Commenting on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC, Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said:
"Gore is a worthy winner of the prize. Climate change is a huge threat to the peace and security of the world as huge population movements and conflicts over diminishing resources loom on the horizon. We know his campaigning has made an impact globally, but it’s in the United States where his work has made the most difference. He took on the powerful American climate-sceptic lobby, exposed them, largely sidelined them and managed to shift opinion. Now even his one-time opponent Bush doesn’t bother denying man-made global warming."
He continued:
"Recognition of the work of the IPCC is overdue. On a matter as important as climate change, where powerful interests are pushing for inaction, it is creditable science that will move policymakers, and that science has for many years been provided by the IPCC. Their reports are the bedrock on which the case for action has been made. These are critical years in the fight to slash CO2 emissions, and with the science of the IPCC being waved in their faces our leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to dither."
A 2003 Pentagon report warned that climate change posed a huge threat to global stability. Analysts stated: 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life. Once again, warfare would define human life.'
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/feb/
22/usnews.theobserver
On 17th April 2007, then UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett spoke to the UN Security Council, describing climate change as a 'security imperative'.
Greenpeace press office – 0207 865 8255.
