Boulder Scientists Share Nobel Peace Prize With Al Gore

Colorado's connection to the Nobel Peace Prize shared with Al Gore:

Colorado scientists were among those basking in the Nobel Peace Prize today after spending much of their professional lives trying to raise concerns about climate change.

And they hope the award will help — or prod — governments to do more to curb global warming or avert disasters on the scale of a Hurricane Katrina or the deadly effects of the 2003 heat wave that killed up to 35,000 people in Europe.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, named co-winner of this year's prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has been cranking out reports that have built up knowledge "about the connection between human activities and global warming," said the Nobel prize committee.

"Mother Nature keeps helping us along because the evidence just keeps piling up," said Kevin Trenberth, a lead author on the 1995, 2001 and 2007 reports.

More:

Like most of America, Kevin Trenberth found out first thing Friday that Al Gore had won the Nobel Peace Prize. But it wasn't until Trenberth got to work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research that he realized the big news — he'd won, too.

Trenberth, along with dozens — if not hundreds — of Boulder scientists who contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is basking in a little slice of Nobel glory this weekend. The IPCC will share this year's prestigious Peace Prize with Gore.

"I'm thrilled," said Trenberth, who was a lead author for a chapter of the panel's 2007 assessment of the state of climate change. "It was quite a long process — nearly four years from start to finish for this whole series of reports to get done."

The international panel was formed in 1988 in response to increasing concerns about the effects of possible climate change. It has released four assessments on the state of knowledge on climate change, concluding earlier this year that global warming is indeed happening and is "very likely" caused by humans.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to groups before, but the award to the IPCC stands out because of its focus on cold, hard science.

Unfortunately for both Al Gore and the Boulder-based scientists, the media lie that there is an overwhelming scientific "consensus" on global warming or it's effects has begun to erode, though this "inconvenient truth" seems lost on the Nobel committee.