Gore, U.N. panel win Peace Prize

Gore, U.N. panel win Peace Prize By Alan Zarembo and Maggie Farley Los Angeles Times Staff Writers 11:21 AM PDT, October 12, 2007 Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today for their campaigns against global warming. The citation said Gore's "strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change." The Norwegian Nobel Committee also said Gore was "probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." Gore's decades-long crusade against climate change was captured in the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," an Academy Award-winning film seen as a major force in shifting the debate from whether the burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet to what should be done about it. In a statement, Gore said he was "deeply honored" to receive the award and that he and his wife, Tipper, would donate all of the proceeds to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit group in the United States dedicated to changing public opinion about the urgency of climate change. "We face a true planetary emergency," Gore said. "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." At the Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters of the Alliance for Climate Protection, Gore said he would go to Oslo to accept the award "on behalf of all of those who have been working so hard and so long to try to get the word out about the planetary crisis." Heralding the committee's decision as "a chance to elevate consciousness," Gore said global warming posed "the greatest challenge we have ever faced" and provided "the greatest opportunity to make the changes we should be making anyway." The head of the Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of working groups of 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, said he was "completely overwhelmed" by the honor. "This prize belongs to the international U.N. community and the states that support us," Rajendra Pachauri told Norwegian television, adding that Gore was a worthy co-winner. At a news conference in New Delhi, Pachauri said that by awarding the prize to the campaign against global warming, the Nobel panel "elevates this particular problem," which he said had "the potential to disrupt stability and peace all over the world." In Washington, Greenpeace director Chris Miller called Gore "a true American hero." He praised the Nobel committee for highlighting the issue, and said Gore's "unstinting efforts to wake up policy makers and the public alike to the global warming crisis have inspired many around the world to redouble their efforts to protect the planet." The Sierra Club's executive director, Carl Pope, said Gore had personally urged him to persevere. "Once, when I was particularly frustrated by challenges I faced in my job, Gore heard me out and replied, 'Never, ever give up,' " Pope said. "That would seem to be his motto, as reflected in the thousands of speeches he has delivered, the Live Earth concert he built from scratch, the nay-saying he has endured, the movement he inspired." Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to an environmental concern is regarded by many as a symbolic rebuke of the Bush administration's reluctance to join a U.N.-led process to reduce global greenhouse gases. The prize often reflects the aspirations of the Nobel committee as much as a recognition of real progress in changing the world. Previous American winners include former presidents Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. In 1973, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shared the award with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho. The Rev. Martin Luther King received the honor in 1964. The prize is likely to increase calls for Gore to enter the 2008 presidential race, despite his insistence that he has no intention of running. Speculation that Gore might be awarded the honor picked up Thursday morning after he canceled a last-minute trip to China to discuss global warming with government officials there, which had led him to cancel a fundraising appearance for Sen. Barbara Boxer. The fundraiser was hastily rescheduled at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel, but Gore gave no indication during the afternoon talk that he had won the prize. Looking relaxed, Gore delivered a 20-minute speech to more than 400 Boxer supporters, reprising his call for a new bipartisan, international approach to attacking global warming. He compared the issue with the U.S. and European nations' approach to rebuilding after the ravages of World War II -- and the urgency behind such international crises as the AIDS epidemic and Darfur. "They're really moral imperatives disguised as political problems," Gore said. "Our challenge is to see them in their true light." After the speech, with Boxer at his side, the crowd erupted in a chant of "Run, Al, run!" Gore responded by waving his arms, hands down, in a sign to cut off the cheer. Only recently has global warming become a key political issue in the United States. Gore, 59, was one of the first politicians to call attention to the issue, first as a Tennessee congressman and then a senator in the 1980s. He ran for president in 1988, he said, largely to draw attention to what he viewed as looming environmental catastrophe -- a platform that, like his campaign, failed to connect with voters. During the 1992 presidential race, Gore's views, encapsulated in his book released that year, "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," continued to be a dividing point. As vice president, he helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases. U.S. participation was stymied by the Senate, which passed a resolution opposing any agreement that did not require mandatory cuts for developing nations. After losing the 2000 presidential race, one of the most controversial elections in U.S. history, Gore refocused his efforts on the environment. He updated his old slide show presentation on global warming and began showing it to audiences around the world. It became the basis for "An Inconvenient Truth," which won the 2007 Oscar for best documentary feature. His supporters have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in hopes that he can be persuaded to run for president again. This week, the website draftgore.com ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times. "You say you have fallen out of love with politics, and you have every reason to feel that way," the ad said. "But we know you have not fallen out of love with your country. And your country needs you now -- as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save." The Nobel news was greeted with applause in many quarters. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said was delighted by the honor for the IPCC, and noted that it was the ninth Nobel awarded to the U.N. and its officials and agencies. "Thanks to the IPCC's lucid and well-documented findings, it is now established beyond doubt that climate change is happening, and that much of it is caused by human activity," Ban said in a statement this morning. "As a result, there is now unprecedented momentum for action on climate change around the world, and recognition of the U.N. as the forum for reaching agreement on it." White House spokesman Tony Fratto said "obviously it's an important recognition, and we're sure the vice president is thrilled." He added that President Bush was "happy for the vice president." Elsewhere in Washington, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a statement saying that Gore, "by having the courage to challenge the skeptics in Washington," deserved the award. "His voice and his vision have awakened the conscience of America," the Illinois Democrat said. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy Committee and long a defender of the Detroit auto industry, praised Gore. In a statement, he said Gore "called for action to protect our planet long before it became fashionable. He spoke from the heart to friend and foe, convincing hundreds, then thousands and eventually millions, that his fight should be a crusade for all of us." In Oslo, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Ole Danbolt Mjos said the prize was in "support of the work the IPCC has done and the work Al Gore has done." Although the Nobel panel "is no scientific committee, the important thing is the message that the world is threatened by global warming," Mjos said. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the Inuit environmental activist from northern Canada who had been nominated along with Gore and the scientists, said upon hearing the news, "The planet is the winner." alan.zarembo@latimes.com maggie.farley@latimes.com Zarembo reported from Los Angeles and Farley from New York. Times staff writers Scott Martelle, Johanna Neuman and Henry Chu contributed to this report. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nobel13oct13,0,4578640.story?coll=la-home-center