Al Gore (and the IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (BBC 2007) largely for the production of the film 'An Inconvenient Truth'
The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

To what extent do you think this was deserved? Having watched this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps the opinion of others) to the issue of climate change could be positively influenced? What did you think of this film? Was it effective?


Al Gore, the man the public have become to associate the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change' with begins his efforts in combating the world's pessimistic approach on climate change. His sheer determination and reluctance has made him known throughout the world with his efforts to reduce carbon emissions, which inevitably lead to him winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, teamed with the IPCC.

Having watched 'An inconvienient truth' and reseached his background I have now changed my opinion on Gore. His well structued presentations on climate change made me realise just to what extent the problem with climate change we are actually facing. "The climate crisis is not a political issue; it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," is a comment Gore made which I believe to be very powerful. I believe this because Gore, a Harvard graduate in Goverment who also ran for presidency in 2000, is now prepared to put his efforts of running for presidency aside, and focus his efforts on the impacts of climate change. His efforts took him all over the world to both the North and South poles, glaciers in Argentina and Peru aswell as seeing the retreat of the ice in the Himalayas. Al Gore has a great understanding of climate change mainly due to the help and guidance of his close friend Roger Revelle, who is a professor in geophysics and oceanography and was the first person to prove carbon dixoide was increasing in the Earth's atomosphere. He worked closely with his friend Revelle before making his presentations and therefore was able to collaborate various sets of data that Revelle had collected in order to present a presentation that proved that the climate is changing due to ever rising carbon dioxide emissions. The graphs he illustrated were excellent in demonstrating the significance of rising carbon dioxide emissions and temperatures. Having to use an extendable ladder to point to the top was very powerful and clearly portrayed the extent to which the problem is escalating to. Showing the carbon dixoide emissions line graph and then comparing with the temperature line graph was also very significant as there was clear correlation linking the two. Before I always thought of Gore as an environmental activist who failed to become president of the US and was campaigning for climate change for all the wrong reasons. However now I believe climate change is a real passion of his, and he has now become so focused in his efforts that he would actually turn down presidency in order to continue his campaign! This therefore has had a postive influence on me as I now know a lot more about the guy and respect him for what he is doing for humanitity. I also believe that he could of also positively influenced politicians worldwide who maybe were aware of the fact but not to the full extent that he is. This may have lead to world leaders beginning to think that maybe the problem is continuing and not going away and therefore needing to address the situation.
On the whole I think the film was extremely powerful in its purpose to highlight the problems of climate change. The use of graphics, real life video footage and graphs enables the audience to comprehend the problems in a way that is easy to relate to. Gore also included humour with in the film which I believe always helps as the audience are more enagaged and interested in what you have to say making it more effective. Therefore I would say the Nobel Peace Prize was justifiably given to Al gore as he is leading the fight against climate change.