Give Al Some Credit
October 14, 2007
On Friday it was announced that Al Gore would win this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Over the weekend there have been a lot of criticisms of Gore and the process of choosing the winner of the prize. Without getting into that, I think there are two commendable things that Al Gore did for which he deserves some credit.
First, rather than accepting the award exclusively for the work he has done, Gore said he would share the award with members of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change. After all, Gore may be a politician and talented speaker, but his efforts are backed up by research from some of the world's most respected scientists. Without the efforts of the UN scientists, Gore would virtual have no message to get out to the world.
Second, Gore is giving 100% of his $1.5 million award money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which demonstrates that Gore isn't necessarily doing what he does to make a buck. Most critics point out Gore's tremendous wealth, but they tend to forget the huge sums of money that Gore has given back to climate change efforts.
So for those who are too busy politicking to see the big picture of what happened this weekend, I give a round of applause to Al Gore.
First, rather than accepting the award exclusively for the work he has done, Gore said he would share the award with members of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change. After all, Gore may be a politician and talented speaker, but his efforts are backed up by research from some of the world's most respected scientists. Without the efforts of the UN scientists, Gore would virtual have no message to get out to the world.
Second, Gore is giving 100% of his $1.5 million award money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which demonstrates that Gore isn't necessarily doing what he does to make a buck. Most critics point out Gore's tremendous wealth, but they tend to forget the huge sums of money that Gore has given back to climate change efforts.
So for those who are too busy politicking to see the big picture of what happened this weekend, I give a round of applause to Al Gore.
