here's a bit more info on those award recipients:
AFRICA
Marc Ona Essangui [1], Gabon [2]: In Gabon, a country without a culture of civic engagement, Marc Ona led efforts to publicly expose the unlawful agreements behind a huge mining project threatening the sensitive ecosystems of Gabon’s equatorial rainforests. Ona’s efforts led to an unprecedented victory for civil society in Gabon, with the government adopting new environmental oversight regulations and significantly reducing the size of the mining concession.

ASIA
Rizwana Hasan, Bangladesh: [3] Working to reduce the impact of Bangladesh’s exploitative and environmentally-devastating ship breaking industry, leading environmental attorney Rizwana Hasan led a legal battle resulting in increased government regulation and heightened public awareness about the dangers of ship breaking.

EUROPE
Olga Speranskaya, Moscow, Russia: [4] Russian scientist Olga Speranskaya transformed the NGO community in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia into a potent, participatory force working to identify and eliminate the Soviet legacy of toxic chemicals in the environment.

ISLANDS AND ISLAND NATIONS
Yuyun Ismawati, Indonesia [5]: As waste management problems mount throughout the Indonesian archipelago, Yuyun Ismawati implements sustainable community-based solutions that provide employment opportunities to low-income people and empower them to improve the environment.

NORTH AMERICA
Maria Gunnoe, USA [6]: In the heart of Appalachia, where the coal industry wields enormous power over government and public opinion, lifelong resident Maria Gunnoe fights against environmentally-devastating mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations.

SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Wanze Eduards & Hugo Jabini, Suriname: [7] Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini, members of Maroon communities originally established by freed African slaves in the 1700s, successfully organized their communities against logging on their traditional lands, ultimately leading to a landmark ruling for indigenous and tribal peoples throughout the Americas to control resource exploitation in their territories.

Now we just wait for the Exxon/Mobil-funded boiler room full of global warming denier bloggers to show up?

Actually, their boss may read, and understand that the Goldman prize is not specifically about CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the boss may see that Al Gore was present and decide that's reason enough to pollute this site.

While we're waiting, here's the latest polar mush:

The Wilkins Ice Shelf, an area comparable to Connecticut, was in full collapse two weeks ago.

The seas north of Spitsbergen have been non-solidified for the past week. Wide leads (visible from space as cracks) have been opening up and closing at the edges of the Arctic ice pack all along Siberia and above the Yukon. Open water allows sunlight in, which accelerates early melting, which lets more light in. The ice this year unusually weak for late April.

Gore, wasn't he the 'environmentalist' who administered 8 years of economic war against the children of Iraq? YES! Now I remember him! He also began the fencing off and militarization of The Border between the US and Mexico, too. He is some sort of Green for sure! He and his Administration friends, Silvestre Reyes and Madelyn Albright.

Wait, something about oil in Colombia, too? And here's Al in March this year...

'I'm not a reflexive opponent of nuclear. I used to be enthusiastic about it, but I'm now sceptical about it.'

Well, YES, Al! My you've changed! Or have you really?

'Yes, there is [more appetite for nuclear power now]. And because of the carbon crisis there will be more nuclear plants built and some of those being retired will be replaced by others. I think it will play a somewhat larger role, but it will not be the main option chosen.'

YES, such scepticism!

'. People have said for years that there are now completely different [nuclear] technologies. OK, but if you have a team of scientists that can build a reactor, and you're a dictator, you can make them work at night to build a nuclear weapon. That's what's happened in North Korea and Iran. And in Libya before they gave it up. So the idea of, say, Chad, Burma, and Sudan having lots of nuclear reactors is insane and it's not going to happen.'

Let's go to war, Gore! It's the 'green' thing to do and now I see what a great environmentalist you are! You're against nuclear power in Iran and Chad and Burma! Of course, here, it will be an option, but just maybe not 'the major option'?

(Remarks taken from a Leo Hickman interview with Gore for the UK Guardian)

More importantly is the scope of what is illustrated. The changing of minds is precisely what is occurring. The paternalistic hyper-testosterone version of my-way-or-the-highway rhetoric is finally being exposed (in amny ways thanks to the blogosphere) for its rhetorical whining, solipsistic irrationality and sort of un-deadness.

One thing I begin to realize with the emergence of the indigenous voice in matters like these, is that when you do not have the 'advantage' of a culture of fingerpointing, one reverts to simple truth. That voice is gaining resonance, which is a prophetic, predictable and blessedly welcome development.

The weightiness of gravity, even of an inconvenient truth, out functions hot air on a consistent basis. I'm reminded of the cartoon coyote that runs over the edge of the cliff, becomes fully aware in mid-air and whoosh - welcome to solid earth... gotta love the coyote too...

Oregoncharles

For an interesting view of just how serious Al Gore is about global warming, take a look at this Snopes piece on the comparative differences between his house (one of them) and GW's Texas house. "The tale of two houses"

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

And you can check yourself, the League of Conservation Voters gave Gore a 64% lifetime environmental rating. Isn't that a "D" grade? - John Kerry's score was in the high 90s.

Keep an eye on USGS/earthquake data and rate of melt on Greenland this summer.
Predictions?---Sure, I'll stick my neck out and make a couple:

The Atlantic will experience a tsunami related to seismic or ice sheet release.
The west coast will receive legal governmental warnings concerning the onset of quake activity, and the need to be ready or be gone.
Antarctica will experience a storm of unprecedented length and severity.

Wait til the fall to call me an idiot.

And, what ever else Gore has done or not done, he is a hero of humanity for getting the word out about the data on that chart he projected on a wall and viewed from the forklift. Check it out--- in print.

The planet suffers a single narrative. Over 100 years back CORPORATION was told of these now real outcomes. But CORPORATION would not have any of it, why? Because CORPORATION is without peer! Our home at the time had under 2 billion inhabitants. Today its just under 7 billion so now Neoliberlism claims 'community service' for its plunder.
CORPORATION will not help save our home because there isnt a 'market' for it! You and I suffer dead planet politics daily. The presidnt will only back labor w/ 'expenditure' not regulation. He wont renegotiate NAFTA 'cause CORPORATION will not let him, lets face it. He sided w/ credit card cos re-writing bankruptcy(sp) laws. He sided w/ the re-writing of FISA, and even torture is legal. He is anti-labor through and through.
But our ecological stability is at an all-time low. Do you think we'd move toward a more sustainable existence(sp) if the sovereignty of labor(i.e. globally) is restored? I got news for you, sovereignty of labor and ecological stability are intertwined, think Somalia.
But the president supports neither. How can one print tons of money but not regulate markets? You cant do it. It is a lie to say otherwise. But this is Neoliberlisms' community service.
One last thing. The reason why the world is unable to grasp the renewable energy industry is because it can not be deregulated. Only that which is finite can be deregulated. So in other words, the reason why we will not solve our ecological/labor problem is because the solution is of great abundance.

Poor little rich boy all grown up--Attention America! Countrypolitan city-slicker hill-billy Al Gore is desperatly seeking to establish his relevence and build "the legacy thing"!

Oh Al, how long will it be before you see that the discontinuuity between your words and your actions renders what you say a joke?

Poet

Solving climate change is our generation's greatest challenge. A revenue-neutral carbon tax is the cheapest, simplest, most effective and most progressive way to do it.

Join GreenChange.org in calling on President Obama and our elected representatives to support a revenue-neutral carbon tax:

http://tinyurl.com/neutralCO2tax

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