The Right Wing Noise machine and paranoids are already cranking up their rhetoric against Gore, though not in this article.
www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2007/10/12/chronicle/archive/2007/10/12/BAU0SP0L9.htmlGore, U.N. panel share Nobel Peace Prize for fighting global warmingCarla Marinucci,Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, October 12, 2007
(10-12) 12:05 PDT Palo Alto - --
Al Gore and a United Nations panel were jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize today for their work fighting global warming, which the former vice president called "a true planetary emergency."
Gore, 59, said he planned to donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit group. Gore, chairman of the alliance's board, met with the group this morning in Palo Alto.
Gore, accompanied by his wife Tipper, said the prize marks "just the beginning" of a lengthy but critical fight to counter global warming.
The former vice president said he was "deeply honored" by the award and it was "even more significant" that he was sharing it with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization which has worked for years on the issue of global warming.
"There have been so many thousands of people who have worked as long as I have, and so many activists who have been trying to sound the alarm," he said to reporters in Palo Alto.
Gore, whose effort to warn about the dangers of global warming was captured in the Academy Award winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," brushed aside questions about whether the Nobel will encourage him to run again for the White House.
Instead, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee said he is focused on the fight against climate change. He and his wife will donate $750,000 from the Nobel award to the alliance.
The amount is "very small considering the amount of work ahead," Gore said, adding that it would nevertheless help pay for an international advertising campaign to increase awareness of "the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced."
"This is a chance to elevate the public consciousness,"' he said. "The alarm bells are going off in the scientific community on the issue," he said, adding the United Nations panel has been "trying to get the attention of the world" on the matter.
"I'm doing everything I can to try and understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness," Gore said.
Although thousands of activists have implored Gore to use the platform of the Nobel to run for the presidency again, he declined to say anything on the matter.
Cathy Zoi, CEO of the alliance, said Gore may be leaning toward a continued role as perhaps the world's most pre-eminent statesman on the issue of climate change.
"I want him to be where he is most effective and I think he has made a decision that the most effective contribution he can make to solving the climate crisis is to be chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection," she said. "And we are, of course, thrilled about it."
Kalee Kreider, Gore's spokeswoman, said the former vice president learned about the award by watching CNN with his wife in their San Francisco apartment. Since the announcement, he has received phone calls from all over the world, including from several Democratic presidential candidates, although Kreider would not specify which ones.
Gore is scheduled to hold a planning session today with the climate group in Palo Alto before meeting with his staff at Current TV, his media enterprise in San Francisco. He plans to return to his home in Nashville this weekend, Kreider said.
Kreider said today that while Gore recognizes the efforts of "draft Gore" groups that took out a full-page ad in the New York Times this week imploring him to run for president, he doesn't intend to do so.
"Vice President Gore truly appreciates the sentiment of those who contributed to the ad; however, he has no plans to run in 2008," Kreider wrote in an e-mail today to The Chronicle. "He is involved in a campaign - if you want to call it that - of a different kind. He's working to educate Americans and people around the world about the climate crisis and what we can do to solve it."
Still, the Nobel award is sure to fire up members of at least 19 different "Draft Gore" groups. Christopher Vallone, the Northern California coordinator for California Draft Gore, said he expects an influx of volunteers with today's news.
Even in anticipation of the award, "our organization has grown rapidly over the last month and a half," he said. "We have approximately 1,200 volunteers statewide who are working to collect 500 signatures in each of the 53 congressional districts, which will allow us to place Al Gore on the California primary ballot."
Democrats said the news served as validation of Gore's longtime efforts on the environmental front.
"The former vice president has proven he's a tremendous leader on the environment," said Doug Boxer, a Democratic operative and son of Sen. Barbara Boxer. "Whichever path he chooses, he will continue to be effective."
In its citation, the Nobel committee said Gore's "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."
Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the Bush administration for criticism. The administration has shunned mandatory caps of emissions of gases that most scientists believe is causing global warming.
"A peace prize is never a criticism of anything," Mjoes said. "A peace prize is a positive message and support to all those champions of peace in the world."
At the White House, President Bush - who lost the popular vote to Gore in the 2000 presidential election but won the electoral college - issued no immediate statement. A spokesman, Tony Fratto, said of Bush, "Of course he's happy for Vice President Gore. ... He's happy for the International Panel on Climate Change scientists who also shared the peace prize. Obviously it's an important recognition. And we're sure the vice president's thrilled."
Fratto said Bush has no plans to call Gore.
The Nobel Prizes each bestow a gold medal, a diploma and a $1.5 million cash prize on the winner.
San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman, whose foundation's Goldman Environment Prize is the world's largest award honoring grassroots environmentalists, said that "in my opinion, this is the most prestigious of the Nobel prizes."
"It is appropriate that Al Gore is receiving this, considering his remarkable work in raising awareness about climate change and helping to save the earth for the people who occupy it," Goldman said. "I think it is even more important to do that than to be president of the United States."
Democratic leaders and presidential candidates also weighed in today on Gore's honor.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said in a statement that "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."
"His voice and his vision have awakened the conscience of America to the urgency of this threat, and now we must take bold action so that our children inherit a planet that is cleaner, safer, and more peaceful for generations to come," Obama said.
Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean said in a statement, "No other person has worked harder or done more to draw much needed attention to the crisis of global climate change, one of the most critical issues facing our planet. Future generations will thank him for his work to save our way of life. But the fight is far from over. His example should motivate each one of us to commit ourselves to doing everything we can in our own lives to save our precious planet."
Environmental activists lauded Gore and said they hoped the prize would prod the United States into taking a greater leadership role in solving the climate crisis.
"By awarding this prestigious prize to the former vice president of the United States and the IPCC, the Nobel Committee joins the growing chorus around the world calling on the United States government to participate in the global effort to solve the climate crisis," said Chris Miller, global warming director for Greenpeace USA. "Al Gore has given voice to the overwhelming majority of Americans whose concerns have been ignored - he is a true American hero."
Laurie David, the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," said the award was "a validation to everyone who is already doing something to stop global warming and a loud wake-up call to everyone who isn't. Al Gore has been working on this issue for over three decades, and no one deserves this honor more."
