The Green Peace Prize

The big news in the environmental and energy-related sector is that the Nobel Peace Prize was given jointly to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),"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". Previous to the announcement of the winners, there had been a lot of speculation about whether the prize would go to a climate change activist. For example, another possible contender was Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. Personally, awarding the prize to the IPCC makes a lot of sense to me. The panel has worked tirelessly to uphold an ideal of the scientific process - debating each word that goes into those reports, researching and consensus-building to come to decisions. The 4th Assessment Report came out a few weeks ago and if you are interested it is easily accessible on the web.

Awarding the prize to Al Gore seems a bit more silly to me. I did some research on his environmental background and here is what I found. During his tenure in Congress, Al Gore was an environmentalist and did cosponsor a hearing on Global Warming in the early 1980s. He also launched the GLOBE program in 1994, which was supposed to use the internet to help spread awareness of global warming. However, I could not find it at all on the internet, despite considerable searching - so I don't think it is successful any longer. He also pushed for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and symbolically signed it, although Clinton did not. Gore also began Generation Investment Management, an investment management firm which focuses on sustainability. He also helped organize and announce the Virgin Earth Challenge. The Virgin Earth challenge is a 25$ million prize for anyone who can find a way to scrub greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. The prize is funded by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic.

Obviously, Gore is most famous for touring around the country lecturing on Global Warming and for his film/book "An Inconvenient Truth." The film in particular seemed to act as a catalyst for interest and action surrounding global warming - which has had some inaguably good effects. However, Gore's focus is entirely on carbon mitigation - how to stop releasing carbon into the atmosphere. I suspect that this is because it fits well with his own political goals and political career. However, even though we may regret it, the Kyoto Protocol was rejected for semi-legitimate reasons. If only we had replaced it with something more functional. Anyways, my point is that adaptation strategies need to be included in the political discussion - and this is a part that Gore has not addressed at all. Global warming is already happening and we need to talk about how to deal with it now.