Vice President and one-time Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a few influential members of the Norwegian Parliament. He is seen as one of the front-runners to win the award, along with Finnish peace broker Martti Ahtisaari and Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer.
There is also growing support inside the Norwegian Parliament to endorse a split-ticket, which would call for Gore to share the award with Canadian environmentalist Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Two influential Norwegian politicians, one from the Socialist Left Party (SV) and the other from the Conservative Party, are asking their colleagues to endorse Gore and Watt-Cloutier:
"The Nobel Committee has previously been adept at addressing new threats with their awards. Climate change is one of the greatest and most serious threats humanity faces. The United Nations' climate panel now maintains that the earth may be changed more in the next 100 years than in the 10,000 years since the last ice age," Conservative Party MP and former Minister of the Environment Børge Brende said.
The Nobel Peace Prize is determined by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo (which is part of the Norwegian Parliament). The nomination deadline officially ended this morning. The actual winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 10th, and awarded on December 11th.
Think about the possible scenario that could play out. If Gore threw his name into the Democratic presidential field in the early fall, and if he were to win the peace prize, he would receive a steady stream of positive press in the final leg before Iowa. No president in U.S. history has ever won the award before being elected to office. The award could be what it takes for Gore to leap-frog Edwards, Obama and even Clinton.
My message to Norway's Parliament: if you want to impact the next U.S. presidential race and ensure that the most rigorous worldwide clean energy effort will begin in January of 2009, then use your vote wisely.
Comments