OPINION
5
Climate Activists Torqued By Obama Nobel
With US the biggest obstacle to action, they hope prize acts as stick
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Oct 14, 09 10:14 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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The Taliban and conservative commentators in the US aren’t the only ones steamed by Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. “It’s hard for me to emphasize enough the thickness of the international resentment towards America at the climate negotiation level,” Ben Jervey writes. The argument is simple: The US “is the biggest obstacle to reaching a global climate treaty;” climate change is “the biggest threat to global peace the world has ever known;” ergo, “the US is the biggest threat to global peace the world has ever known.”
It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to “Obama doesn’t deserve the Peace Prize,” Jervey writes in GOOD. But Jervey is wise to the machinations of the Nobel committee, and he thinks the prize-as-stick tactic could work. “Obama will have to go to Norway to accept the award on December 10th. It just so happens that there are some pretty big international climate talks happening really close by at the same time.” Could the outrage at Obama if he doesn’t go to Copenhagen be enough to spur action? “Let’s hope so.”