Al Gore seen as possible winner of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Al Gore seen as possible winner of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO (AFP) - Former US vice president Al Gore is seen as a possible winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to save the planet from global warming, the head of the Oslo Peace Research Institute has said.
"The issue of global warming is also very topical and ... it wouldn't be impossible for the Nobel committee to honour a person combatting this threat. In such case, Al Gore ... seems to me to be a possible candidate," the institute's head, Stein Toennesson told AFP Thursday.
Emails, faxes and letters have been flowing in to the Nobel Institute in Oslo ahead of the February 1 deadline for nominations, with Finnish peace broker Martti Ahtisaari and Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer also tipped as possible laureates.
Two Norwegian members of parliament have nominated Al Gore jointly with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian who represents more than 150,000 fellow Inuits in the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and who has campaigned to draw attention to climate change in the Arctic.
The former US vice president is currently criss-crossing the globe with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", a hard-hitting rallying cry against global environmental catastrophe.
"This is clearly some of the most import conflict prevention work that is being done. Climate change could lead to enormous waves of refugees, the likes of which the world has never seen before," Heidi Soerensen, a Socialist Left MP who nominated Gore and Watt-Cloutier, told daily Aftenposten on Thursday.
"One hundred million climate refugees, major changes in drinking water supplies and a reduction in biological diversity ... will rapidly become a major security threat," co-nominator Boerge Brende, of the Conservative party, told the paper.
Toennesson said the Nobel committee might choose to honour the fight against climate change.
But after a few unconventional winners in recent years -- the prize went to Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai in 2004 and the Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank last year -- Toennesson said the committee could also decide to return to a more "traditional" peace laureate.
"I still believe very strongly in Ahtisaari," he said of the 69-year-old former Finnish president.
Ahtisaari oversaw talks in Helsinki that led to a peace agreement in 2005 between the Indonesian government and rebels in the province of Aceh. He is now the United Nations' special envoy for talks on the final status of Kosovo.
"The peace process in Indonesia is so important. He has a good chance but everything depends on how the situation in Kosovo develops," Toennesson said.
Ahtisaari has been nominated several times in recent years. He has a long history of peacemaking, including mediation efforts in Namibia, the former Yugoslavia and the Northern Ireland.
Other possibile Nobel winners cited by Toennesson include Chechen human rights activist Lidiya Yusupova; Rebiya Kadeer, a leader of China's Uighur Muslim minority, who lives in exile in the United States; and Thich Quang Do, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk fighting for democracy and freedom of expression while living under house arrest.
Arne Liljedahl Lynngaard, the chairman of the board of the Rafto human rights foundation, also cited Kadeer as a possible laureate.
"The prize will be the last one before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and Rebiya Kadeer would be a serious candidate if the committee wants to draw attention to the human rights situation in China," he said.
While the Nobel Institute remains tight-lipped about the list of candidates, those who nominate are entitled to go public with their choices.
As a result, Indian and Latin American organisations are known to have put forward the name of Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Thousands of people are eligible to submit nominations, including members of parliament and government worldwide, as well as university professors, previous laureates and members of several international institutes.
The five members of the Nobel committee are also allowed to nominate their own candidates at their first meeting in February.
The winner of the prize will be announced in October and it will be awarded, as tradition dictates, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the founder of the prize, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
Last year, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank beat 190 other nominees to win the prize.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070201/ts_alt_afp/nobelpeace_070201120859
OSLO (AFP) - Former US vice president Al Gore is seen as a possible winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to save the planet from global warming, the head of the Oslo Peace Research Institute has said.
"The issue of global warming is also very topical and ... it wouldn't be impossible for the Nobel committee to honour a person combatting this threat. In such case, Al Gore ... seems to me to be a possible candidate," the institute's head, Stein Toennesson told AFP Thursday.
Emails, faxes and letters have been flowing in to the Nobel Institute in Oslo ahead of the February 1 deadline for nominations, with Finnish peace broker Martti Ahtisaari and Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer also tipped as possible laureates.
Two Norwegian members of parliament have nominated Al Gore jointly with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian who represents more than 150,000 fellow Inuits in the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and who has campaigned to draw attention to climate change in the Arctic.
The former US vice president is currently criss-crossing the globe with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", a hard-hitting rallying cry against global environmental catastrophe.
"This is clearly some of the most import conflict prevention work that is being done. Climate change could lead to enormous waves of refugees, the likes of which the world has never seen before," Heidi Soerensen, a Socialist Left MP who nominated Gore and Watt-Cloutier, told daily Aftenposten on Thursday.
"One hundred million climate refugees, major changes in drinking water supplies and a reduction in biological diversity ... will rapidly become a major security threat," co-nominator Boerge Brende, of the Conservative party, told the paper.
Toennesson said the Nobel committee might choose to honour the fight against climate change.
But after a few unconventional winners in recent years -- the prize went to Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai in 2004 and the Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank last year -- Toennesson said the committee could also decide to return to a more "traditional" peace laureate.
"I still believe very strongly in Ahtisaari," he said of the 69-year-old former Finnish president.
Ahtisaari oversaw talks in Helsinki that led to a peace agreement in 2005 between the Indonesian government and rebels in the province of Aceh. He is now the United Nations' special envoy for talks on the final status of Kosovo.
"The peace process in Indonesia is so important. He has a good chance but everything depends on how the situation in Kosovo develops," Toennesson said.
Ahtisaari has been nominated several times in recent years. He has a long history of peacemaking, including mediation efforts in Namibia, the former Yugoslavia and the Northern Ireland.
Other possibile Nobel winners cited by Toennesson include Chechen human rights activist Lidiya Yusupova; Rebiya Kadeer, a leader of China's Uighur Muslim minority, who lives in exile in the United States; and Thich Quang Do, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk fighting for democracy and freedom of expression while living under house arrest.
Arne Liljedahl Lynngaard, the chairman of the board of the Rafto human rights foundation, also cited Kadeer as a possible laureate.
"The prize will be the last one before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and Rebiya Kadeer would be a serious candidate if the committee wants to draw attention to the human rights situation in China," he said.
While the Nobel Institute remains tight-lipped about the list of candidates, those who nominate are entitled to go public with their choices.
As a result, Indian and Latin American organisations are known to have put forward the name of Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Thousands of people are eligible to submit nominations, including members of parliament and government worldwide, as well as university professors, previous laureates and members of several international institutes.
The five members of the Nobel committee are also allowed to nominate their own candidates at their first meeting in February.
The winner of the prize will be announced in October and it will be awarded, as tradition dictates, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the founder of the prize, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
Last year, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank beat 190 other nominees to win the prize.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070201/ts_alt_afp/nobelpeace_070201120859
posted by presgore19 at 5:08 AM
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