Rather than just sitting back and twiddling their thumbs while they wait for the folks over in Oslo to announce the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the media have been busy prognosticating about what will go down on Friday. Many are positing that Al Gore and Inuit climate change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who were nominated jointly, will take home the prize (see here, here, and here). They're among at least 181 individuals and organizations that have been nominated this year, so it's no small news that they're being hyped as the probable winners among people who have a pretty good record of getting these things right.
But like so many others before, Newsweek makes the jump this week to pondering a Gore run for office next year if he wins:
Grassroots Gore loyalists have been buzzing for weeks about the Nobel Prize announcement scheduled for Oct. 12 in Oslo, Norway. Gore was nominated for his work on global warming, and several longtime Nobel observers believe this could be the year that a champion of climate change gets the prize. "We feel that if [Gore] wins the Nobel Prize … then he can't not run for president," says Roy Gayhart, a San Diego-based organizer of a California draft Gore group.
Note that the piece even admits that there's really nothing concrete on which to base this rumor. He "has said nothing to indicate that he would run, and his Nashville office didn't return several phone calls and e-mails seeking comment for this story," it continues.
But wait! We're still hopeful! "Gore has not completely closed the door on the idea." So ever-optimistic Draft Gore-ers are trying to get him on the ballot in their states, just, you know, in case.
If Gore and Watt-Cloutier win this week, it will be a signpost on the road to addressing global warming, marking a point when the world decided that climate change is the most-pressing issue facing world leaders today. It will note the point where the world realized that this is not only an environmental problem, but a threat to peace, security, economies, and the very way people live their lives. It's not a victory in and of itself, because there is much to be done before we're any where close to addressing the issue. This, however, would bring the issue the kind of recognition it should have been getting long ago.
Maybe I'll eat my words at the end of the week, should he announce his candidacy, but from here, it seems like Gore has better things to do with his time. Maybe Gore's followers should invest their time in pushing the front-running Democratic candidates into improving their climate and energy plans, which for the most part, leave something to be desired.
--Kate Sheppard