Amidst all the brouhaha over the most famous (in America) of the two recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, one thing seems to have been lost. It's about the science, not the Goracle.
The joint award of the Nobel Peace Prize highlights the importance of climate change and the need for action to meet the challenges it presents, India's Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said Friday.Exactly.
The prize - won jointly by the IPCC and former United States vice president Al Gore - sent a powerful message to the global community which, Pachauri hoped, would stimulate action in the right direction.
"The award gives the whole issue of climate change greater visibility," he said at press briefings in Delhi and via video-link in Geneva, where the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has its headquarters.
The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Metereological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the task of gathering, assessing and presenting scientific data on climate change. Pachauri, 67, took over as
chairman of the IPCC in 2002.
Saying he was "humbled and honoured" by the award, Pachauri stressed that it actually belonged to the hundreds of scientists and authors who had contributed to the work of the IPCC. "They have worked extremely hard. I am only symbolic of these people who deserve to be talking to you."
Am I alone in thinking that conservative outrage aimed at Gore isn't really outrage at all, but is more about attacking the messenger because it's easier than attacking the message?
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