On December 11, ...

... 1997 (10 years ago today), at an international conference in Japan, the Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change was opened for signature. Earlier this month Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, "ratified the Kyoto Protocol as the first formal act of his Government," "sparking a sustained burst of applause on the floor" at the 13th Convention conference in Bali, Indonesia, and leaving "the United States isolated as the only industrialized country to refuse to sign Kyoto." In the developing world, the resistance of China further poses obstacles to the Protocol. Yesterday former U.S. Vice President Albert Gore took both countries to task in his Nobel Peace Prize speech.
... 1981, more than 200 children, women, and men in the village of El Mozote, El Salvador, were "were deliberately and systematically executed in groups" after having spent "the night locked in their homes" by units of the government's Atlacatl Battalion. Accounts of the grim details may be found here and here.

Women of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

Taking nothing from former U.S. Vice President Albert Gore, let's focus for a moment on the international organization that, as of today's announcement, is sharing with him the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
That co-winner is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Since its establishment 19 years ago by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme, the Geneva-based IPCC has, in its own words, worked

to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.

The leadership of this 2,000-plus network of scientists includes a number of women. They too share in this prize:
IPCC Working Group I, charged with evaluating scientific aspects of climate change: Dr. Susan Solomon (top right), Senior Scientist, Senior Scientist, Chemical Sciences Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, Co-Chair; Maria T. Martelo, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Caracas, Venezuela, Vice-Chair.
IPCC Working Group II, which examines "the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it": Dr. Lučka-Kajfež Bogataj (top left), Professor, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Ljublana, Slovenia, Vice-Chair.
IPCC Task Force Bureau: Dr. Thelma Krug (middle right), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, São José dos Campos, Brazil, Co-chair; Dina Kruger (bottom right), Director, Climate Change Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Helen Plume (bottom left), Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand, members.