IQALUIT, Nunavut - A Canadian nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize says she's not that disappointed about failing to get the prestigious award because her nomination still brought more attention to climate change.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an Inuit leader and campaigner against global warming who had been tabbed as one of the favourites for the prize.
On Friday it was awarded jointly to former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations scientific team that wrote what is considered the most authoritative assessment of the issue. Gore has campaigned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and won an Oscar earlier this year for his climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
"As long as the earth is a winner, I am very pleased about the outcome this morning," Watt-Cloutier said in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Friday.
Watt-Cloutier, 53, is known for emphasizing how climate change affects people, especially indigenous cultures such as the Inuit. She won Norway's Sophie Prize for the environment in 2005 for calling attention to the impact of climate change on life in the Arctic.
And when she was head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, she brought a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against the United States, saying the country's refusal to limit greenhouse gas emissions was harming the Inuit way of life.
That human rights approach to global warming has only been strengthened by the nomination, she said.
"The Nobel nomination put that issue a lot further out there."
Watt-Cloutier added the nomination has also strengthened her ability to carry that message.
"My work got propelled way out there beyond what I would have expected. Since the nomination I am very, very busy being invited all over the world.
"It has been very, very helpful to the cause."
Invitations to speak come almost daily now, Watt-Cloutier said.
