CBS News: Al Gore Nobel Acceptance Coverage

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 01:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G38byjr5N2g   Posted on YouTube: December 10, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 10, 2007 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1176

 
Nobel laureate Al Gore travels to Norway to accept his prize and says that he is optimistic about winning the fight against global warming. Charlie D'Agata reports.

[nebula]

1. I can't for the life of me

understand how a peace prize can be named after the inventor of dynamite and weapons he created that were based on it. He not only invented dynamite, but made his fortune as an arms manufacturer. Alfred Nobel is responsible for the deaths of untold millions as a result of his horrific creation.

I have nothing against Al Gore, but I think the award itself is a fucking joke.

[rosesaylavee]

2. That's why Nobel invented the prize.

He understood what he had invented would do that. He could not unmake what he had done. But he could do this.

Edit to add Gore's acceptance speech... he addresses this very issue in the first few paragraphs of his speech: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/gore-lecture_en.html

[IndyOp]

3. Alfred Nobel woke up one morning to read his obituary. In it, he

was judged very harshly - called the "Merchant of Death".

Seven years later he, Alfred Nobel, provided the money for the fund that pays the prize money and for the costs incurred by the committee and awards ceremony. He also established the rules of nomination and specific details about when & where the prizes would be awarded.

Why is it named after him? Because he named it after himself.

Is the award a fucking joke? Many scientific discoveries and inventions that have been used for horrific ends were the result of work that was for morally neutral or morally admirable purposes. As Archbishop Tutu says, a knife is a morally neutral object - it can be used for a good purpose like making dinner or performing a life saving surgery or it can be used to murder. Nobel's dynamite can be used for peaceful purposes like blasting away rock to lay track for a new solar-powered high-speed train or it can be used for horror.

Albert Einstein's discoveries were the result of a fascination with the universe and an amazing mind and his discoveries have been used to create atomic weapons - a constant danger to us all. After Einstein realized the horror of the atomic bomb, he did his best to warn humanity of its dangers. After Alfred Nobel realized the horror of his inventions he created the Nobel Prizes awarding scientists and the people who lead the world in moral use of their energies (with the peace prize). It is an important one-two move to award both the inventors and the people who teach us all about the moral use of inventions -- the dangers and the hope.

A fucking joke? No matter what you think of the person after whom the prize was named, the prize is meaningful as a result of all of the good and decent people who have received it. There have clearly been some bad recipients, but the good and decent ones make the award meaningful.

[niceypoo]

6. Guilt

[IndyOp]

4. Other than the dismissive statement about An Inconvenient Truth presenting

"what Gore says" is scientific evidence that humans are increasing the temperature of the planet... that was an okay feature.

The "what Gore says" snark is a way of questioning Al's honesty - and it is sickening.

[jph wacheski]

5. yeah that is a bit much

"It shows what HE SAYS is scientific proof,"
what a weak way to attack the reality of global warming,. I find it hard to believe that people are so easily mislead, I guess we will do anything to avoid facing change, even positive change, it is sad really. I feel like I am on a sinking ship and every time I find another passenger that acknowledges that THE SHIP IS SINKING ten more come along and try to shout us down,. so they can continue to sell buckets of water to all the passengers that they dump on their own heads and hasten the sinking of the ship,. It is like a nightmare where you try to scream and are unable to make any sound at all, the hight of frustration,. I wish I could not care,. however I find myself unable to just deny reality and join the rest of the passengers as we eat the rest of the ship and then drown.

[IndyOp]

7. Welcome to DU, jph! I really identify with your analogy -

I think you've pretty well nailed it with this: I feel like I am on a sinking ship and every time I find another passenger that acknowledges that THE SHIP IS SINKING ten more come along and try to shout us down, so they can continue to sell buckets of water to all the passengers that they dump on their own heads and hasten the sinking of the ship.

A Howard Zinn quote might help you in your moments of frustration... Howard says that the truth has magic, it has power, and if we just keep daring to speak it aloud it will win out over the lies. <- I really believe that and it helps me to keep speaking the truth aloud and looking for instances in which other people do the same.

:hi: