With the IgNobels taken care of, I guess some attention could be paid to speculation about those “other” awards, the Nobel prizes. So, I direct your attention to this wire service story:
Former Vice President Al Gore and other campaigners against climate change lead experts’ choices for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, an award once reserved for statesmen, peacemakers and human rights activists.[...]
Toennesson said others with a chance included former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, a perennial nominee for decades of peace mediation work, and dissident Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Do for his pro-democracy efforts.
His shortlist also includes Russian human rights lawyer Lidia Yusupova, who has fought for victims of war in Chechnya, and Rebiya Kadeer, an advocate for China’s Uighur minority.
Gore certainly deserves credit for helping bring concerns over climate change to folks’ attention, at least in the U.S….but I wonder if that really merits a peace prize.
Now, if we were discussing Gore as a potential Person of the Year, in his role as face-man for the increase in public interest in climate and conservation…that’s something I could see.