Scientific efforts to describe the global problem of climate change, and cultural efforts to change the human behavior that is causing it, were recognized this morning with the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced moments ago, when it split the prize between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 2,000 scientists convened by the United Nations, and Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States.

The climate-change panel, in voluminous reports issued in February and April, has laid out the case that the global climate is warming, and that greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels — in cars, power plants, and so on — is to blame. Mr. Gore, who wrote a manifesto of an environmental ethic that was uncharacteristically blunt for a politician, followed his departure from office, in 2001, with work on a film, An Inconvenient Truth, that was a powerful statement about global climate change and what should be done to stop it. The movie was a box-office hit and also won an Oscar.

The climate-change panel and Mr. Gore will receive the prize, worth about $1.5-million, at a ceremony in December. The prize is the fifth this week. On Monday the prize in medicine was announced. On Tuesday the physics prize was awarded. On Wednesday the chemistry prize was awarded. And on Thursday the literature prize was announced. The Chronicle will have a fuller report on the Peace Prize winners later. —Andrew Mytelka