Al Gore Announced Corecipient of Nobel Peace Prize

l Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on climate change just won the Nobel

Al Gore has many admirers and critics, but on Friday the spotlight was on him again as the Nobel Peace Prize committee showered him with praise for his work promoting climate awareness and climate research.

The Nobel Peace Prize was not the first award received by Al Gore, 59, for his environmental work, but it was certainly the largest. Al Gore had previously won an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which was a surprising box office hit.

Gore shares the Peace Prize with the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), found in 1988, which is widely considered by scientists and governments worldwide as the top authority on global warming and climate change.

The IPCC has over 2,000 leading climate change scientists and experts that conduct research into climate change and collate data and information from research papers of thousands of other scientists worldwide.

The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee praised Gore as "Probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."

"[The IPCC] creates an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. [The IPCC] lays the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract [climate] change," said the committee about the IPCC.

It cited that a major justification for awarding this prize to the IPCC and Gore was to bring more attention to the increased risks of wars and violent conflicts that are posed as our climate changes.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri was overwhelmed by the awarded. The India-native told his cheering supporters outside his Delhi office that he hopes the award will help further awareness and a greater sense of urgency about climate change. Rajendra Pachauri's full reaction is documented on the IPCC website (PDF).

In Washington D.C., Gore greeted the announcement by first praising the IPCC and how "tirelessly and selflessly they have worked for many years." Gore added, "We face a true planetary emergency. It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

Gore will donate half of his $1.5 million dollars in Nobel Prize money to Alliance for Climate Protection.

Gore's work has had a major effect on the technology industry. With his help, public sentiment has shifted as people realize that oil dependence will only last so many years. This shift in turn has led to all the major car companies heavily pursuing, promoting, and investing in hybrid vehicles, many of which have been featured at DailyTech.

While his efforts to promote global warming research have often overshadowed his other environmental initiatives, Gore has also been a strong promoter of equally controversial rainforest protection, toxic waste control, and National Park System expansion initiatives.

The news follows the announcementsthat a British court declared An Inconvenient Truth unfit for British schools, as it has nine alleged factual inaccuracies. Michael Asher elaborates more in his DailyTech blog.

James M. Taylor, senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute, blasted Gore for his work on The Inconvenient Truth. "The British High Court properly recognized that Al Gore's movie is nine parts political propaganda and one part science. Virtually every assertion that Gore makes in the movie has been strongly contradicted by sound science."

Regardless, Al Gore and the IPPC now have their names cemented in immortality among other Peace Prize laureates including Nelson Mandela, Theodore Roosevelt and Mother Teresa.