Al Gore’s Strange Nobel Prize

A committee selected by Norway’s socialist legislature has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Its criteria obviously don’t include a concern for accuracy or truth, or Gore wouldn’t have been a co-recipient of the Prize.

An English judge previously ruled that Gore’s book is partisan, biased, and contains many factual errors, even though he shared Gore’s belief that man is causing global warming.

Yet Gore has received a Nobel Prize for a book (and film) that even sympathizers can see is filled with factual errors. Gore’s book and film are so tendentious and inaccurate that they do little to advance his position.

Reactions to his receiving the prize can be found here and here. Even some who voted for Gore think it is ridiculous. Bjorn Lomborg comments on how odd it was to include Gore along with reputable scientists as a recipient of the prize.

It seems like a clumsy effort by Norway’s socialist government to meddle in domestic American politics by giving a boost to a left-of-center politician whose views are more in sync with Scandinavian socialism.

But compared to other recent actions by the Norwegian government — like its awful decision to levy massive retroactive tax increases that effectively expropriate the country’s shipping industry — it is relatively harmless.

The Norwegians’ past decision to give a Nobel Prize to Jimmy Carter, which was a poorly-veiled attempt to sway American voters in favor of John Kerry and against George Bush, failed to achieve its objective. Similarly, giving Al Gore the prize will not likely have any lasting effect on American politics.

It will, however, give Gore one more excuse to fly across Europe in his private jet on one junket after another, emitting copious amounts of greenhouse gases while delivering sanctimonious harangues about climate change.