Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

[Madison]

My issue with Gore is this - do you really think that his championing this cause is making a significant difference to national awareness of global warming?

Wouldn't matter who "championed" the campaign to make people aware of global warming. We've got a planet that's billions of years old, and people find it hard to believe that a couple hundred years of mankind has made that big of an impact. The Earth has survived much worse than us, the poles shifted, yadda, yadda, yadda. Plus the environment isn't at the front of most people's priority list. Solve the financial problem in the country, get the "war" situation taken care of an over with, get social security and medicare figured out and taken care of, and get health insurance taken care of, and then, maybe, maybe people will care a bit about the environment.

So if I'm reading that right and you blame Gore for people not really caring about global warming, well, I think that's putting the blame in the wrong place. I'm not a Gore fanboy or anything, I just don't believe it would make any difference as to who tried to make people more aware. People still wouldn't give it the time of day, which is where it sits right now.

[Boyakasha]

My issue with Gore is this - do you really think that his championing this cause is making a significant difference to national awareness of global warming? His whole shtick since he did not win president (not stolen from him, he lost under the rules of the game) has reeked of a man trying an alternative way to establish his legacy.

That's your issue with Gore? America distrusts its own government and politicians more than any time in its history, not to mention global opinion of American government, and you're more concerned that Gore is trying to "look" like he's doing the right thing?
I don't know if he's faking it or not (who can tell with politicians these days), but even if he was, I'd much prefer someone with his influence championing causes that aren't as money-driven as the nepotistic crap going on in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

And as for his legacy, even if he were to stop right now, tell me something; would your mother be more proud if you were Al Gore, or if you were you? That goes for me, too. I (and my poor mother) can only dream I'll accomplish as much as Gore has.

[Madison]

The US economy is great shape.

This shows how much you don't know.

I know that all the economic indicators are in great shape. How much econ do you know? The only thing out of wack is the the trade deficit, which the weakening dollar will fix.

If you call a recession and possibly a depression "great shape", then I'd say you're correct. This was posted up by Cornbread Maxwell and he really seems to know his stuff (I respect what he says anyway)

I dont think our government can do anything about it at all to be perfectly honest. The time for true reform to save this sinking ship has passed long ago. The Fed pouring $130 billion into the market this summer alone hoping that the dangerously leveraged population will continue to dig deeper into debt is a sad joke.

The average US worker is making LESS money than he was 5 yrs ago.
The average US worker is setting historical highs in debt - by a lot (have to go back to 1933 to get even close to the levels we are at now). Much of this debt is held in mortgages that will soon border usuary.
The government's answer is to make more money available for loans.

http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/forums/posting.php?mode=quote&f=13&p=2515578

My own opinion is that we haven't seen anything yet, it's going to get much worse before it gets better, and it appears those with more knowledge of the subject agree.

[JTWood]

My own opinion is that we haven't seen anything yet, it's going to get much worse before it gets better, and it appears those with more knowledge of the subject agree.

On that note, I saw a round table with a cross section of economists and high-ranking financiers, and they were all saying that, essentially, this rate cute seems to have miraculously turned things around overnight. I heard host on a finance show on KMOX point out that Bernanke once wrote that he felt some recession in the 80s could have been avoided if the Fed had been more aggressive at cutting rates when these same particular signs of a recession started to show themselves at that time. I've not gone out of my way to look up any particular numbers. I just wanted to chime in with some recent info I came across.

Back on topic, I still don't understand what global warming has to do with world peace.

[fezzik]

Not that I disagree with your point, but we do have video conferencing abilities now.

Just sayin'...

I knew I would forget something.

But yeah...I think a personal appearance along with all the fanfare would be more powerful...and would also help more in bringing it to the attention of the masses.

Whether Gore's motives are purely altruistic, I have no idea (perhaps only Gore does)...but if an international panel has decided that he contributed to the world community in a positive way, possibly helping future generations by starting this discourse before it might have begun under different circumstances...then I see no reason to say he doesn't deserve the award. Perhaps others are more deserving (I haven't really looked at the other contenders), but giving the award to him and that cause also draws even more attention to the cause itself...which I think is a very good thing.

[JTWood]

Not that I disagree with your point, but we do have video conferencing abilities now.

Just sayin'...

I knew I would forget something.

But yeah...I think a personal appearance along with all the fanfare would be more powerful...and would also help more in bringing it to the attention of the masses.

Whether Gore's motives are purely altruistic, I have no idea (perhaps only Gore does)...but if an international panel has decided that he contributed to the world community in a positive way, possibly helping future generations by starting this discourse before it might have begun under different circumstances...then I see no reason to say he doesn't deserve the award. Perhaps others are more deserving (I haven't really looked at the other contenders), but giving the award to him and that cause also draws even more attention to the cause itself...which I think is a very good thing.

But it's an award for peace.

That's like me giving your last post the Cy Young Award. It may be a great post deserving of recognition, but what on earth does it have to do with the Cy Young Award?

[fezzik]

Not that I disagree with your point, but we do have video conferencing abilities now.

Just sayin'...

I knew I would forget something.

But yeah...I think a personal appearance along with all the fanfare would be more powerful...and would also help more in bringing it to the attention of the masses.

Whether Gore's motives are purely altruistic, I have no idea (perhaps only Gore does)...but if an international panel has decided that he contributed to the world community in a positive way, possibly helping future generations by starting this discourse before it might have begun under different circumstances...then I see no reason to say he doesn't deserve the award. Perhaps others are more deserving (I haven't really looked at the other contenders), but giving the award to him and that cause also draws even more attention to the cause itself...which I think is a very good thing.

But it's an award for peace.

That's like me giving your last post the Cy Young Award. It may be a great post deserving of recognition, but what on earth does it have to do with the Cy Young Award?

Hell...I'll take a Cy Young award...a more sweet conversation piece I can't imagine (well...maybe a Nobel Peace Prize). Or a Nobel Piece Prize, given to me for having "known" the trifecta of Jessica's in a very biblical sense (Alba, Simpson, and Biel...not necessarily in that order).

Perhaps because the people who selected the winner felt the efforts of Al and the acknowledged organization have begun to unite a diverse international community of leaders/countries...but I'm not on said committee, so it could have been a ploy to bring more attention to the issue because they felt it was important...I really don't know, but I agree there is no direct relationship between what Al/organization did and bringing about world peace (at least that I can see)...perhaps there is something more abstract that I'm missing in regard to the possibility of future peace, but I don't know.

[CheeseBeger]

My own opinion is that we haven't seen anything yet, it's going to get much worse before it gets better, and it appears those with more knowledge of the subject agree.

On that note, I saw a round table with a cross section of economists and high-ranking financiers, and they were all saying that, essentially, this rate cute seems to have miraculously turned things around overnight. I heard host on a finance show on KMOX point out that Bernanke once wrote that he felt some recession in the 80s could have been avoided if the Fed had been more aggressive at cutting rates when these same particular signs of a recession started to show themselves at that time. I've not gone out of my way to look up any particular numbers. I just wanted to chime in with some recent info I came across.

Back on topic, I still don't understand what global warming has to do with world peace.

Im just copying my prior post from our recession discussion last month:

Keep in mind that recessions are not necessarily a bad thing, they are just part of the normal economic/business cycle. The job of the Fed is not to prevent recessions, but to control inflation. The biggest problem could be if the Fed continues to "bail out" investors, because when investors come to expect to be bailed out, they take more and more risks which will just worsen the situation by creating a much more disastrous recession down the road.

Sure the cuts will help in the short run, but investors will take more risky positions than they can handle because they will think they will be bailed out.

Hehe we are getting off topic.


I think the "peace" award is kind of political, but I definitely agree with the sentiments above that it is better to draw attention to a possible future worldwide problem than to ignore it and have to possibly deal with it later on.

[Yoda]

The US economy is great shape.

This shows how much you don't know.

I know that all the economic indicators are in great shape. How much econ do you know? The only thing out of wack is the the trade deficit, which the weakening dollar will fix.

How much do I know? I only majored in econ and I have been workint for a real state investment comapny for 10 years and very activley trading in the stock market since the early 90s so yeah I would say that I know a few things about the US economy. What about you?

[Tavish]

That's like me giving your last post the Cy Young Award. It may be a great post deserving of recognition, but what on earth does it have to do with the Cy Young Award?

Climate change has been and will continue to be a cause for war. Darfur is probably one of the most recent conflicts that is due in large part to global warming but it isn't the first and almost certainly won't be the last especially if the warming trend continues and makes more of the Earth unable to sustain civilization.

And of course there is the search and use of alternative energy sources. I don't think it is too difficult to draw a corollary between the dependence on oil by a nation and war.