Al Gore and the UN’s IPCC have won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m not entirely sure what climate change has to do with peace, but it’s nice to see his work honoured.
What isn’t so nice (but isn’t at all unexpected) is the stupidity being demonstrated in the BBC Have Your Say on the subject. There is still a depressingly large number of people who deny climate change. People like Stewart Dimmock. Oh, actually, that reminds me. Once it gets going, the Daily Mail debate on this topic is going to hysterical (in both meanings of the word).
Update: Simon points out that climate change has the potential to cause huge amounts of conflict over the coming decades. So perhaps this is a pre-emptive Peace Prize.
For more details, here’s the Nobel Foundation’s press release.
Update: My current favourite from the BBC Have You Say nonsense-fest:
As long one hates liberals, one does not have to apply basic logic.
G_Slick, North Carolina, United States
Yes, obviously some new meaning of the word peace that I wasn’t previously aware of. What a useless waste of an award. I’m definitely not stupid, nor do I deny climate change, it’s all that stuff about man causing it, and having any hope in hell of fixing it that I take issue with.
Mr Dimmock doesn’t actually deny its existence, notable by the fact the article finishes with a quote from him saying “Climate change is important, but it should be taught to children in a neutral and measured manner.”I do agree with him to extent, an Inconvenient Truth as a sensationalist scare tactic, in the same way Super Size Me (and to a lesser extent, Loose Change) came across. Its a fair point that he doesn’t want his kids scared into believing in something, there are better ways of doing things. I wouldnt want my kids to start smoking, but likewise I wouldnt want to sit them down in front of a Cancer victim autopsy video to prove the point.That said though, I actually think shipping these videos out to kids is a good idea. But I think it should be a case of letters home to parents with the option to opt out, because I can completely see how some people could take offence to it.