Nobel Peace Prize 2003-2023

[Lady Jennifer]

Before anything gets started this is just a friendly reminder not to get political in this thread.

Thanks

Member's Corner Moderators

 

[Empress]

Given that the man "works" for the environment, I can't figure out why he is winning the nobel PEACE prize. This is just not right.

 

[susan alicia]

Because, as the bbc quotes:


"The Norwegian Nobel committee said it wanted to bring the "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate change into sharper focus."

Given that the man "works" for the environment, I can't figure out why he is winning the nobel PEACE prize. This is just not right.

 

[Empress]

Yes, well, the Nobel peace prize should go to someone who promotes peace. That is not Al Gores focus. If they want to focus on the environment, then maybe they should add a prize to the list.

 

[norwegianne]

Because, as the bbc quotes:


"The Norwegian Nobel committee said it wanted to bring the "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate change into sharper focus."

It has also been pointed out in a comment by former UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, before the prize was revealed, that climate changes is already leading to war in certain areas of the world.

I think it is good that the award is getting some debate - it wouldn't be very interesting to have an award nobody cared about - and yes, the environment is important.

But it is a bit like awarding the prize to Mother Teresa in '79 for the work with poverty, or Grameen Bank last year for microcredit - with war still going on in several places around the world, there should also be some who work for peace in more direct ways and who deserve the acknowledgement, somewhere.

 

[susan alicia]

Peace 2007

do not know, I think mother Teresa, like the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi are the only winners that ooze peacefulness in everything they have done, the rest of the winners (I do not recognize them all) have more or less something debatable.

 

[jcbcode99]

I completely disagree with Al Gore's win of the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it is ridiculous to put environmental awareness on the same level as Peace. Ed Begley, Jr. and Leo DiCaprio have been huge advocates for the environment, but I don't see them getting any recognition--and they LIVE the lifestyle they promote. Gore does not. Frankly, I can't stand him to begin with.

 

[Tosca]

Perhaps I've missed something, but what has Al Gore to do with peace?
Why not give the Prize to the Burmese monks?

 

[susan alicia]

what a fabulous idea!! that would have been fantastic

(I feel so sorry for what happened to them, while they themselves would not hurt a soul)

Perhaps I've missed something, but what has Al Gore to do with peace?
Why not give the Prize to the Burmese monks?

 

[norwegianne]

Why not give the Prize to the Burmese monks?

The deadline for the submission of the nominated candidates is February. The protests of the monks in Burma happened in August.

February – Deadline for submission. The Committee bases its assessment on nominations that must be postmarked no later than 1 February each year. Nominations received after this date are included in the following year's discussions. In recent years, the Committee has received well over 140 different nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The numbers of nominating letters are much higher, as many are for the same candidates. http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/process.html

We won't know who else was nominated for this year until 2057.

 

[GlitteringTiaras]

The Nobel Peace Prize 2007 goes to AL GORE from the United States.

I heard about this on another forum I belong to... I'll keep my comments about this over there.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the ceremony...

 

[milla Ca]

Congratulations to Al Gore! A good choice of the Nobel Committee!
(Only Prince Charles could be a better one, this year!)

 

[Skydragon]

"The Norwegian Nobel committee said it wanted to bring the "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate change into sharper focus."

Congratulations to Al Gore
A much deserved award for the work he has done and is doing. He is even giving his prize money to environmental charities!
​

 

[bethn]

what a joke.

If any one thinks this award was given for any reason other than to poke the U.S. President in the eye, then think again. Gore's film has had a majority of scientists reveal that it is full of untruths. Even a judge in Britain found it was riddled with 9 inaccuries(if you present something known to be false as the truth doesn't that make you a liar). Numerous scientists have challenged Gore to a debate, but he refuses.This, along with Yasser Arafat winning just destroyed any respect I had for a Nobel Award. The majority of the people in the U.S. are laughing at you Norway and Sweden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[norwegianne]

The majority of the people in the U.S. are laughing at you Norway and Sweden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweden has nothing whatsoever to do with the Nobel Peace Prize except being the land in which Nobel was born. But laughing at a nation because of who the citizens are… uh… yes.

I'd also be interested in seeing some polling numbers as to this majority?

 

[carlota]

If any one thinks this award was given for any reason other than to poke the U.S. President in the eye, then think again. Gore's film has had a majority of scientists reveal that it is full of untruths. Even a judge in Britain found it was riddled with 9 inaccuries(if you present something known to be false as the truth doesn't that make you a liar). Numerous scientists have challenged Gore to a debate, but he refuses.This, along with Yasser Arafat winning just destroyed any respect I had for a Nobel Award. The majority of the people in the U.S. are laughing at you Norway and Sweden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think there may be inaccuracies, as in everything. yes, melting of antartica may not cause x metres of raise in the seas but x+1. in any case, we all know climate change is a fact, nevertheless, and as such i believe al gore is doing his best to spread the word. if those 9 inaccuracies that the judges found are relevant, i guess we would have heard about them already. however, the issue is still there and gaining relevance day by day. up to date, the only responses to climate change that i heard sound like a mere set of lies to keep on destroying the environment to benefit some big companies, so i personally don't care if al gore made an "x+1" mistake in his film. what he speaks about is unfortunately a fact and those extra one's in his speech doesn't make the issue any less relevant.

 

[Elspeth]

If any one thinks this award was given for any reason other than to poke the U.S. President in the eye, then think again. Gore's film has had a majority of scientists reveal that it is full of untruths. Even a judge in Britain found it was riddled with 9 inaccuries(if you present something known to be false as the truth doesn't that make you a liar). Numerous scientists have challenged Gore to a debate, but he refuses.This, along with Yasser Arafat winning just destroyed any respect I had for a Nobel Award. The majority of the people in the U.S. are laughing at you Norway and Sweden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is complete nonsense. My husband is a scientist working in the area of the Sun's effect on climate change, and he - and his colleagues in the same area of research - is very impressed by Al Gore's grasp of this topic and the way he presents it.

If you want to rubbish Al Gore for political reasons, feel free - except that we don't allow political discussions at TRF so you'll have to find somewhere else to do it. If you want to discuss the science, go ahead. I'll be very happy to take you on scientifically, and if need be I'll get my husband involved in the conversation too since he's an actual scientist doing actual research in this actual topic. I look forward to a good session while you tell a PhD scientist with over 200 published papers and a long track record of research into solar activity that he doesn't know what he's talking about where his own area of specialisation is concerned. Just go and start a thread in Members' Corner, and we'll see you over there. If you don't think you know enough about science to do that, feel free to take back your comments in that post of yours.

What was your science PhD in, by the way?

 

[Empress]

And whilst we are at it, I happen to be American and I am not laughing... nor are any of the people where I work. We are curious as to why they have decided to award him the Peace prize, instead of funding a new prize in ecology or something along those lines, but no we are definitely not laughing at entire nations.

Who did you poll by the way to get this information???

 

[Elspeth]

They can't start up new Nobel prizes; the six they have at the moment are specified in Nobel's will. That's partly why they don't have one for astronomy and astrophysics even though it's a major research area these days.

The following (written in 2005) might help explain why the Nobel Foundation is awarding the prize for environmentalism and conservation these days - seems as though some of the original criteria are rather outdated:

"In his last will and testament, Norwegian industrialist Alfred Nobel instructed his estate's executors to bestow a cash prize "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

"In recent years, however, the criteria for who should win has broadened somewhat, according to Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. In fact, Mjoes recently told the Washington Post that work on arms control and arranging peace conferences is now "out of style," and that a new criterion has gained favor: "It is about how we live together, share resources ... about preserving the Earth." Mjoes also pointed to another growing trend in awarding the Peace Prize: more women. (Only 12 of 113 recipients are female.)
To that end, the committee most recently awarded the 2004 Peace Prize to African environmentalist Wangari Maathai, and Mjoes said there likely will be more like her in the future. Yet as Friday's 2005 award announcement of Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency shows, Alfred Nobel's original anti-war ideal remains a central criteria in awarding the prize."

NPR : The Nobel Peace Prize and its Past Winners

 

[Empress]

ah well, it was a nice thought. Still...

Definitely not laughing though!

 

[bethn]

What a joke

Every one where I work is laughing. For 2 reasons. Since when does the environment have anything to do with a "peace" prize, and Half the scientist agree with him and Half say he has conveniently left out facts and figures and opinions that inconveniently point out fallacies in his movie. If he is so sure and so right,why when challenged to debate these facts does he refuse to do so. Also I did not inject politics into this, I never mentioned anything about politics.

 

[lilytornado]

But they founded a Nobel Prize in Economics in 1968...
So why was this possible, but any other future prices wouldn't?

 

[bethn]

fraternity between nations, reduction in standing armies. Exactly what has Al Gore done to promote those ideals. Someone on that committee come forth and explain point by point what he has done to deserve this award. Was it for a movie? Since when does environmentalism have anything to do with "peace"

Wouldn't environmental issues fall under a science Nobel such as chemistry? etc. Could they not award a prize using that award? Or physics? I still have a problem with the science of global warming do not get me wrong, but if you have to award a Nobel for it should it not be one for science.

 

[norwegianne]

They can't start up new Nobel prizes; the six they have at the moment are specified in Nobel's will. That's partly why they don't have one for astronomy and astrophysics even though it's a major research area these days.

The following (written in 2005) might help explain why the Nobel Foundation is awarding the prize for environmentalism and conservation these days - seems as though some of the original criteria are rather outdated:

"In his last will and testament, Norwegian industrialist Alfred Nobel instructed his estate's executors to bestow a cash prize "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."


NPR : The Nobel Peace Prize and its Past Winners

Actually, they can start new prizes - but not prizes from Nobel's will, obviously. The prize for Economics isn't a direct Nobel Prize, but "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" and instituted in 1968.

And Nobel was Swedish.

 

[norwegianne]

Wouldn't environmental issues fall under a science Nobel such as chemistry? etc. Could they not award a prize using that award? Or physics? I still have a problem with the science of global warming do not get me wrong, but if you have to award a Nobel for it should it not be one for science.

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year was awarded to German Gerhard Ertl, "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces". Among other things this apparently concerns the Ozone layer.

Further discussion of the prizes awarded by the Swedish committee can be done here: http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f22/nobel-2007-a-14327.html

 

[Elspeth]

Wouldn't environmental issues fall under a science Nobel such as chemistry? etc. Could they not award a prize using that award? Or physics? I still have a problem with the science of global warming do not get me wrong, but if you have to award a Nobel for it should it not be one for science.

I'm sure they'll award science ones to scientists doing relevant research if it's considered important enough. However, Al Gore and the IPCC aren't doing science, they're trying to make the public and the lawmakers aware of the effects of global warming because it's a very major threat. As I pointed out in my previous post, environmental activism is covered by the criteria of the Peace Prize these days, and it isn't just this year it's been happening.

 

[Elspeth]

Every one where I work is laughing. For 2 reasons. Since when does the environment have anything to do with a "peace" prize, and Half the scientist agree with him and Half say he has conveniently left out facts and figures and opinions that inconveniently point out fallacies in his movie. If he is so sure and so right,why when challenged to debate these facts does he refuse to do so. Also I did not inject politics into this, I never mentioned anything about politics.

Half? HALF?

Do feel free to back that up.

And why should he debate it? Most evolutionary biologists don't debate creationists for the same reason he isn't debating: to accept a debate gives scientific legitimacy to the other side, and in both evolutionary biology and climate science there is no scientific legitimacy on the other side.

 

[kaffir]

What a waste; instead of working to help third world nations, he works to impose conditions that retard development, while he and his cronies jet around the world in private aircraft.

 

[GlitteringTiaras]

What a waste; instead of working to help third world nations, he works to impose conditions that retard development, while he and his cronies jet around the world in private aircraft.

Well if it makes you feel any better Yasir Arafat as well as Jimmy Carter were also NPP winners...

:slowly backs out of topic, and quitely shuts the door:

 

[Chimene]

Congratulations to Al Gore and all the others for this distinguished honor! After reading some of your reactions, I'd like throw some food for thought. We seemed to be hung up on the "peace" part. If we become extinct due to climate change, of what use would "peace" be? I think it's in that spirit that the committee awarded the prize to Al and the others begging us to pay attention. We can't live in or advocate for "peace" if we are exterminated. I’m not laughing at all, and certainly not at two entire countries for the decision of a committee that have been in existence and well respected throughout the world longer than I’ve been alive.