Congratulations Al Gore

Update: Jim DeRosa alerted me to this piece of agenda reporting at ABC news. I find it very hard to believe that one of the major American networks would focus their reporting on the ruling of some obviously biased British judge instead of the honor of winning the Nobel Prize. What a bunch of crap. Goddess I hate what our press has become. 10/12/07 1332

Original Post
I am late getting to this for numerous reasons which I will get to later but The Nobel Prize Committee announced early Friday morning that it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change.

Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won “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,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

They were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.

“Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control,” the citation said of rising temperatures that could bring more droughts, floods, rising seas.

“He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” the committee said of Gore.

“The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” it said.

This is a much deserved recognition as Al Gore has dedicated much of his life to informing the world that the planet faces a serious threat from global warming and it is not an exaggeration to say we face a mega-disaster if something doesn't begin to change with respect to our stewardship of our only home.

Gore released the following statement :

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–the world’s pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis–a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

CNN’s running poll on whether Gore deserves the Peace Prize was running about 58 percent in favor. You might want to visit.

We in America can be extremely proud today that one of its most distinguished and respected statesmen, and a Progressive Democratic, won the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to add my Congratulations to Al Gore to the scores of others from around the Internet and the world. I am interested to see the response from the wingnut world and global warming deniers. It will be fascinating to see what tactics and arguments they will take to diminish this signal honor.