Foreign Policy Blogs

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The big ticket for today is that President Barack Hussein Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  What’s that got to do with climate change?  The press release from the Norwegian Nobel Committee says that, among his other accomplishments:  “Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.”  Clearly the Committee has climate change high on its agenda as it awarded the 2007 prize, as you know, to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to Al Gore “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.”

President Obama’s reaction to the announcement included remarks relative to climate change.  “We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children — sowing conflict and famine; destroying coastlines and emptying cities.  And that’s why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.”  I’ve chronicled many of the groundbreaking initiatives of the Obama Administration at the blog.

Congratulations, Mr. President!

 

Author

Bill Hewitt

Bill Hewitt has been an environmental activist and professional for nearly 25 years. He was deeply involved in the battle to curtail acid rain, and was also a Sierra Club leader in New York City. He spent 11 years in public affairs for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, and worked on environmental issues for two NYC mayoral campaigns and a presidential campaign. He is a writer and editor and is the principal of Hewitt Communications. He has an M.S. in international affairs, has taught political science at Pace University, and has graduate and continuing education classes on climate change, sustainability, and energy and the environment at The Center for Global Affairs at NYU. His book, "A Newer World - Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis," will be out from the University Press of New England in December.



Areas of Focus:
the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

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