Al Gore:How Green Is He?

[Kevy Baby]

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe.

Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.

Read the whole story.

I'm quite amused.

[mousepod]

I'm pretty sure that scaeagles posted this same liberal-bashing article here.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by mousepod

I'm pretty sure that scaeagles posted this same liberal-bashing article here.

With apologies to Skay-gulls, I had missed that.

I am also amused about how something is "X-bashing" if it goes against one's leaning. The truth can hurt.

[Alex]

I finally saw An Inconvenient Truth last week.

I'm not entirely on board with the degree to which the biggest chicken littles claim that global warming is man-caused and therefore man-fixable.

That said, the movie is very well made and makes a reasonable case for its view of things. Much of the criticism I have seen of the movie turned out to be unfounded (Gore is clear in stating that projections are projections and worst case ones at that; he never says that the Chinese are better on the environment than us but rather better on a very specific policy issue).

The truthfulness of his message is in no way impacted by his personal actions. If he condemns murder and then murders someone, it does not contradict the original condemnation.

That said, he does open himself up to personal ridicule when he encourages people to make specific personal decisions but does not do so himself. At the end of the movie he makes a bunch of "think global, act local" changes and switching to green power from your utillity companies is one of them. So it does seem bizarre that he wouldn't have done this himself.

He also, for the most part, removes the question of government mandate from the discussion and frames the question of whether we should reduce our carbon footprints as a personal moral decision. And it is clear what he considers the moral side to choose.

So, I think it is valid to point out that by his own definition Al Gore may be acting immorally. However, this has zero impact on whether his evaluation of what is moral is correct. The Christian Bible contains a similar sentiment in that none of us is perfect and we all sin, even those we look to to delineate the proper sin-free life.

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

With apologies to Skay-gulls, I had missed that.

I am also amused about how something is "X-bashing" if it goes against one's leaning. The truth can hurt.

Please don't label me a liberal. In fact, please don't label me. We don't need to make it personal.

I called it "liberal bashing" because the author of the article that so amused you is the author of "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy". He's a fellow of the Hoover Institution. He has an agenda, and it's as valid to point it out as anything else in this thread.

[Not Afraid]

I like how the focus is no longer on what he is saying but if he is participating. Isn't the important thing what he is talking about? We LOVE to disount others based on "facts" about what we can glean from their personal lives instead of taking what as being said as something to consider.

Question what he is saying. That's a good thing. Focusing on his life as a method to discount what he is saying is just shortsighted.

[SacTown Chronic]

"We don't know the course of our own struggle -- the course our own struggle will take -- or the sacrifices that might lie ahead. We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice. We do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history. And we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail." - Vietnam War evader and Iraq War starter George W Bush, 10/2005

I'm quite amused.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

I'm quite amused.

To use a quote that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the original post as some sort of diversionary tactic is completey ridiculous. The OP had nothing to do with Bush, nothing to do with a war (be it Iraq or Vietnam) yet you chose to post this?!?

Sorry, but this is a non-sequitur and not worthy of even being in this thread.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Sorry, but this is a non-sequitur and not worthy of even being in this thread.

Except that it exposes a double-standard.

I think that Euromeinke asks excellent questions that were never for a moment considered when that article was written. Of course, a balanced article would have defeated the purpose which was simply to bash Al Gore.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

Except that it exposes a double-standard.

In what way? The article says nothing about how Bush or the current administration does anything better or worse. It makes no references to Conservatives or Liberals. It simply says that there is prevalent and credible evidence that a man who has chosen to use his name to promote a (worthy) cause does not practice what he preaches.

Bringing the Bush administration into this makes about as much sense as bitching about the effect that the Pressler/Harriss era had on Disneyland. Sure, it is a painful ugly detail, but totally irrelevant to the topic.

The cause of environmentalism is a worthy action that the world does need to pay more attention to - never once does the article say otherwise. What it DOES point out is that Al Gore, the individual, is hypocritical on what he says. He is making a large campaign out of this issue and yet does not practice what he preaches. So, yes; that makes him a hypocrit.
___________________________________________
ETA (to avoid multiple consecutive posts): The article is not a blind attack piece; it is legitimately calling into question the credibility of the cheerleader of the cause. For those who didn't read the whole article (yet called into question the point of the worthiness of the point made):

Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.