there are 6 nobel prizes: peace, medicine, chemistry, physics, literature, and economics. amusingly, it is said that alfred nobel set up the prize fund because he felt terrible that his invention (dynamite) caused such misery in war, and wanted to redeem himself. laureates (winners) in chemistry, physics, and economics are chosen by the swedish academy of sciences, laureates in literature are selected by the swedish academy, laureates for medicine are chosen by the nobel assembly (who are chosen by the karolinska institute), and laureates for peace are selected by the norwegian nobel committee (who are chosen by the norwegian parliament). interestingly, i once had an e-mail debate with some idiot reporter for worldnetdaily (a crappy right-wing news organization) about why us congressmen are NOT responsible for nominating potential nobel laureates.
anyway, scientists dont generally get the peace prize. they get the medicine, chemistry or physics prizes. the peace prize goes to people who make some kind of social difference. al gore seems to be at the forefront of every major environmental rally thing, so i'd say he deserves it. after all its a pretty important cause, unless youre old and wont be affected by it (like most of our lawmakers).