Al Gore has been in the running for the peace prize for a while, and it has finally come to pass. Great! Gore has been on the forefront of publicizing global warming since the 1980s, and that shows some serious insight for a politician, and for a subject that doesn’t involve either lining the politician’s pockets or securing him the next election. One can now easily think about approaching a candidate for political office, and asking her/him, ‘What would you rather have, the presidency of the United States of America, or the Nobel prize?’, without too much science fiction being involved.

Had Al Gore been elected in 2000, who knows how much earlier the whole issue of global warming might have become a matter of public discourse? There are those who criticize Gore for dropping his environmental zeal during his campaign, and, perhaps they are right. Though, it really is difficult to tell, after all, because George Bush did receive a lot of votes, and I don’t think that says much for the environmental interests of the electorate. And that brings me to what I believe is a very important point. I’m hoping that the world’s people, especially us profligate users of resources in the West, begin to realize that we can no longer take the world’s natural resources for granted. Many biosystems, such as the oceans, have been trashed, and many forests have been chopped down, not for our survival, but to fuel consumerism. We need to find a better way to run our economies than simple, rampant consumerism. I don’t see how this will work in the long run.

• Al Gore Winds Nobel Peace Prize