GORE AT OSLO

Al Gore was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize December 10, along with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of scientists represented by their chairman, India’s Rajendra K. Pachauri. Pachauri explained why their work was worthy of a peace prize: “Peace can be defined as security and the secure access to resources that are essential for living…The impacts of climate change on some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world could prove extremely unsettling…”

Gore: “…We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly…”

Gore Urges Bold Moves In Nobel Speech
Sarah Lyall (with Walter Gibbs), December 11, 2007 (NY Times)

WHO
Former US Vice President Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Gore giving his acceptance speech in Oslo December 10. (from Wikipedia. click to enlarge)

WHAT
As in so many other appearances during the campaign against climate change that he has championed for so long, Gore was a passionate advocate for action in his remarks on accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Excerpts from the speech are below. Video and text of the entire speech here.

WHEN
The award ceremony was December 5.

WHERE
City Hall, Oslo, Norway.

WHY
Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life’s work, unfairly labeling him “The Merchant of Death” because of his invention – dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace…Seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name.

Gore doing his "Inconvenient Truth" presentation. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it…
- Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose.
Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here…
- …too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.” ...So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount…
- …the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong…We are what is wrong, and we must make it right…
- More than two decades ago, scientists calculated that nuclear war could throw so much debris and smoke into the air that it would block life-giving sunlight from our atmosphere, causing a "nuclear winter.” … Now science is warning us that if we do not quickly reduce the global warming pollution that is trapping so much of the heat our planet normally radiates back out of the atmosphere, we are in danger of creating a permanent “carbon summer.” … It is time to make peace with the planet…We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war…
- …We must begin by making the common rescue of the global environment the central organizing principle of the world community…Fifteen years ago, I made that case at the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro. Ten years ago, I presented it in Kyoto. This week, I will urge the delegates in Bali to adopt a bold mandate for a treaty that establishes a universal global cap on emissions and uses the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reductions…

click to enlarge

- …most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon -- with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis…
- …the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 emitters — most of all, my own country –– that will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before history for their failure to act…
- …These are the last few years of decision, but they can be the first years of a bright and hopeful future if we do what we must…