I'm all for people aspiring to big houses and enjoying the fruits of their fortunes. I just find it rather transparent when they preach to others to cut back on consumption while consuming 20 times what the average American consumes. I'll bet Al doesn't dry his clothes on a line out back.
"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."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."
Theodore Roosevelt, 1913
Posts: 2404 | Location: Redmond WA | Registered: 04 September 2006
POWER: GORE MANSION USES 20X AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD; CONSUMPTION INCREASE AFTER 'TRUTH' Mon Feb 26 2007 17:16:14 ET
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions, issued a press release late Monday:
Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.
Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.
In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
For Further Information, Contact: Nicole Williams, (615) 383-6431 editor@tennesseepolicy.org
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Originally posted by Slabmaster: A new documentary in the making:
"An inconvenient truth I'd rather people not know about"
It reminds me of Rush Limbaugh preaching against the evils of drug use while being an addict.
Slab, tell me it isn't true. That both sides can have the hypocrisy disease? You must realize that Republicans are never hypocrites (their oath and all).
As I have said before I hope Rush's attitude about drugs changes and Gore will live like the rest of us are suppose to do! More like Nadar. I look forward to seeing Gore at the local bus stop.
Posts: 7939 | Location: Santa Barbara | Registered: 19 July 2005
Schweizer is not a journalist who has done any meaningful investigation about Gore's life and collected evidence to prove his charges, but a right-wing political hack who works for a right-wing think tank -- which, not coincidentally, has received money from ExxonMobil. http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=43 -- and who confuses his own perceptions with reality.
Given Schweizer's history and connections it's clear that he wants to maintain the status quo with regard to fossil fuel comsumption and because he cannot refute the science of global warming he wants to kill the messenger hoping that that will kill the message as well.
But he does that with a list of falsehoods about Gore.
Gores' green commitment
The op-ed attacking former vice president Al Gore's environmental record was extremely misleading.
Former vice president Gore has worked to implement the recommendations from his movie and book, An Inconvenient Truth, and that includes his personal commitment to live a zero-carbon lifestyle.
He reduces the global-warming pollution for which he is responsible and then, each year, finances additional reductions elsewhere until his net impact on the global climate is reduced to zero.
He has long since switched to a hybrid car and was already in the process of adding solar photovoltaic units to his home before the commentary was published.
In addition, the Gores have donated 100% of all the profits from his movie and book to the fight against global-warming pollution.
The assertion by author Peter Schweizer that the Gores were swimming in Occidental stock is also off base. At Mr. Gore's request, all of his father's stock in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum was sold almost six years ago as the estate was closed. So, although Mr. Gore has and will continue to call on his fellow Americans to do their part to combat global warming, he isn't asking of them what he isn't willing to do himself.
Rather than vilifying a person who is trying to make a difference, wouldn't it be more fruitful for Schweizer to join the effort to solve the climate crisis?
Kalee Kreider, communications director
Office of Al Gore and Tipper Gore
Nashville
eley
"Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground"--Sweet Baby James
Posts: 1979 | Location: Texas | Registered: 21 August 2004
CANASTOTA, N.Y. - A privately held American Indian energy company has teamed up with Al Gore in delivering the former vice president's message of global warming to millions of people around the world.
NativeEnergy has been majority-owned by the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy since 2005. NativeEnergy, Participant Productions and Paramount Pictures Classics were able to offset 100 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from air and ground travel, production energy use, associated with the making of ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' according the NativeEnergy Web site.
Participant Productions, a relatively new film company, and Paramount Pictures Classics are helping to build the Rosebud St. Francis wind farm in South Dakota and the Dovan family dairy farm methane renewable energy project in Pennsylvania; they also helped to make the film climate-neutral, according to NativeEnergy.
NativeEnergy, whose logo can be found on the back of the recently released ''An Inconvenient Truth'' DVD, works to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the Earth's atmosphere every day.
eley
"Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground"--Sweet Baby James
Posts: 1979 | Location: Texas | Registered: 21 August 2004
First things first: I talked to some of Gore's people today, including Kreider, about the specific charges. Suffice to say, they're false. Gore receives no royalties from the mine, which shut down in 2003. (USA Today actually printed a correction about this, way down on page 10A.) Gore owns no stock in Occidental, and never has (his father did; it was all sold over six years ago). Gore does in fact take advantage of the green power options his utility offers, and was in the process of adding photovoltaic solar cells to his house when the article came out. He pays for his own personal carbon offsets, in addition to the institutional offsets purchased by Paramount (movie distributor) and Rodale (book publisher), which make both the book and the movie completely carbon neutral.
All that picayune nonsense aside, some might consider it more relevant that Gore has devoted his life to this problem, traveling around for years giving thousands of slideshows, co-founding an investment firm devoted to supporting green companies, making his book, movie, and new TV channel carbon neutral (Current will be carbon neutral by the end of the year), donating all the profits from the movie and book to the global-warming fight, and almost single-handedly raising the profile of the issue higher than it's ever been.
Also, if we're talking about hypocrisy, perhaps we should mention that Schweitzer's Hoover Institution -- home to professional climate cranks (and former tobacco cranks) like Fred Singer and Thomas Gale Moore -- is funded by the far-right Scaife Foundation along with, you guessed it, Exxon. Schweitzer is paid to launch baseless attacks on Al Gore; Al Gore donates the profits from his advocacy work to the issue he cares about. Who's being more honest with the public?
In the end, though, none of this matters. This kind of ad hominem back and forth is exactly what Gore's well-paid conservative attackers want. They want to drag the debate down to this level. It muddies the waters and causes the public to tune out.
The fact is, Al Gore is not perfect, environmentally or any other way. He does not claim otherwise.
Nobody is perfect on climate issues. Why? Because our political and cultural system makes it extraordinarily difficult. That's the issue: changing the system to make it easier to act in environmentally benign ways, and harder not to. That means pushing our leaders -- from the neighborhood level all the way up to the federal level -- to change public policy. It means pushing them to partner with business leaders to make eco-friendly products, power, homes, and transportation options more easily and readily available. It means pushing them to take a stand, to marshal the American people behind the grand historical quest to put our society on a sustainable path. It means pushing them to lead.
eley
"Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground"--Sweet Baby James
Posts: 1979 | Location: Texas | Registered: 21 August 2004
But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed."
Just because Al doesn't live in a log cabin with solar panels on the roof you have to scream hypocrite?
Man, you right-wingers need to clean up your own house before you start poking your noses in other peoples affairs. Forget the term "hypocrite", the republics blew by that years ago. Now they have earned the status of "CRIMINAL". and are currently working to elevate it to genocidal.
So let's just forget about all the dead people and the billions of stolen dollars...
lets just focus on the fact that Al Gore doesn't hang his clotes to dry out back!
Did you even pause to think how ridiculous it seems to whine about Al Gore's electric bill, while your buddies in the republican party are stuffing their pockets with money from the US Treasury and sending more troops to Iraq to die, so they can profit even more?
Not likely.
"These things which man purports to admire-the noble, the brilliant, the splendid-these are the very things he cannot tolerate when he finds them."-----Mark Clifton
Posts: 5565 | Location: hoffman estates il | Registered: 01 April 2003
Nice try Bill K. but we're NOT going to change the subject.
From last nights Oscar Ceremony..
quote:
For the first time, the fleet of limos outside the Kodak Theater were… hybrids! Priuses. At 60-plus bucks a hour. To chauffeur the stars to the parties and thence to the area’s airports, where some 80 private jets were fueled and ready for takeoff. You might call it hypocrisy; we call it doing well by doing good.
Which meant that if there was one film that was a dead, solid, bet-the-farm lock, it was the Goreacle’s earnest classroom lecture, An Inconvenient Truth. Now, you’d think that a science-based, call-to-action film from a guy who flunked out of divinity school and blew a slam-dunk election would be received with a certain amount of skepticism, but in officially atheist Hollywood, Albert Arnold Gore Jr., is the second coming of Moses, Maimonides, and Martin Luther, all rolled into one. This year, anyway.
It has nothing to do with partisan politics. It has nothing to do with people making money or sending troops to Iraq.
It has to do with a guy asking the public to cut back on usage while his own increases. Algores usage is 20 times the average and going up! 20+ times the average is alot.
I would not even bother presenting the hypocrisy of Algore if he was not preaching about conservation. I have no problem with what he's saying if that is the science people want to buy into. I just think he should demonstrate a smaller carbon footprint if he is telling everyone else to do so.
I am an NRA firearms instructor in pistol and rifle. I have taught firearms saftey for decades. 100% firearms safety at all times is a fact of life with me. If I randomly had accidental discharges or shot my lawyer friend in the face while bird hunting, I sure as hell wouldn't be lecturing about firearms safety. I wouldn't consider Dick Cheney's advice on firearm safety and handling as coming from a good example. He's not doing documentaries with great advice on it as far as I know. That would be hypocritical.
Hmmmm.....part of that scenereo I admire is shooting lawyers. Maybe I've misjudged him. This might take more contemplation........
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."
Theodore Roosevelt, 1913
Posts: 2404 | Location: Redmond WA | Registered: 04 September 2006
Nice try Bill K. but we're NOT going to change the subject
Fine, I guess you guys just can't stand it when liberals steal the show at the Academy Awards. this last ditch effort of yours to try to discredit AL Gore , who is on the front lines of the fight against Global Warming is really pathetic.
Ok lets keep this discussion on target shall we?
Now we all know that the most important role that politicians can play in protecting the environment is through legislation.
So if we can avert our eyes from Gore's henious deeds for a moment to look at the actual voting record...
quote:
A system of scoring the environmental voting record of US Congressmen has awarded the Republicans an appalling result and the Democrats a generally good one.
The Republicans were awarded an average of just 12% for their votes concerning the environment in the Senate, and 17% in the House, in the 2000 National Environmental Scorecard released by the non-profit organisation, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) on 24 October. The Democrats fared considerably better in the survey covering 1999 and 2000 voting, averaging 79% for their environmental voting record in the Senate and 77% in the House.
Gee I'm glad you guys brought this issue up, because I had no idea the republican record on the environment was this bad!
15% of the republicans voted for the environment!
and
78% of the democrats voted for the environment!
It's pretty obvious to me you guys hate the environment and must secretly love Al Gore for not hanging his laundry in the backyard.
Republicans...
gotta love 'em!
"These things which man purports to admire-the noble, the brilliant, the splendid-these are the very things he cannot tolerate when he finds them."-----Mark Clifton
Posts: 5565 | Location: hoffman estates il | Registered: 01 April 2003
or the first time, the fleet of limos outside the Kodak Theater were… hybrids! Priuses. At 60-plus bucks a hour. To chauffeur the stars to the parties and thence to the area’s airports, where some 80 private jets were fueled and ready for takeoff. You might call it hypocrisy; we call it doing well by doing good.
The author uses an alias, sounds like a disgruntled employee, isn't getting Hollywood work, but Nat. Rev. has about the same standards as fox. Private jets he's complaining about...have you flown lately? It's the most wretched, p.i.t.a. experience around, if you're not on the 'no fly' list, which is where most Hollywood celebrities could find themselves, like Ted Kennedy, Cat Stevens, an 8 year old boy. The USAToday author lied about half his accusations, also didn't explain calculations for 'average american killowatt usage' nor how Gore's home used it's elctricity, and for how many people, in what seasons, what the home's r-factor is, when it was built, what upgrades have been installed, planned for installations, nothing, just blanket idiot statements. [Wonder if his republican neighbor still has his extension cord hooked up to Gore's house?]
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
Thank you, Slabmaster for bringing this discussion. The carbon off set GO GREEN OSCAR GROUP-THINK CROWD centered their hype on UNsubstantiated facts of a slide show not prepared by Al Gore, btw. They want the world to believe that it is all about caring for the future of children.
THis crowd wants you to believe they are interested in family and family values? This crowd is not even reproducing themselves because they are ICY AND SELF CENTERED.
Do they care about the genocides that are going on currently? Of course not! Zimbabwe alone is predicted to loose 2 million children this year because of starvation and diseases.
This goose stepping/lock step crowd is foisting controlling mechanisms upon civilization towards a One World Order all the while stating they are morally convicted and on a spiritual quest to save the planet. They blind their eyes to the REAL tragerdies, the REAL sufferings of children.
Global Warming is the the new WORLD'S RELIGION.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
This goose stepping/lock step crowd is foisting controlling mechanisms upon civilization towards a One World Order all the while stating they are morally convicted and on a spiritual quest to save the planet. They blind their eyes to the REAL tragerdies, the REAL sufferings of children.
Global Warming is the the new WORLD'S RELIGION.
GG. Calm down and step away from the sherry bottle.
When the world is run by fools it is the duty of intelligence to disobey
Posts: 1723 | Location: Perth, Australia | Registered: 02 August 2001
This goose stepping/lock step crowd is foisting controlling mechanisms upon civilization towards a One World Order all the while stating they are morally convicted and on a spiritual quest to save the planet. They blind their eyes to the REAL tragerdies, the REAL sufferings of children.
Global Warming is the the new WORLD'S RELIGION.
GG. Calm down and step away from the sherry bottle.
C'mon, KennyMac - Why is it when a 'progressive only' cannot refute an argument that they attack the person and not the argument?
I'm "spirited" enough by my convictions and do not need spirits from a bottle.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
C'mon, KennyMac - Why is it when a 'progressive only' cannot refute an argument that they attack the person and not the argument?
GG. Read your own comments. You have just condemned the whole 'goose stepping/lock step crowd' as 'foisting controlling mechanisms upon civilization towards a One World Order'
With comments like 'Global Warming is the new WORLD'S RELIGION' you don't really have an arguement to refute. You have an amatuer dramatics conspiracy theory.
You can take this as an attack on you personally if you wish but I think it would be silly.
When the world is run by fools it is the duty of intelligence to disobey
Posts: 1723 | Location: Perth, Australia | Registered: 02 August 2001
GG. Read your own comments. You have just condemned the whole 'goose stepping/lock step crowd' as 'foisting controlling mechanisms upon civilization towards a One World Order'
With comments like 'Global Warming is the new WORLD'S RELIGION' you don't really have an arguement to refute. You have an amatuer dramatics conspiracy theory.
You can take this as an attack on you personally if you wish but I think it would be silly.
I edited my previous post to indicate that I am spirited by my convictions that are rooted and substantiated and I will be glad to share ONCE AGAIN what these are - but later.
My point about attacking the person is a ploy to distract from the issue. If I do the same, please point it out to me pronto!
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Just reading the posts, it looks like the conservatives here want a wealthy man for a republican president, but a poor man for a democratic president.
Not the point. We don't like to be told to drive a Prius by a guy sitting in the back of a stretch Hummer limo.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
I'm "spirited" enough by my convictions and do not need spirits from a bottle.
Reminds me of an old Cheech and Chong skit where a hippie say "I used to be messed up on drugs, but now I'm messed up on the Lord!"
"These things which man purports to admire-the noble, the brilliant, the splendid-these are the very things he cannot tolerate when he finds them."-----Mark Clifton
Posts: 5565 | Location: hoffman estates il | Registered: 01 April 2003
Not the point. We don't like to be told to drive a Prius by a guy sitting in the back of a stretch Hummer limo.
When he says he's carbon neutral he's telling the truth. The liars were both the authors of the articles about Gore and Hollywood. 20 times average electric bill, is he talking mean, median, or mode. With 15-20% of population below poverty, they might not have utility accounts in their name, brings the average down a bit. Then since U.S. has the highest percentage of population in jail of any country on the planet, they might bring the average down a bit , too...prisoners don't pay much per kilowatt hour [FL didn't charge them for 'Old Smoky' either] then the homeless bring down the national average, too. The Honda formula one team is going green now, and all the commercial decals on their new green machine racer are gone. The spokesman said if only one percent of the formula one fans change a light bulb because of their effort, it pays the whole budget for the Honda Formula One team. So, Gore really doesn't expect or need the republican ditto heads to quit raping the planet to make a difference. btw I see Stossell is now taking a position that 'Global Warming is Good', kinda like healthy skies, and healthy forests. Stossell and Glen Beck claiming they're being picked on 'what kind of society are we living in?' [boo hoo, snif, bwaaah]
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
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