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.

[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.

[Nephythys]

No it's not. Words don't mean anything without action behind them. If he tells others how to live- but does not live that way himself- he is nothing but a hypocrite and not worth listening to- at all.

[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.

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

No it's not. Words don't mean anything without action behind them. If he tells others how to live- but does not live that way himself- he is nothing but a hypocrite and not worth listening to- at all.

I agree, Neph. See above GWB quote.

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

No it's not. Words don't mean anything without action behind them. If he tells others how to live- but does not live that way himself- he is nothing but a hypocrite and not worth listening to- at all.

I guess I'm not one to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Absolutes don't exist most of the time. And, we really don't know all of the facts about the home energy issue. What about the things that he DOES do? You throw those out to?

[mousepod]

Hate to disagree, Nephy, but it's a question of how one feels about the global warming issue. If you believe that Al Gore's message is correct, then it's good that he's spreading it - if you don't, fine. For me, I can look beyond the person and hear the message.
If we were going to discount every hypocrite's message, then how could we take any message from the current White House seriously?

[Morrigoon]

They're mad at him because he owns a couple large houses?

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Even if the message is worth supporting, when the messenger chooses to not live up to the standards he is proposing, the messenger deserves scorn and ridicule.