GORE, UN: GREEN PEACE PRIZE

Okay, so by now you all know that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shares with the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yay. A way to continue bring added attention to climate change is always a plus, right? Take the Live Earth concerts--okay, so they sucked up a bunch of electricity and were all about celebrity endorsements, but trees need Cameron Diaz and Sting as much as people do, right?

It's REALLY difficult for me to feel wholeheartedly happy for Gore and the UN Panel for SO MANY reasons. First of which is the fact that Gore is wealthy, and yes, he's got a big mansion, flies in jets, drives around in fancy cars (or gets driven in them, pardon me), and while he's doing more than most in his income bracket to ensure that his carbon footprint is dutifully filled in, his celebrity obscures the hundreds of activists who regardless of their wealth live below their means in order to ensure a healthier planet.

On the other hand, he's a climate ambassador, and he's getting tons of good work done increasing awareness of climate change from the bottom up--a philosophy which explains his use of celebrity and his decision to donate his share of the Nobel money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose mission is "to persuade the American people — and people elsewhere in the world – of the importance and urgency of adopting and implementing effective and comprehensive solutions for the climate crisis" (from their website).

As for the IPCC, I want to keep this brief, so look it up yourself: study after study has found the IPCC's temperature and sea level projections to be too conservative, if not downright naive. Again, how great that climate change has such prominent leaders behind it, but how sad that those mascots don't represent the cutting edge of environmental science and activism.

A friend of mine gave the award news it's proper political twist. This morning she texted all her friends with the message: "Al Gore got the peace prize! Oslo REALLY hates W." Most sentient citizens of earth do.

How about YOUR 2 cents?