Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president and presidential candidate who reinvented himself as an environmentalist, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to fight global warming.
Gore shares the prize with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," Gore said in an e-mailed statement. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
The Nobel committee in Oslo, Norway, announced the news at 11 a.m. local time – 5 a.m. on the East Coast – and praised Gore as being "one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians."
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee.
As a Nobel laureate, Gore receives a gold medal, a diploma and splits 10 million Swedish kronor – about $1.7 million – with the IPCC.
Gore, 59, served as Bill Clinton's vice president for eight years and narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. Since leaving elected office, Gore has relentlessly shined a spotlight on the issue of global warming.
His 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, about the climate crisis, won the Academy Award for best documentary. Gore is also an recent Emmy winner through his Current TV network.
Gore shares the prize with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," Gore said in an e-mailed statement. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
The Nobel committee in Oslo, Norway, announced the news at 11 a.m. local time – 5 a.m. on the East Coast – and praised Gore as being "one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians."
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee.
As a Nobel laureate, Gore receives a gold medal, a diploma and splits 10 million Swedish kronor – about $1.7 million – with the IPCC.
Gore, 59, served as Bill Clinton's vice president for eight years and narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. Since leaving elected office, Gore has relentlessly shined a spotlight on the issue of global warming.
His 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, about the climate crisis, won the Academy Award for best documentary. Gore is also an recent Emmy winner through his Current TV network.