Al Gore sets the bar for CO2 emissions

TheMercenary · 10-12-2007, 07:22 PM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...re-green_x.htm

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
Updated 12/7/2006 5:45 PM ET
By Peter Schweizer
Correction: In this column that appeared Aug. 10 on the Forum Page, writer Peter Schweizer inaccurately stated that former vice president Al Gore receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property in Tennessee despite his environmental advocacy. He no longer does, as the mine was closed in 2003.
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."

ON DEADLINE: Your thoughts?

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.

Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.

Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.

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.

Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.

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.

The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.

warch · 10-12-2007, 09:19 PM

Congratulations Al Gore and IPCC! Keep up the good work!

The right noise machine seems to be emitting much radical toxic gas over this! Taking a pounding on the realistic scientific debate?!? hey, Swiftboat the messenger!

Update: Oxy stock long dumped and Zinc mine closed years ago, so we can add that to the known hybrid, the recycling, probably those curly bulbs, and warm slippers instead of turning up the heat...does it count yet?! ha.

Here's an idea. Stop whining and start thinking ahead and investing. There's money to be made in alternative energy, that should speak to you! To say nothing of a patriot weaning off the Middle Eastern and Venezuelan teats.

TheMercenary · 10-12-2007, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warch

The "patriotguards" (lets talk hypocrisy! ) seem to be emitting much radical toxic gas over this!

How do you figure? 40 - 50 mpg? I'd say they do their part. how about you? We all know of Al Gore's Hypocrisy.

warch · 10-12-2007, 09:32 PM

I apologize for that. I thought the patriotguards was a political discussion board, not an actual group doing something constructive. I should have checked before posting and regret this.

I changed my post to better reflect what I meant- that this Gore meme has been circulated with efficiency through most right wing sites and media that have repeated consistently that any left or center view cannot be patriotic. That was the hypocrisy I meant to call.

Urbane Guerrilla · 10-13-2007, 12:25 AM

Swiftboat is an idiom for "to tell the truth." There has been no refutation whatsoever to the Swift Boaters on any point of fact they have raised. Indeed, no one can remember processing citations for any of Sen. Kerry's three Purple Hearts. No. One. Can. Recall. Giving. Him. Those. Medals.

That the truths told may be inconvenient to the Democrats simply makes them the richer.

Being myself of independent mind, I say centrist views can be patriotic, and quite sufficiently. Further left than that, though, the patriotism curve takes a steepening downward slope.

xoxoxoBruce · 10-13-2007, 01:03 PM

The messenger preparing the message.
Keep in mind he is only the messenger... he's Ed McMahon not Johnny Carson.
What he's telling you is the result of research by thousands of real scientists.
His personal views are no more valid than yours or mine, and his lifestyle is irrelevant.

warch · 10-13-2007, 01:17 PM

That's a lot of paper. and electricity. and resin coated wall frog. He is a hypocrite.

I. think. the. swift. boat. erz. have. been. sound. ly. debunked. George Elliot was for Kerry before he was against Kerry. No swiftboaters served on Kerry's boat. Those that did, support Kerry's actions and citations.

Happy Monkey · 10-13-2007, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Swiftboat is an idiom for "to tell the truth." There has been no refutation whatsoever to the Swift Boaters on any point of fact they have raised.

Incorrect.

Aliantha · 10-13-2007, 06:00 PM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned his Nobel Peace Prize yet. Obviously someone thinks he's on the right track.

Sundae · 10-13-2007, 06:12 PM

I was holding off, assuming that on this board it would require me to punch well above my weight if I intended to endorse it.

Aliantha · 10-13-2007, 06:17 PM

haha...well I think he deserves it. He has worked hard to promote his thoughts, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, I think it takes someone like that to make people at least start talking about an issue.

What I mean is, he's touted by his naysayers as a left wing loony, but he wears a suit giving him credibility in the eyes of the world. He believes strongly in his ideas but he has a lifestyle which many would consider enviable.

I think he's positioned himself very well to make a difference, and I wouldn't presume to know the whole process behind his selection for the prize, but surely those things would have been contributing factors.

xoxoxoBruce · 10-14-2007, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aliantha

I think he's positioned himself very well to make a difference, and I wouldn't presume to know the whole process behind his selection for the prize, but surely those things would have been contributing factors.

Nobody knows the whole process. Well, practically nobody, anyway. The whole Nobel selection process is very secretive.

Clodfobble · 10-14-2007, 02:00 PM

[Tangential rant about the Nobel Prize]My mother-in-law was visiting this weekend, and over dinner she starts marveling at how she simply doesn't understand why they would give the Nobel Prize (of which she thought there was only one, no categories) to Al Gore, since global warming was a bad thing. She's a nice woman and all, but damn it's hard to hold a conversation with her sometimes... [/rant]

Aliantha · 10-14-2007, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Nobody knows the whole process. Well, practically nobody, anyway. The whole Nobel selection process is very secretive.

Apparently the process for selecting the winners is available to the public a certain number of years after the prize has been awarded. It's 10years or something like that. I don't know that for a fact, but it was in the biography of John Nash which I've just finished reading.

xoxoxoBruce · 10-15-2007, 08:00 PM

That's contrary to everything I've ever heard, or read, about the Nobel process. I'd like to see some evidence of that.

10-12-2007, 07:22 PM	#1
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	Al Gore sets the bar for CO2 emissions http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...re-green_x.htm Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe Updated 12/7/2006 5:45 PM ET By Peter Schweizer Correction: In this column that appeared Aug. 10 on the Forum Page, writer Peter Schweizer inaccurately stated that former vice president Al Gore receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property in Tennessee despite his environmental advocacy. He no longer does, as the mine was closed in 2003. Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin." ON DEADLINE: Your thoughts? 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. Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee. Maybe our very existence isn't threatened. 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. Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either. 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. The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives. __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

10-13-2007, 12:25 AM	#5
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	Swiftboat is an idiom for "to tell the truth." There has been no refutation whatsoever to the Swift Boaters on any point of fact they have raised. Indeed, no one can remember processing citations for any of Sen. Kerry's three Purple Hearts. No. One. Can. Recall. Giving. Him. Those. Medals. That the truths told may be inconvenient to the Democrats simply makes them the richer. Being myself of independent mind, I say centrist views can be patriotic, and quite sufficiently. Further left than that, though, the patriotism curve takes a steepening downward slope. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course.

10-13-2007, 01:03 PM	#6
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	The messenger preparing the message. Keep in mind he is only the messenger... he's Ed McMahon not Johnny Carson. What he's telling you is the result of research by thousands of real scientists. His personal views are no more valid than yours or mine, and his lifestyle is irrelevant. Attached Images Last edited by xoxoxoBruce; 10-13-2007 at 01:09 PM.

10-13-2007, 06:00 PM	#9
Aliantha trying hard to be a better person Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 16,493	I'm surprised no one has mentioned his Nobel Peace Prize yet. Obviously someone thinks he's on the right track. __________________ Kind words are the music of the world. F. W. Faber

10-13-2007, 06:12 PM	#10
Sundae polaroid of perfection Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 24,185	I was holding off, assuming that on this board it would require me to punch well above my weight if I intended to endorse it. __________________ Life's hard you know, so strike a pose on a Cadillac

10-12-2007, 09:19 PM	#2
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Congratulations Al Gore and IPCC! Keep up the good work! The right noise machine seems to be emitting much radical toxic gas over this! Taking a pounding on the realistic scientific debate?!? hey, Swiftboat the messenger! Update: Oxy stock long dumped and Zinc mine closed years ago, so we can add that to the known hybrid, the recycling, probably those curly bulbs, and warm slippers instead of turning up the heat...does it count yet?! ha. Here's an idea. Stop whining and start thinking ahead and investing. There's money to be made in alternative energy, that should speak to you! To say nothing of a patriot weaning off the Middle Eastern and Venezuelan teats.

10-12-2007, 09:32 PM	#4
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	I apologize for that. I thought the patriotguards was a political discussion board, not an actual group doing something constructive. I should have checked before posting and regret this. I changed my post to better reflect what I meant- that this Gore meme has been circulated with efficiency through most right wing sites and media that have repeated consistently that any left or center view cannot be patriotic. That was the hypocrisy I meant to call.

10-13-2007, 01:17 PM	#7
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	That's a lot of paper. and electricity. and resin coated wall frog. He is a hypocrite. I. think. the. swift. boat. erz. have. been. sound. ly. debunked. George Elliot was for Kerry before he was against Kerry. No swiftboaters served on Kerry's boat. Those that did, support Kerry's actions and citations.

10-13-2007, 06:17 PM	#11
Aliantha trying hard to be a better person Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 16,493	haha...well I think he deserves it. He has worked hard to promote his thoughts, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, I think it takes someone like that to make people at least start talking about an issue. What I mean is, he's touted by his naysayers as a left wing loony, but he wears a suit giving him credibility in the eyes of the world. He believes strongly in his ideas but he has a lifestyle which many would consider enviable. I think he's positioned himself very well to make a difference, and I wouldn't presume to know the whole process behind his selection for the prize, but surely those things would have been contributing factors. __________________ Kind words are the music of the world. F. W. Faber

10-14-2007, 02:00 PM	#13
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	[Tangential rant about the Nobel Prize]My mother-in-law was visiting this weekend, and over dinner she starts marveling at how she simply doesn't understand why they would give the Nobel Prize (of which she thought there was only one, no categories) to Al Gore, since global warming was a bad thing. She's a nice woman and all, but damn it's hard to hold a conversation with her sometimes... [/rant]

10-15-2007, 08:00 PM	#15
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	That's contrary to everything I've ever heard, or read, about the Nobel process. I'd like to see some evidence of that.

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