Gore urges US, China to join efforts to save feverish planet
OSLO (AFP) — Former US vice president Al Gore said humanity was "waging war" on the Earth and urged the United States and China to join the fight against global warming, as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize here Monday.
"Both countries should stop using the other's behaviour as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment," Gore said at a lavish ceremony in the Oslo city hall.
Gore, 59, was jointly awarded the prestigious peace prize with the UN's top climate panel.
"It should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 (carbon dioxide) emitters, and most of all my own country, that will need to make the boldest moves," he said.
The United States is the only rich nation not party to the Kyoto Protocol, while China has said it will not back binding emissions curbs that could affect its booming economy.
"The Earth has a fever. And the fever is rising," lamented the creator of the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" on the disastrous effects of climate change.
"We have begun waging war on the Earth itself," he said, standing underneath brightly-coloured frescoes in a city hall decked in orange flowers.
"It is time to make peace with the planet," he said, pointing out that a yet-to-be-released study by US Navy researchers indicates the North Polar ice cap could melt away completely during summer in as little as seven years.
Previous estimates have indicated it would take 22 years for it to disappear in the summer months.
Gore, wearing a dark blue suit and pale blue tie, voiced optimism on the prospects of the ongoing Bali summit. Delegates from nearly 190 nations are hammering out the groundwork for a new global warming treaty beyond 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol's first phase expires.
"It's unfortunate that my country, which I believe should be the leader of the world, is now blocking action in Bali," Gore said in a CNN interview following the awards ceremony.
By coincidence, Monday's ceremony, which was broadcast live at the Bali conference, took place on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark pact for curbing greenhouse gases.
Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- a United Nations body of about 3,000 experts -- each received a Nobel diploma, a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.5 million dollars, 1.1 million euros) to be split between them for their work to raise awareness about the effects of global warming.
Most of Norway's royal family was present and a long line of Norwegian and foreign dignitaries, politicians and entertainment stars, including US actress Uma Thurman, could be seen in the packed city hall.
Later Monday, the winners of the 2007 Nobel prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and economics received their awards from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm.
The Norwegian Nobel committee's decision to award the peace prize to climate campaigners continued the trend of broadening its scope beyond the traditional fields of conflict prevention and resolution and disarmament.
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the prize on behalf of his organisation, stressed the link between fighting climate change and peace.
Global warming could prompt "dramatic population migration, conflict and war over water and other resources as well as a realignment of power among nations," he cautioned.
But halting the process was still possible, he added.
"The impacts of climate change can be limited by suitable adaptation measures and stringent mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions."
Gore meanwhile insisted on the need for collective, global efforts to fight global warming.
"This is not a 'me' problem, it's a 'we' problem," he told CNN, responding to accusations that he himself has a large carbon footprint.
In that spirit, Gore said at the Nobel ceremony he planned to present a number of proposals when he travels to Bali later this week to join the ongoing climate change conference there.
They included imposing taxes on CO2 and urging world leaders to meet as often as every three months to work out a global emissions cap treaty by 2010.
Scientists' warnings more than 20 years ago had helped raise awareness about the possibilities of a "nuclear winter", he said. Today, we "are in danger of creating a permanent 'carbon summer'," he added.
But Gore ended his speech on a positive note. "We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource."
