Conservative carping aside, Al Gore is a perfect candidate for three reasons:

  1. The award has always gone to people who have done more than just promote “peace,” such as Albert Schweitzer, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa.
  2. The award has recently (2004) gone to an environmental leader, the great Wangari Maathai, who “founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental nongovernmental organization, which has now planted over 30 million trees across Kenya to prevent soil erosion.”
  3. Global warming is a grave threat to future peace and security — as more and more experts are acknowledging. Global warming creates the possibility of millions of refugees, spurred terrorism, sea-level rise, and food and water shortages — water being a major source of conflict. Indeed, climate change may already have been a key factor in the Darfur crisis (see here and here).

If we avoid catastrophic global warming, Al Gore’s tireless efforts to educate the nation and the world will be a major reason. He will have prevented untold humanitarian crises and countless regional conflicts. Gore would bring honor to the award.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.