What does Al Gore have to do with planetary peace?

I need to applaud Georgie Anne Geyer for her wonderful piece on the link between Al Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Some key quotes:

But the funny thing is that the critics of the Gore award have it all wrong. In fact, the deeper one digs into the historic reasons for chaos and collapse of societies across the globe, the more one finds that the real reasons behind many of the endless wars were precisely environmental degradation and collapse. Ironically, the turmoil in Iraq has its roots in the environmental problems of ancient times.

...supposedly ingrained "ethnic" wars like those of Rwanda and Bosnia came about not from old hatreds so much as rivalry over the environment that alone can sustain those human populations.

Another Time article loving Al

Read Time's latest on how climate change will really be enacted in the world.

Part 2, of course, would be Time's speculation on whether or not Gore will turn the Nobel (part 3 of his award trifecta) into a presidential bid.

Of course, I think the announcement is right around the corner...

Gore's press conference post-Nobel win

Congratulations, again, Al! And thank you for doing good things with the prize money.

'I am deeply honored...'

Here's Al Gore's email to the people registered on AlGore.com. I got it at 11:10 a.m. I hope he's just celebrating today and accepting congratulatory phone calls from people around the world.

I'm very proud of him. Enjoy it, Al!

Here's his note, which is also his latest journal entry:

Dear Dana,

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.

Thank you,

Al Gore

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize

CONGRATULATIONS to Al Gore!!!

Some are calling it a hat trick (Oscar, Emmy, Nobel). I'm just calling it "things are turning up Al." What an amazing day to be a Al Gore fan!

Read the WSJ article or delve into MSNBC's coverage of the event.

Congratulations cannot be given to Al without also congratulating the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Thank you, leaders, for instituting the changes you have so far. I hope you continue to tighten the restrictions on industry that will lead to a real change in our climate crisis.

Everyone's abuzz about what this means for Al's plans to run for president in 2008. I say let's let him enjoy this huge honor for a few days. We can always bug him about the race next week!

What if Al wins the Nobel Peace Prize

SmirkingChimp.com (great name!) has posted a speculation on how the global conversation on Al Gore would change if he won the Nobel Peace prize in a few weeks... We're waiting with bated breath.