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Al Gore Has Given Us a Path on Climate Change (Rep. Bart Gordon)

by Tenn. Dem. Rep. Bart Gordon - 10/12/07 4:10 PM ET

As a fellow American, Tennessean and public servant, I think the Nobel Committee made a great choice today in selecting former Vice President Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for this year’s Peace Prize. As my Committee has discovered first hand, each of their groundbreaking efforts on climate change has provided us with greater knowledge, tools and proof than ever before to combat this alarming phenomenon.

Vice President Gore has devoted nearly 30 years to the subject of global warming. Though climate change is not the type of issue that politicians usually raise as a centerpiece of their message, Al took on the challenge long ago of convincing people that a global environmental issue like climate change was something they should be concerned about.

We also must recognize the work of the IPCC’s more than 2,500 scientific expert reviewers from over than 130 countries who spent 6 years doing the work on the reports that have been issued this year. They have confirmed for us that the Earth has a fever and that inaction to ease that fever is no longer an option.

We all want to leave our children a world filled with all the promise and wonder that we inherited from our parents and grandparents. We have no choice but to begin to act in a way that will secure that inheritance for our children.

The work of Vice President Gore and the IPCC has provided us with a clear path forward on climate change. Now it is up to us to take action.