What Can They Be Thinking, Drinking...Smoking?
While the world waited with bated breath for the annual announcements emanating from the Nobel Committee, the result finally was confirmations of entitlement to recognition in the arts and sciences, and in at least one signal instance, confusion with respect to the most honoured prize being conferred upon a seemingly unlikely candidate for the most peculiar fit of the endowed prize.Arguably, the Nobel Peace Prize is the most stellar recognition that a highly-regarded committee could confer upon a high-minded individual, group or organization whose efforts have been expended for the sole purpose of promoting world peace. To be sure, there have been past winners whose selection has proved, in hindsight, not to have been a true reflection of the event that propelled them into this world-class honour.
And there have been others whose selection has been made for a strictly political purpose; not, however, to be argued with for the need to do so. But has such an award ever been granted in the past to one whose activities and claims as an amateur in the field have been questioned by so many professionals in the field of atmospheric ecology as Al Gore?
More to the point, while the world has good reason to fret over future environmental prospects which have the potential to entirely destabilize the world as we know it, how truly does the central subject of peace enter into the equation? At a stretch one could consider that a failing environment leading to fewer accessible primary resources and scarcer stable geographies might translate into global competition.
Survival of the fittest. The worthiest? The wealthiest? More Gore will qualify there.
But does this really represent an award in recognition of struggles to attain world peace?
Or is this an award granted to a self-aggrandizing showman blitzing the world with some imponderables for the future, and some hypotheses owing their conclusions to computer-fed models many of which have been discounted already as incorrect? Could the world be witnessing the pop-culturization of the Noble Peace Prize?
There have been so many doubts expressed in so many of the major points addressed in Mr. Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" right across the scientific, socio-economic-political spectrum it gives true pause for thought. Does being presented with awards such as an Academy Award and an Emmy represent a precursor to the gifting of the Nobel Peace Prize for the future?
Does this represent an ambitiously sly manoeuvre by a seasoned politician to position himself for another attempt at launching a presidential bid in a future U.S. election? America's soft Democratic wingnuts appear to be swooning over the possibilities of the hitherto-underrated presidential wannabe as environmental genius.
And saviour of the world. Mega-award winner and world-acclaimed film star now launching as a future president of the United States. Why not? It's been done before.
Labels: Environment, Political Realities, World News
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, October 13, 2007
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