Nobel Peace Prize

This year's Nobel Peace Prize justly rewards the thousands of scientists of the United Nations Climate Change Panel (the IPCC). These scientists are engaged in excellent, painstaking work that establishes exactly what the world should expect from climate change. The other award winner, former US Vice President Al Gore, has spent much more time telling us what to fear. While the IPCC's estimates and conclusions are grounded in careful study, Gore doesn't seem to be similarly restrained. Gore told the world in his Academy Award-winning movie (recently labelled "one-sided" and containing "scientific errors" by a British judge) to expect 20-foot sea level rises over this century. He ignores the findings of his Nobel co-winner, the IPCC, who conclude that sea levels will rise between only a half foot and two feet over this century, with their best expectations being about one foot. That's similar to what the world experienced over the past 150 years. Likewise, Gore agonizes over the accelerated melting of ice in Greenland and what it means for the planet but overlooks the IPCC's conclusion that, if sustained, the current rate of melting would add just three inches to the sea level rise by the end of the century.