JOKE OF THE DAY: Al Gore and U.N. Panel win Nobel Peace Prize

Forced to wake up ultra early, for a student matinee this a.m, I thought my overly tired brain and eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw that the illustrious Al Gore and a U.N. panel had actually won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on, of all things, Global warming! Al Gore?! The U.N.?! Sigh. Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.....repeatedly. Just what Gore needs to inflate his already humongous ego: another wholly undeserved award. All this glory, however, might satisfy his ego enough to deter him from making a bid for the ultimate prize: Prez of the U.S. of A., but I'm not so sure, although others are convinced it will. Then again, garnering kudos for 'saving our planet' is far less stressful than trying to save the western world from marauding religious fanatics intent on dragging us back into the dark ages, or into the ground if we refuse to submit. Or whacked-out foreign leaders armed with nuclear weapons, ready, willing and poised to strike. Why would anyone, frankly, want to take on that responsibility?! Then again, power is an aphrodisiac.

And can someone please explain why the Global Warming issue is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize? What has Global Warming to do with Peace, pray tell? There was a petition submitted to the Nobel Committee requesting that the Peace Prize be awarded to the Burmese Buddhist monastic order (Sangha), for their peaceful attempts to bring democracy to their country which would have been a far more deserving group than Gore and the useless U.N. Particularly in light of the fact that there are very differing views, in the scientific community, on the whole Global Warming issue. Apparently, Stewart Dimmock, truck driver and father of 2, sued the British government for distributing to 3,500 schools Global Warming packages which included Gore's film, claiming that

"the former U.S. Vice-President's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is unfit for schools because it is politically biased and contains serious scientific inaccuracies and 'sentimental mush'."

Although it wasn't outright banned, a U.K. court recently ruled that there are, indeed, 9 inaccuracies in Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" that must be addressed when showing the video to the school kids, along with a disclaimer stating that the film is politically biased:

1. The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.

2. The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.


3. The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.

4. The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.


5. The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.

6. The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.

7. The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.

8. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.

9. The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

Others blogging about this joke:
Spanish Pundit
Patjknowsitall
Chatterbox Chronicles

UPDATE:

Here's a great commentary in the UK Daily Telegraph

"So Al Gore is the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Admittedly, he has to share it with the United Nations’ climate change panel - but, even so, I think we need to declare an international smugness alert.The former US Vice-President has already taken over from Michael Moore as the most sanctimonious lardbutt Yank on the planet. Can you imagine what he'll be like now that the Norwegian Nobel committee has given him the prize? More to the point, can you imagine how enormous his already massive carbon footprint will become once he starts jetting around the world bragging about his new title?"

H/T: Jammiewearingfool