of literally millions of pages of public record and regulated science over past 100 years... with nothing to prove points except his highly tainted and totally stupid and selfish belly-button feelings for your validation. Surely by now, in this self-probing channel, his own peculiar phenomena revealing psychotic status via constant Comment, we are learning his real credibilities --sadly-missing-- from the best possible source: his own writings. Every writer faces precisely that same test here,too -- inevitable and essential in a real open, democratic channel.

Jefferson December 12, 2007 1:40 pm (Pacific time)

It appears that the Pope has a pretty good assessment on people like Algore, and even the "gnats" that carry his non-potable water: "Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering. The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement."

Henry Ruark December 12, 2007 9:14 am (Pacific time)

To all: Honest "see with own eyes" hard to beat; here's lead and source for Gore's Nobel response: SPEECH BY AL GORE ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE DECEMBER 10, 2007 OSLO, NORWAY Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen. I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it. Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life's work, unfairly labeling him "The Merchant of Death" because of his invention -- dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace. Seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name. Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken -- if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose. Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, "We must act." The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures -- a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: "Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency -- a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst -- though not all -- of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly." ------------- SO let nonentity pick up each specific point if still able to deny and prove it by authoritative statement, other than belly-button stroking.

Henry Ruark December 12, 2007 7:17 am (Pacific time)

To all: "Plundered planet" now precisely describes what has been allowed to happen to our once-bounteous world, now in extreme distress due to direct corporate profit-seeking attack. For worldwide action now underway to redesign corporate format for full stakeholder recognition and reward, see upcoming Op Ed. Principles involved direct result of authoritative effort by bona fide representatives of all groups involved, acting in good faith at worldwide communion in famed Faneuil Hall, Boston, birth-site of the American Revolution.

Henry Ruark December 12, 2007 6:35 am (Pacific time)

To all: Nonentity claims "Economics is simple...". SO let him explain here his insistence economy doing well worldwide, with this essential action: "WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it is coordinating with other central banks to deal with a global credit crunch.: If all is so well, as he says, why has federal agency desperately, despairingly continued to cut interest rate, hoping another Hoover-time can still be averted, somehow ?? He can tell us, I'm sure, if not devoting time to guiding world leaders in his own guise and with his own mental image.

Neal Feldman December 11, 2007 11:50 pm (Pacific time)

Jefferson - re: global warming the only scammers are those like you. It is patently obvious that what humans are doing is affecting the environment and the sooner we do something about it the less we will have to do. Your idea is wait until it is too late to do anything then bend over and kiss humanity on this planet goodbye. Sorry but I will take the more intelligent, logical, reasonable and rational course over yours. Ah well...

Jefferson December 11, 2007 1:59 pm (Pacific time)

In less than 3 years this scam that man is causing global warming will be well documented. This is a classic example regarding demonizing behavior from the "extreme" far left, don't let those with the facts have an opprotunity to present them to the general public...call them "deniers" or whatever. More and more scientists are seeing exactly what a scam this is. Ignorance is not bliss people, it's deadly!

Henry Ruark December 11, 2007 6:08 am (Pacific time)

JB et al: But his is pure oxygen for any thinking person, while that other is noxious neocon nonsense. Easy to defy, deny Nobel, but I note you do not have one nor does any other neocon. Nor do you have exemplary human-serving record from which to speak...which reduces your input to as-described.

JB December 10, 2007 5:43 pm (Pacific time)

Gore makes more gas then half of Salem put together

Henry Ruark December 10, 2007 3:13 pm (Pacific time)

To all: What Gore declares now known to be among realities denied by neocons.

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