Al Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The award was won for their efforts to raise awareness about global warming.
There’s a few interesting things to note about this award. First, it was barely a day ago that a British court ruled that Gore’s film, though it contains some ‘alarmism’, is ‘substantially founded upon scientific research and fact‘. This is a ruling in favor of Gore, as the original complaint by a part-time school official argued that the film shouldn’t be shown at all, but will instead be allowed, albeit with a disclaimer. It’s interesting to note that the CNN headline mentions the alarmism but doesn’t mention that An Inconvenient Truth essentially won the case: our ‘liberal media’ at work again. I do wonder how the judge reached these conclusions, since a majority of climate scientists, as I understand it, endorsed the film.
As Steve Benen notes, the Nobel win has fueled once again rampant media speculation that Gore will run for president. There’s no evidence from Gore himself that he’s interested in the job (ironically, a true sign that he’s perfect for the job). Personally, I think he’d be a great president, but taking on that role would distract attention from the issue of climate change.
Perhaps the best result of all this was predicted by Kevin Drum.
Skulls in the Stars 