Former Vice President Al Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work informing the world about the dangers posed by climate change, spoke at Carnegie Mellon University's 111th commencement ceremony this morning to a record crowd.

University officials said Mr. Gore spoke to more than 10,000 at the ceremony.

Approximately 2,200 undergraduate and graduate degrees were conferred at the commencement ceremony in Gesling Stadium on the CMU campus in Oakland.

Author of the bestsellers "Earth in the Balance" and "An Inconvenient Truth," Mr. Gore received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the university. He was introduced by Dr. Edward S. Rubin, CMU Engineering and Public Policy and Mechanical Engineering professor who was a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore.

Also receiving honorary degrees and joining Mr. Gore on the commencement stage were Norman R. Augustine, former president and chief executive officer of Martin-Marietta and Lockheed Martin and chair of the National Academies Committee that produced the report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," about the need for an educated workforce; Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com; Elizabeth Catlett, artist and sculptor; Suh Nam Pyo, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and an inventor; and Patrick Colonel Suppes, the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Stanford University.