Guess What Today Is???

So today is Blog Action Day. This purpose of this day is to have bloggers' around the web to unite and put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Being an ambassador of goodwill and understanding amongst cultures, I figured that it would be fitting then to address a very relevant topic that is being discussed in Holland at the moment. As we all (should) know, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded the other day to former American Vice-President Al Gore AND the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a United Nations supported organization. Given the award "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change," I think this is a logical choice for the committee. Yet many people, from my reading of online American based forums and news sites, have attacked this award for the purpose of either they a.) have political differences with Gore or b.) they do not believe in the notion of climate change.

This is quite unfortunate because the evidence of what the globe is facing is quite obvious. While people have called the film Inconvenient Truth, which helped to win the peace prize, as being based on unscientific principles this is simply not true. As people will also point to the recent ruling by a judge in the UK, about the film being shown in schools as further evidence of the 'lies' in this movie it only requires two seconds of research to disprove this as one large farce led by corporate interests. According to recently disclosed political documents it has been shown that the man who took the film to court has strong connections with both mining and fossil fuel corporations, having accepted 1 £ million ($2 million US) in political donations for the party of which he is a member. These people are even further discredited by the fact that the leader of the party is connected to a controversial "documentary," The Great Global Warming Swindle, which has been supported by oil industry interests.

On the other hand, a fellow blogger has taken a few moments and shown that the discrepancies in the film, as ruled by the judge, to be quite inaccurate based on existing research. In his analysis he has compiled evidence which continues to point to the existence of global warming. Read the article, it is quite good.

Lastly, I think it is also telling that aside from many of my European friends being encouraged by this award, it also goes to show about the priorities of Holland and the US at the moment. In an unscientific but coincidental(?) search of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website I saw no mention of the Nobel Prize being awarded to Gore or the UN Panel. Alternatively, it is featured very prominently on the the Dutch environmental agency equivalent.

So with that, some parting words of wisdom: Do a little more research to discover the truth and also question whether the US truly has it's priorities in the right place when it comes to our environment. And don't forget to participate in Blog Action Day!