To no one’s surprise, the Nobel Committee has awarded their meaningless, politically driven Peace Prize to the Goracle, and the United Nations: Gore and U.N. Panel Win Peace Prize for Climate Work.

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, addressed reporters after the awards were announced and tried to dismiss repeated questions asking whether the awards were a criticism — direct or indirect — of the Bush administration.

He said the committee was making an appeal to the entire world to unite against the threat of global warming.

“We would encourage all countries, including the big countries, to challenge all of them to think again and to say what can they do to conquer global warming,” he said. “The bigger the powers, the better that they come in front of this.”

He said the peace prize is only a message of encouragement, adding, “the Nobel committee has never given a kick in the leg to anyone.” [As Alfred Nobel spins in his grave. – ed.]

In this decade the Nobel Peace Prize has been given to prominent people and agencies who differ on a range of issues with the Bush administration, including former President Jimmy Carter, who won in 2002, and Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency in Vienna, in 2005.

And let’s not forget that other paragon of peace, Yasser Arafat.

UPDATE at 10/12/07 8:32:55 am:

Meanwhile, a High Court judge in Britain has ruled that Gore’s film is bursting with lies: Ruling Against Climate Film In Schools.

A High Court judge has ruled that schools should not show a climate change film by former US vice-president Al Gore - unless teachers balance his one-sided views.

According to Mr Justice Burton, Mr Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth contains nine scientific errors that are not supported by mainstream scientific beliefs.

Earlier this year, the Government sent copies of the Oscar-winning film to all secondary schools as part of a teaching pack.

Kent school governor Stewart Dimmock then took the case to court, accusing the Government of “brainwashing” children with propaganda.

UPDATE at 10/12/07 8:59:11 am:

Spiegel Online slobbers over the Goracle: Too Big for the White House: Can Superstar Gore Still Run for President?

Al Gore — almost-president, climate change icon and now Nobel Peace Prize winner — transcends politics. He has done so for a long time, and now he certainly hovers far above the swamp of an election campaign, with its mudslinging, tedious debates and populism in the provinces. He is of a far different caliber: a statesman who was never head of state.

At his last appearance before a large audience, Gore happily sat on stage with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Someone like that no longer concerns himself with questions about his position on the abortion debate or which taxes he wants to cut.