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“What Al has done in the last two years has helped change the tide of history on the defining issue of our time,” said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI). “It is perfect that the award was also given to the IPCC. I remember a few years ago when Al and I met in London: he said the world was at a tipping point and that he thought he could make the difference. He has, and it has been a service to all humankind.”
Lash added, ” The Nobel Committee was exactly right to link Al’s voice to the courage, wisdom, and stamina of all the scientists who have gathered the evidence of what is happening. I hope that every scientist who has played a role in the IPCC feels like a Nobel Laureate today.”
Mr. Gore, who has served on WRI’s Board of Directors since 2005, spoke earlier this year at the Institute’s 25th anniversary dinner in New York City about how global warming challenges our “moral imagination,” just as the civil rights issue first did a generation ago.
Thirty years ago, Congressman Al Gore organized the first congressional hearings on global warming, before most people had ever heard of climate change. As Vice President of the United States , Al Gore helped usher in the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history, and led the Clinton Administration’s efforts to protect the environment. He authored a best selling book on the topic, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992).
Gore’s book and Oscar-winning film – An Inconvenient Truth – are widely credited with heightening public awareness about the scientific evidence about global warming, with no small credit to the Vice President’s personal grassroots campaign that has inspired audiences and motivated thousands of advocates to further spread the word.
WRI’s Climate Director Jonathan Pershing was one of the lead authors for the most recent IPCC report, and has been a participant in all four of the IPCC reports since 1990.
Dr. Pershing is active in the ongoing science and design of U.S. and international climate policy. He serves on the California Market Advisory Committee, was the facilitator for the Northeast states’ emissions trading initiative (RGGI) and for the Illinois state climate advisory group, has testified before the U.S. Senate and House, and advises major U.S. and multinational companies on business strategies for climate change. He is a regular participant in the international UN climate negotiations, was Head of the Energy and Environment Division at the International Energy Agency and from 1990-1998, and served as Deputy Director and Science Advisor for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Change.
The Nobel Peace Prize is named after Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel and recognizes efforts to foster human rights or democracy, to eliminate poverty, or to share resources and protect the environment. It was announced in Oslo , and the formal ceremonies will be held December 10.