VARIOUS: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore shares 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with U.N. Climate Panel

Record ID: 677513

  • Title: VARIOUS: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore shares 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with U.N. Climate Panel
  • Date: 12th October 2007
  • Summary: PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 9, 2007) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL ALVAREZ, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AT CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, SAYING: "Well, I think that's what has happened since 2000, when we're talking about the environment, things have changed. I mean, it's clear. It's really hard to sort of be just about anywhere in the U.S. or around the world and not see the effects of global warming. So, I think it was an issue that was behind the scenes, and he's somebody who championed an issue that has now really risen to the top of the public's agenda."
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0BI2ALEV8N54AH3GXPWV3VCA
  • Story Text: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who has reinvented himself as an environmental crusader with global stature, is one of two winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
    Al Gore, nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, has come a long way since his painful defeat in the contested 2000 U.S. presidential election at the hands of George W. Bush.
    In the last year alone, he saw his hit documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" win an Academy Award, picked up a Primetime Emmy Award for his satellite channel "Current TV," and championed a series of concerts as part of the "Live Earth" campaign.
    Now, with some bookmakers favouring him ahead of the announcment of this year's winner, all eyes in the U.S. political establishment are on Gore since a win could reshape the 2008 presidential election.
    Michael Alvarez, political science professor at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said he was impressed with Gore's effort to transform himself.

    "He's grown from a politician who I think most people saw as a very stiff person into someone who is, you know, a public figure, an authority, a celebrity of sorts," Alvarez said.
    The winner of the 2007 prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday (October 12) from a near-record field of 181 nominees.
    The committee does not reveal the nominees, though some people who make nominations publish their choices.
    At present, many analysts consider former First Lady Hilary Clinton to be the front-running Democrat in the race for the White House. But Alvarez believes that pressure on Gore will mount if the Nobel committee recognizes his role as environmental advocate.

    "Certainly, from everything I understand, he's a dark horse candidate at this point," Alvarez said of the Nobel prize. "But, you know, just being mentioned as a dark horse candidate kind of helps fuel that celebrity, fuel that aura. And it brings us back to talking about his potential as a candidate in the 2008 race."
    Besides Gore, announced candidates this year include former Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier as well as Poland's Irena Sendler, who saved more than 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust in World War Two.
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