For Immediate Release
October 12, 2007
 
Contact: David Willett, 202-675-6698
 
 
Praise for Gore and IPCC For Nobel Peace Prize
World Leaders Must Follow Their Example
 
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
 
"The Sierra Club congratulates Vice President Al Gore and the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning this year’s Nobel
Peace Prize. Their victory underscores the need for more of our leaders to
take a stand and meet the challenge of global warming head-on. The IPCC
has shown there is global consensus on the causes and impacts of global
warming--Vice President Gore has brought the issue home for millions of
people.
 
"Vice President Gore is, quite simply, the indispensable player in the
drama of mankind’s encounter with the possibility of destroying the
climactic balance within which our civilization emerged and developed.
Once, when I was particularly frustrated by challenges I faced in my job,
Gore heard me out and replied, 'Never, ever give up.' That would seem to be
his motto, as reflected in the thousands of speeches he has delivered, the
Live Earth concert he built from scratch, the nay-saying he has endured,
the movement he inspired.
 
"In the Nobel committee's words upon awarding the 2004 Peace prize to
Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai: 'Peace on earth depends on
our ability to secure our living environment.' The committee clearly sees
the work of Gore and the IPCC in a similar light, as those who work staving
off the conflicts by uniting strange bedfellows behind the common cause of
protecting humanity's only home.
 
"Between his earliest political career in 1976 as a representative of
Tennessee’s Fourth District, and his two-term vice presidency beginning in
1993, Gore helped set the political and popular stages for prime-time
environmentalism. He was one of the first politicians to grasp the
seriousness of climate change and to call for a reduction in emissions of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. He held the first congressional
hearings on the subject in the late 1970s.
 
"Since then, he has presented the science behind global warming and its
predicted catastrophic effects more than 1,000 times. His message finally
reached the broad public consciousness with the 2006 documentary, An
Inconvenient Truth. The film has won numerous awards, including two Academy
Awards. His paperback book of the same name also reached number one on the
New York Times Best Seller list.
 
"Last month the Vice President accepted the Sierra Club’s top honor, the
John Muir Award. Sierra Club President, Robert Cox said at the ceremony,
‘Al Gore is the embodiment of the principles for which John Muir
passionately devoted his life: to protect a place for its own sake, for our
sake, and even in spite of us; a place we call Earth.’
 
"The Sierra Club has also long praised the work of the IPCC, whose work
lays to rest the notion that the alarming and increasingly rapid increase
in the earth's temperature is due to anything other than human activity.
Today we can already understand the effects of global warming all around us
because of their efforts. Their reports point to the extremely troubling
and dire consequences on the horizon if we don't act soon and begin to
dramatically lower our carbon emissions.
 
"The vast majority of the American people understand that global warming is
real, is serious, and needs to be addressed. Mayors, governors, and state
legislatures are taking the lead and implementing policies that protect our
environment, create jobs, and fight global warming and our dangerous
dependence on oil. Even major corporations are calling for action. The
market stands poised to provide the solutions. The time has come for our
national leaders to listen to the IPCC and follow Al Gore’s lead."
 
 
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