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Published on October 13, 2007

The announcement yesterday that former US vice president and presidential candidate-turned-environmental advocate Al Gore won the Nobel Peace prize has met with mixed reaction. Gore was recognised for his passionate campaign to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming. Gore's high-profile efforts to promote awareness about important world environmental issues have certainly met with success. His 2006 film, "An Inconvenient Truth", won the Academy Award for best documentary.

It is worth noting that Gore is more of an activist than a man of science. His film was panned by many for its alleged failure to get the facts right. Some critics also accused the film of exaggerating the likelihood of some environmental catastrophes that, Gore claims, will threaten the human race and all living things on this planet.

There is no denying that what Gore has done for the environmental cause since losing to George W Bush in the controversial 2000 presidential election has made a difference. He has made a great contribution to putting the climate crisis on the international agenda.

But there are some lingering doubts whether his enthusiasm will have a long-term impact on the health of the environment. Obviously the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo must believe that bestowing this most prestigious prize upon Gore will afford him the stature that should enable him to achieve a lot more.

If this is the kind of politics of global environmentalism that the Nobel committee hopes to advance, then it must have made the right decision to reward Gore for his incredible showmanship on behalf of the environmental cause.

Obviously, Gore's personality and his style of presentation must have been taken into consideration by the Nobel committee. Gore was a bitter and almost-broken man after accepting the Supreme Court's decision in favour of Bush, and then bowing out of politics gracefully. Since then, he has reinvented himself.

As a passionate campaigner, Gore hobnobs with world leaders and celebrities, spreading the gospel of environmentalism. But it can be argued that his influence appears to be based on his ability to communicate easily and effectively with highly educated, financially well off and privileged people around the world rather than with the impoverished masses.

It is true that his promotion of environmental awareness can benefit everyone, including the poor and the underprivileged, but Gore must do a lot more to reach out to the people who will be exposed to the worst affects of global warming.

Let's hope that the prestige associated with the Nobel prize will strengthen his commitment to show to the world, particularly the rich world, that a lot more needs to be done to help the world's poor and destitute avoid the negative effects of rising temperatures.

It remains to be seen if Gore's elevation as the world's foremost champion of the environmental cause will be able sway the US, the world's biggest economy and one of the world's worst polluters.

He must do all he can to garner US support for the international Kyoto Protocol on climate change and its upcoming successor.

It is true that there has always been politics behind the Nobel Peace prize, particularly in recent years. And it is worth noting that environmentalism has become something of a new religion in most of the developed world, where it is invariably linked to quality of life. In poor, developing nations, not enough attention is being paid to the urgent need to protect the environment on which people depend for their precarious existence.

As a new Nobel laureate, Gore should capitalise on his now-enhanced powers of persuasion to convince industrial nations that they must do a lot more to help the world's poor. These nations must provide them with the means to mitigate the impacts of global warming while also making them aware of the need for all the world's peoples to join hands to ensure the sustainability of this planet's environment as a hospitable place for the human race.

The interpretation of "peace" by the Nobel committee is obviously a broad one. For this year's Nobel Peace Prize, peace is defined as human security. In this respect, we hope Gore can do a lot more.

The Nation