This is absolutely fantastic news! Al Gore and Ms. Cloutier most definitely deserve to share this prize for their work on the environment. And climate change is most definitely a crisis that is and will cause conflict over resources such as water and land.

Al Gore's work in bringing the facts about this to the world and putting it in the consciousness of people to inspire them to change in order to effectively face this moral crisis on all levels in the wake of a myriad of warnings from the scientific community is by far the most important achievement he will ever make.

I am so very pleased for him and for Ms. Cloutier, and thank these Norwegian parliament members for their nomination.

Al Gore Nobel Nominee

The fight for the global climate is a fight for peace, say members of parliament Børge Brende and Heidi Sørensen, and they have nominated former US Vice-president Al Gore for a share of the Nobel Peace Prize. The two green-thinking MPs suggest that Gore share the prize with Inuit Sheila Watt-Cloutier, in recognition for their efforts to put the danger posed by climate change on the global political agenda.

"This is clearly, absolutely, one of the important efforts to achieve conflict prevention. Climate change can lead to enormous flows of refugees on a scale the world has never seen before. Fighting climate change is immensely important work for global peace," Heidi Sørensen, member of parliament for the Socialist Left Party (SV), told Aftenposten.

"The Nobel Committee has previously been adept at addressing new threats with their awards. Climate change is one of the greatest and most serious threats humanity faces. The United Nations' climate panel now maintains that the earth may be changed more in the next 100 years than in the 10,000 years since the last ice age," Conservative Party MP and former Minister of the Environment Børge Brende said.

The former US VP has toured the world the past year with the film "An Inconvenient Truth", which has actualized the climate change issue for a great many people. Gore has worked with environmental issues for over 20 years and had a decisive role in forming the Kyoto protocol for reducing CO2 emissions in 1997.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a Canadian Inuit and for years has been one of the leaders of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents over 150,000 Inuit. In recent years she has concentrated on focusing attention on the rapid warming taking place in the Arctic, and made a massive effort to explain to world leaders that the Arctic is the planet's barometer of climate change.

"Climate change is also a threat to global welfare. One hundred million climate refugees, major changes in potable water supply and a reduction in biological diversity that will first and foremost hit the poor who live in and depend upon nature - these things will quickly become a major security threat," Brende said.

"Al Gore has done a very important job as former US VP and has created so much pressure in the USA that for the first time President Bush must now say that climate change is a problem. No other single person in the last year has done so much to put the threat of climate change on the agenda, and contributed to lasting changes in international policy," Børge Brende said.

"Gore played a key role in Kyoto and Sheila Watt-Cloutier has opened the world's eyes to what is happening in the Arctic. When she communicated this, the climate debate took a new and important turn. She has communicated the drama and given it a face," Heidi Sørensen said.

I called his office to congratulate him on behalf of myself and my PAC. I was practically in tears talking because I am SO HAPPY and PROUD of him for all he is doing for our planet. All of his life this has been his true passion, and now he is finally able to do as he wishes regarding it and is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

He has so much more to do regarding the environment and this crisis, and I am so gratified that he is finally getting recognition for that. With this award he would not only have half the prize to put towards his work, but he has so many options open to him now as a free man. He is taking his Climate Project to Asia, Latin America, and Africa per a speech he made at the NY Botanical Gardens last September, and I believe he will be one of the greatest environmental statesmen of our times.

He can now make a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth which I sincerely hope he does, continue to work globally for environmental, economic, and political change through grassroots action, and use his resources and the new connections he has made to influence policy around the world, and that includes focusing on the affects of this crisis on the poor worldwide.

He is doing exactly what Jimmy Carter did, and I agree with him that this is indeed a much better use of his time and experience to truly be a force for change in the world. I would hope to now see a Gore Center For Sustainability soon. With the IPCC report coming out tomorrow as well, I think that will also solidify to many that having him out here focusing all of his energy on working to solve this crisis now is what is needed most.

I have never been more proud of him in all of the years I have supported him. He has now proven that he has truly won in the spiritual and moral sense, and that he does not need the trappings of political office in this toxic beltway to get things done. Bravo to you, Mr. Gore. You are following your heart, and look where it is leading you.

Congratulations!