Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

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What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?" asks New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
"Partly it's a reaction to what happened in 2000, when the American people chose Mr. Gore but his opponent somehow ended up in the White House. Both the personality cult the right tried to build around President Bush and the often hysterical denigration of Mr. Gore were, I believe, largely motivated by the desire to expunge the stain of illegitimacy from the Bush administration."


Writing online for The Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows likens the criticism of Gore's Nobel Prize to the heat the Nobel committee took when it awarded the Peace Prize to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. Mr. Fallows explains:

"... in retrospect the criticisms of [Dr.] King look very small, and – without equating the stature of the two men – I think something similar will be true regarding Gore. Like him or not, he has turned his efforts to an important cause, under historical and political circumstances that would have tempted many people to drown themselves in drink or move to Bhutan."

But why did an environmental activist win the world's most prestigious peace prize? In an online article for Slate, Stephan Faris argues that peace has a lot to do with global warming:

"... [A] look back through the last thousand years shows how quickly even a mild, natural shift in the climate can produce a period of cataclysmic violence."

That's just what a prominent group of retired generals and admirals warned of earlier this year in the report "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change." That report concludes:

"Projected climate change will seriously exacerbate already marginal living standards in many Asian, African, and Middle Eastern nations, causing widespread political instability and the likelihood of failed states.... The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide, and the growth of terrorism."

A new study by University of Maryland researchers, meanwhile, buttresses Gore's position that dire economic effects of climate change warrant quick action. It warns that "the range of climatic changes anticipated in the United States ... will have real impacts on the ... environment as well as human-made infrastructures and their ability to contribute to economic activity and quality of life." It concludes:

"... climate change will directly or indirectly affect all economic sectors and regions of the country ... the costs of climate change rapidly exceed benefits and place major strains on public sector budgets, personal income, and job security."