What's Peace Got To Do With It?

This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former Vice President Al Gore for his efforts to educate the world about climate change and its consequences, thanks mainly to the film "An Inconvenient Truth", which won Gore an Academy Award for best documentary.

While the honors for Gore are well deserved, jealous conservatives who never believed in global warming in the first place (probably because most of us won't be around to see its consequences) are complaining that Gore isn't as green as people think he is, claiming that he leaves the lights on at his house too long, for example.

They're also wondering what in heck global warming has to do with peace. Let's see . . . unchecked climate change could lead to dwindling resources of food, water and land, which leads to refugees crossing borders from uninhabitable areas and countries defending their supplies with force, which might lead to war.

Some of the solutions to climate change are not without their flaws. Take the campaign to ban bottled water. It's a nice idea, but not everyone has access to clean, safe drinking water. Or bicycles. They're great for exercising during the summer. As for the rest of the year, unless you live in a warm climate and you don't have to haul stuff, bicycles aren't very practical. That's why people will continue to pay through the nose for gas to fill their SUVs.

And then there's the inevitable speculation about whether Gore wants to make another run for the White House to replace the current Polluter-In-Chief. First, he's not interested. Second, if he did run, he's well behind Hillary Clinton in the Democratic field in whatever poll you believe.

Besides, with all the accolades Al Gore is getting these days, who needs the White House?