Here’s what some notables have to say about Gore’s Nobel Prize:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco: “Al Gore sounded a clarion call that awakened the world to the very real threat of global warming. He has performed an invaluable service to humanity that is more than worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Through his ground-breaking film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ his lectures, books, concerts, and many other activities, Al Gore has done more to educate the public on the dangers of climate change – and on the positive steps we can take to prevent it – than any other individual.
“Vice President Gore’s public advocacy and the scientific efforts of Dr. Rajenda Pachauri and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have opened the world’s eyes and removed any doubt that the climate crisis threatens our world and our children’s future.”
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.: “No one on Earth has done more to put climate change and global warming on the front burner of public policy in virtually every country than Al Gore.
“My husband and I saw him last evening, and he had no idea. So, it must be a wonderful surprise.
“An Oscar, an Emmy, and a Nobel Peace Prize, is an unprecedented combination in one year. So, congratulations, Al Gore.”
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles: “I’m delighted about the award because it not only recognizes Al Gore’s visionary leadership on climate change, it also establishes the fact that climate change has broader implications beyond specific environmental threats. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds us all that global instability and insecurity will rise alongside the planet’s temperature. It’s very appropriate that the prize was announced while the Vice President was here in California, since California has been the proving ground that shows political leaders, the business community and environmental groups can all come together behind effective climate change solutions. For years Al Gore has issued a stirring challenge to the world. With our commitment to implementing AB 32, developing new alternative fuels and spurring a green economy for our state, California will continue to lead the response to that challenge.”
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., today gave the keynote address at the Business Council for Sustainable Energy’s climate change conference in San Francisco. She called for a comprehensive legislative agenda to achieve major reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including increasing automobile fuel-economy standards; promoting development of a national cap-and-trade framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from major electricity and industrial sectors; and encouraging the use of low-carbon fuels.
Meanwhile, climate-change guru Al Gore will be in San Francisco this afternoon to speak at a fundraiser for U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; musicians Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne also will be on hand for an acoustic performance. Gore had cancelled yesterday, but reversed that earlier today and is scheduled to attend — one day before this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner is announced, with rampant speculation that it’ll be Al Gore himself.
Will he win? If so, will he run for president? My guesses: maybe, and no.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will watch tomorrow’s Live Earth concerts — a 24-hour series of concerts in nine cities on seven continents, expected to be viewed by 2 billion people, calling attention to the issue of global warming — from her Oakland home, she told reporters this morning.
“Yes, I’m going to watch everything that I can,’’ she said. “For me the most important thing is action, I’ve got to get the votes out of my committee — I’m going to watch the party, but boy I have a lot of work ahead of me.”
Boxer said she approaches the issue “with hope, not fear.”
“Just six months ago few would’ve predicted that meaningful action on global warming was possible in this Congress,” she said, yet an unrelenting stream of scientific evidence and expert testimony has “begun to build the consensus that I was so hopeful for when I took the gavel.”
U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., last week announced they’ll collaborate to draft an economy-wide global warming bill that includes a cap-and-trade program, she noted — a bipartisan effort that could finally kick the federal government into gear on an issue for which hundreds of cities and dozens of states already have committed to action. “People all over the world realize action on global warming is needed now … and Americans are far ahead of our government.”
On the same conference call, MoveOn.org Political Action Executive Director Eli Pariser said the hubbub around Live Earth is adding up to his group’s biggest series of events since the 2004 presidential election. Tens of thousands of Americans will attend MoveOn-organized house parties tomorrow, and with help from partner organization Avaaz.org, almost 10,000 such parties are expected to be held worldwide.
“An Inconvenient Truth,” the film depicting Al Gore’s crusade against global warming, won the documentary-feature Oscar yesterday. Earlier in the show, Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio shared the podium, and vamped on rumors that Gore might announce his 2008 presidential candidacy. For those who missed it, and for anyone who still thinks Gore has no sense of humor, here it is:
Former Vice President Al Gore – speaking today at the American Geophysical Union convention in San Francisco – will speak to thousands of MoveOn members at more than 1,800 house parties across the nation this Saturday to answer questions about his film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and to urge Congress to take action on global warming.
Party attendees will have the chance to ask the Vice President questions on a live conference call. Members will also write letters to their members of Congress asking them to address the climate crisis, and Gore will deliver these letters to Congress.
Other groups sponsoring the project include: AlGore.com, JohnKerry.com, Sierra Club, stopglobalwarming.org, League of Conservation Voters, Rainforest Action Network, Care2.com, Working Assets and The Alliance for the New Humanity.
Former Vice President Al Gore –