The Goracle Speaks, and the World Finally Listens
Well, we know now there's at least one American that European-based correspondent Sarah Lyall doesn't find arrogant - vice president-turned-"global warming" crusader Al Gore. In fact, Lyall covered Gore's Nobel Prize lecture in Oslo (he shared the prize for speaking out in apocalyptic terms on climate change) as if he was a Cassandra finally getting a justified hearing.
"He has said it again and again, with increasing urgency, to anyone who will listen. And on Monday, former Vice President Al Gore used the occasion of his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize lecture here to tell the world in powerful, stark language: Climate change is a 'real, rising, imminent and universal' threat to the future of the Earth.
"Saying that 'our world is spinning out of kilter' and that 'the very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed,' Mr. Gore warned that 'we, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency - a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here.' But, he added, 'there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst - not all - of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.'
"The ceremony marking the 2007 prize, given to Mr. Gore and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comes as representatives of the world's governments are meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali to negotiate a new international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new treaty would replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012."
There was just one bit of criticism in the entire piece, which otherwise accepted Gore's radical vision as established scientific fact (Lyall quoted no Gore critics).
"The documentary about Mr. Gore's climate-awareness campaign, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' won an Academy Award, but its conclusions were dismissed as exaggerated and alarmist by his political opponents. He has repeatedly said that while he has no plans to re-enter politics, he has not ruled out the possibility."
