The Climate of Peace

Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize "for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming'', a Norwegian Political leader anonced on Thursday.

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Of course, wittering on ignorantly about global warming is not quite what the Peace Prize is supposed to be about, the official citation being that it should go:

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''The person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.''

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Such as Yasser Arafat, for instance, or Kofi Annan, or Jimmy Carter or numerous other people and organizations that had achieved absolutely nothing though they did so while spouting happily the sort of nice sounding comments one expects from Nobel Peace Prize nominees. (Actually, to be fair, Arafat just whined and threatened Israel and Jews in general.)

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Beyond the scandals of commission there have been scandals of omission. Gandhi did not get the Peace Prize, though, though one can argue that his own assassination indicated a certain lack of success in what he preached, as did the communal massacres of 1947 as India and Pakistan became independent.

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Those who helped to bring down Communism, Pope John Paul II and President Reagan would not even be mentioned as potential candidates. There is the unfortunate episode of Rigoberta Menchú, who had received the Prize in 1992 and whose autobiography has turned out to be largely bogus. There were suggestions that her Prize should be revoked but nothing much came of it.

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So now, it may be Al Gore, whose achievements as a peace maker are non-existent (though there is the invention of the internet that he rather hilariously boasted about).

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During eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty. Since leaving office in 2001 he has campaigned worldwide, including with his Oscar-nominated documentary on climate change called "An Inconvenient Truth." A conservative Norwegian member of Parliament, Boerge Brende, said that a prerequisite of winning the Nobel Peace Prize is "making a difference" and Al Gore has made a difference. Al Gore has indeed made a difference, especially by all those air miles his private plane has eaten up as he criss-crossed the globe to promote his gospel.

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Anyone would think that the Kyoto Treaty has been has been a success.

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Some recomended further reading: environment; Nobel Peace Prize