It’s Getting Hot In Here

What do former presidential candidate Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have in common?

a. They both roomed with Tommy Lee Jones in college (how dreamy).
b. They invented the internet.
c. They received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
d. All of the above.

This morning, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (check out the NY Times article here). Arguing that “Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind,” the Committee recognized the simple truth that climate change has begun to affect us all, and if not mitigated, will continue to wreak havoc on communities in the future. Gore will donate the profits from his share of the prize (a cool 3/4 million) to a group he helped found, the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Doom and gloom aside, Gore and the IPCC have spent the last two decades trying to spread the word about climate change in government and on the streets. After the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, Gore shifted his efforts to climate work, and you know the story from there. IPCC provided the fodder and he made the information accessible to the masses through An Inconvenient Truth, convincing people by the hundreds of thousands that with climate change, the future of humankind is at stake. Our generation will have to make the first move, and soon.

We’re the inheritors of a fossil-fuel soaked molotov cocktail of an economy, lobbed over the wall of natural limits. We know it and our job is to make those in power see the urgency of the situation. In receiving this award, Gore and the IPCC (whether we like it or not), two of our best allies in high places, have again lent support to our movement.

Lets take this energy and move forward as quickly and effectively as we know how.