Gore's Nobel Peace Prize intensifies Global Warming debate

Al Gore shares this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations for his efforts to make global warming a pressing global issue.

Within hours of the announcement, pundits across the country were debating whether Gore deserved the award and whether global warming is really the threat the former vice president says it is.

Gore is the first American to win the coveted international honor since Jimmy Carter in 2002.

Gore says the bottom line is, "We face a true planetary emergency."

He says it is not a political issue, but rather a "moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

Critics, however, question whether global warming is a threat to the planet, or just part of a continuing cycle of climate change.

They also question whether, as Gore says, man is the cause of the rise in global temperatures.

Gore says he'll donate his share of the $1.5 million award that goes with the prize to a non-profit alliance devoted to spreading the message about the urgency of the climate crisis.