Gore gets home-state honors with doctorate from University of Tennessee, 3rd in school history

U. of Tenn. gives Gore home-state honorary degree

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore can hang a new award on his wall after his home-state University of Tennessee gave him an honorary doctorate.

It’s just the third such degree the university has granted, after previous ones for former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and singer Dolly Parton.

Gore spoke to graduating students at the ceremony Friday. He renewed calls for action against global warming, the topic that won him a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

About two dozen protesters outside waved signs decrying Gore’s climate stance and calling it “phony science.”

The former U.S. Senator from Tennessee lives in Nashville.