Pass Green Gas

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Is Al Gore Walking the Walk?


USA Today is running an editorial on Al Gore questioning just how "green" a lifestyle he actually lives. The author combs public records to find that Gore doesn't utilize the greenest utilities to power his two or three homes, his family trust owns large gobs of Oxydental Petroleum stock and he flies a private jet around to promote his Global Warming film (he says he trades renewable energy credits to cover this). Hypocrisy, maybe, but certainly not on the scale and malevolence of the Bush administration's big oil agenda.

Ultimately, Bush and Gore are merely spear-carriers for the two sides of the global warming issue. There is plenty of evidence out there for thinking people to form an opinion and take a position on the issue. Sky high gas and heating oil prices may utimately be the catalyst for change, but in the meantime, let's not kill the messenger. It's getting hot here in the city, I think I'll turn on the old AC....
g

posted by Galli Galli Sim Sim at 9:44 AM

36 Comments:

  • Is anyone really suprised? What is really suprising is that the piece ran in USA Today! My guess is that someone is going to get fired over this one.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:14 AM  

  • Fired? How does that help the problem of global warming?

    By Blogger Robert Holmgren, at 11:24 AM  

  • I guess mr. anonymous thinks USA Today is part of the lefto-media-elite and will pull a "Lieberman" and fire an editor over this piece. Dream on.
    g

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 11:31 AM  

  • So if you're ultimately not holding the messenger responsible for walking the walk, why the title of the post? Why should we care if you don't? Why not just call it "We give Al another free pass"?

    And I love how even when you discover hypocrisy in one of your own, it must always quickly be followed up with a big "but ... Bush is worse!"

    You hippies are so entertaining.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:42 AM  

  • We already knew that Al Gore is a dishonest, self-serving, whack job of a weasel. We knew his senator father was greatly influenced by Soviet sympathizer Armen Hammer, and that his family has made a fortune off the "Big Oil" company, Occidental. We know about the years that they pocketed "Big Tobacco" money, and about how he shamefully used his ailing son as a political prop. What's shocking about this news article is that USA Today actually printed the "inconvenient truth" about him. I hope the Democrats keep people like Al Gore and Howard Dean as their messengers. And I'm signing this as anonymous because we've all seen what the whacko-left is capable of doing to people who don't use freedom of thought they way they do.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:57 AM  

  • Nice to see the name calling get started right out in front. Kinda cool old, bald, reactionary bastard like me to get called a "hippy". Bush and Gore are both oldschool political hacks with the differentiation being that G.W.'s lying, incompetence and hypocracy are on a global scale and dwarf the issue of whether or not Al Gore using windpower to fire-up his home mediacenter or not. Global warming isn't just an issue for treehugging, lefto, schmucks...the info is out there for anyone with half a brain to see.

    As far a the title of the post, if I was the pinko, enviro, loser you would like to depict me as, I wouldn't be putting a link to an abundantly anti-Gore editorial on my blog at all. Let people see both sides of an issue and all that....not like this "cut and run" crap the tired old Bushies keep shovelling out there...LuckilyI think I hear John McCain coming now....
    g

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 12:10 PM  

  • Funny how in actuality, the Bush Administration actually has passed more meaningful legislation to reduce pollution/Global Warming than Clinton/Gore ever did (The first national emissions standards on locomotives, farm machinery and other non-road diesel engines).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:20 PM  

  • Yeah attack the messenger!! Sure his message is not easily verified like, "Hey look out there are wolves coming!", and sure enough the villagers look at there ARE wolves coming. No Mr. Greeen Gore says "You only have 10 Years to Live!!". But we look around and don't see that. What are we stupid or something. OF COURSE we only have 10 Years to fix this problem. Why? Because Mr. Gore said so.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:55 PM  

  • How utterly ironic. An inconvenient truth is nothing but an attempt to influence political position and personal power. As for the science, show us some and we'll discuss it. We have seen almost nothing but talking heads mouthing the same cliche-ridden doomsday scenarios. I'm no conservative, but I am certainly not a member of the lemming liberal elite either. I am all for funding genuine objective scientific inquiry but Al Gore and his crowd are in it for the potential power alarmist propaganda can generate.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:24 PM  

  • Keep it up. I think the heat this post is generating is contributing to global warming. I love that comment on the Bush controls on emissions of non-road diesel engines. Sweet.
    g

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 3:24 PM  

  • I don't see Al Gore as the messenger. Al does what Al does. Let's look at what a more legitimate source says about the subject, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The reports are there, in fairly easily understood terms and the reports come to the conclusion that A: the planet is warming, and B: the planet's CO2 level is rising dramatically. This column is the typical republican response to this issue. Take the central issue and do not address it, ignore it, and it will go away as the average attention span of most Americans is about two minutes. Attack whomever you want, but as usual the right doesn't want to talk issues,it's personalities. That is why all the cable news operations are no longer journalistic endeavors
    , but semi-informed shouting matches.l God save America.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:23 PM  

  • Have you seen anybody debating the science? Do you actually think Al Gore has all these experts in his pocket or something? This is not doomsday propaganda! And a whole lot of the rest of the world is moving on from these destructive practices. Why aren't we? Are we lazy? Arrogant? Under-educated? No I don't love Al Gore and no I wouldn't be surprised if all of these accusations against Gore were true. I've never liked him honestly. But the changes happening to our planet are real! And this accelerated rate is not just the natural course of events! To help repair this damage does not require "extreme personal sacrifices". It really stinks when we ALL have to suffer because people with power are so greedy and stupid! Not a good combination!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:40 PM  

  • The Bush Administration IS NOT ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!!!! Please do not even attempt that assanine propaganda!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:46 PM  

  • Now you are saying that this is OK because Bush is worse. HELLO… Bush the OIL MAN from Texas has never been considered a tree hugger. He has done many good things for the environment while in office but I don’t think he has ever he has himself considered himself to be an environmentalist. Gore has.

    So lets talk about something really important like why we still have a fluid border from Mexico? Today’s events in Britain show us that we need border controls sooner than later. Is anyone listening!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:56 PM  

  • Politicians are politicians, some are a little better than others. On the terrorist front... I think we should be looking at port security before we start building a giant wall across the Mexican border to stop housepainters from stealing our jobs (I know, I know, it's a joke). Tightening immigration and border security are both components of our new reality, just like global warming.

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 6:07 PM  

  • Everyone is a hypocrit to a certain degree! Maybe Al Gore is a GIANT one? Who really cares? Is anyone surprised? But that doesn't mean there is no such thing as global warming!!! The post about s far as the Bush admin. doing more for the environment - that's just plain crazy! That is absolutely not true! When propagand is really well done it can seem like common sense and so maybe some people stop relying on their own!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:24 PM  

  • If I had a leftist mind (all feeling & no thought), I'd be mad as hell at Gore. He's done more damage to his side of the global warming debate than anyone. Let him keep his 10,000 square foot airconditioned mansion and his private jet journey, but please let him keep his pie hole shut. 'Lest you think I'm a Bush supporter, I'm not. Learn. Don't excuse inexusable behavior by pointing out bad behavior by others.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:39 PM  

  • Anybody that sticks their neck out on a volatile issue is going to take heat and not many politicians have a clean closet. Everything is not black and white, neo-con or lefto and articles can be skewed to support either cause. To oppose K. Rove and his kind is to realize they're capable of effectively shovelling some really steaming poop on the opposition... big deal...judging from your pompous tone someone might think you've been drinking some of O'Reilly's kool aid....learn...

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 6:50 PM  

  • I appreciate the info about the large houses, and the use of a private jet. These are valid concerns showing that Al Gore talks the talk but does not walk the walk. But what was the point about 'green' energy and the zinc mine. If we all sign up for a green energy company that claims to provide wind energy, do we all get energy from windmills? And then do our lights go out on windless days? Not quite. If I live near a power plant, should I not buy power from the company that actually generates the power I use in my home, which actually comes from that plant and not the wind farm on the other side of the state? Regarding the zinc mine, is the author saying we should not use zinc or that Al Gore should not profit from his property? Should we bring zinc in from overseas because we want to use other countries resources, use energy to import the same zinc, and move the pollution concerns to some other country? To me, those two arguements speak of an agenda against Al Gore.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:05 PM  

  • Check out the http://www.oism.org/pproject/ also known as the Oregon petition. The liberal green cries of global warming sound much like Henny-Penny's famous line "the sky is falling ... the sky is falling." I submit that most "greenies" are rebels in search of a cause. They convince themselves that their cause is good and just and ignore any information that conflicts with their "selfless" attempts to control society. Anyone who disagrees is clearly insane ... much like those who once said the Earth is NOT FLAT. Wouldn't it be nice for them if the rest of us would just drink our glass of hemlock and get out of their way?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:53 AM  

  • Dude you make the same generalizations about "greenies" that they make about you. I consider myself a greenie in the sense that I give a crap about the environment and am not stupid or "insane" enough to swallow whole the oil sponsored misinformation you seem gorge yourself on. The overwhelming preponderance of scientific data and aknowledgement of global warming is mountainous. To say that those who aknowledge the existence of global warming are being blindly ignorant of the facts, only points to your own blind and misguided adherence to your own "no global warming" stance.

    I'll check out the site you mention. Oh, and why do all the no on global warming guys sign their comments "Anomymous"? One guy suggested the threat of the treehuggers for internet violence...funny stuff.

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 10:27 AM  

  • galli galli --

    Checking your profile above I see you're a newyawker. Used to be one long ago but now find them so provencial, so mentally inbred. They seldom come in contact with anyone who disagrees with them on issues of the day. There's a whole world out there 'dude'. As to your question why people sign their comments 'anonymous' it's simple - most don't want to leave personal info of any nature on just any website. And, this is just any website. Your profile also makes a claim of being 'analytical'. Well, here's a test: Kyoto Protocol - good or bad and why. Careful: if you fail this simple test - and I believe you will because you are of the liberal persuasion (all feeling; little thought) - you must re-describe your lofty profile!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:19 PM  

  • Where do I begin? Glad you took the "dude" bait. You're still on this "all feeling; little thought" kick which I'm sure my my significant other would challenge (at least the feeling part). Then we have the Kyoto quiz...as I recall, Kyoto was skewed to have a much more negative economic and regulatory impact on the old US of A than say Russia, China, and developing nations, it definitely needed some work - but ultimately we should be leading that charge not sharing air-kisses with the Saudi royal family...oops I couldn't help myself. As for New York as the epicenter of provincial thought nice try. The land in which Al Sharpton, Rudy Guiliani and Stephen Colbert can co-exist provides a little more diversity of thought than say, Boise, K.C. or L.A.. As for the anonymous thing...have it your way, if signing Mel or Barney to a post makes you a little less self important...a little more secure...good for you,but why bother communicating on "any website" and wasting your vital time. It's just a wee blog anyway. Gotta get some coffee.
    peace out...
    g
    (I know the peace out deal will get you)

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 8:54 AM  

  • Some of us use Anon because we are posting at work.

    Al Gore's "guru" cried on 60 minutes that he is not allowed to speak on all the evidence he has accrued. The truth is that he is not allowed to speak AS THE US Government. He is free to spout whatever he pleases but he can't sign it at the bottom with an office symbol.

    In times past- people looked at perfectly normal natural processes and decided that the gods were angry or happy or playful etc. They made up reasons why things were as they perceived them.

    Time and scientific inquiry have shown that those beliefs were based on superstition and the basic need to try and understand the world around us.

    Now we have a wider view. We see glaciers melting and very minor global warming and the "passionate" among us start claiming that our unclean lives are going to spell the end of everything. They neglect basic facts like CO2 is a minor green house gas. They neglect to mention that water vapor is THE major green house gas and that it exists in quantities many orders of magnitude greater than CO2.

    Other inconvenient truths are also ignored like a single volcanic eruption releases more greenhouse gases than all of mankinds "carbon footprint" combined for all of history.

    Historically, the people who decided how things work have used that information to control those around them. Government used religious dogma for centuries to contain the masses. Now we have "AlGore-ithms" that are exactly the same. Al and his ilk want to tell the rest of us that they know best how we should live. They crave the power to enforce their "vision" upon us.

    I can only hope there are less lemmings than in times past. The last thing we need is a world controlled by hysterical "research".

    I am all for clean water and air. I am for preserving nature as best we can. So by those lights I am "green".

    I am not all for destroying our entire way of life to please people like Al Gore and their primitive and simplistic need for power.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:23 PM  

  • Thanks for commenting. That's the most "reasoned" statement against Mr. Gore position on global warming that we've had here. I think that there are scores of climatologists and scientists who would disagree with you on the current state of the global environment, but I guess that's why this issue stirs up so much angst.

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 12:38 PM  

  • The most amusing part of this entire debate is that we ARE big oil. We are big oil because we choose to use. We are to the oil industry what crack smokers are to the dealers. We dictate as a society that we WANT MORE OIL. We drive bigger and faster cars. We turn the air conditioning below 70 degrees. We drive EVERYWHERE and seldom are there more than one or two people in the car.

    President Bush is unpopular now. How much more unpopular would he be if he limited national oil consumption per consumer?

    We have created an entire infrastructure that discourages walking, biking, swimming etc. While I am not a fan of the German social system, one thing I liked about Germany was that every town and village has walking/biking trails. Most cities have bike lanes. I saw 80 year old women riding bicycles in their villages. If you see Germany from the air it looks like a giant field of broccoli. There are small forests in and around everything. We could take a lesson there.

    My name is Kevin and I do not like to register on these blog sites. I am the same anon who talked about hysterical research above.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:46 PM  

  • Kevin you are definitely right about this be a culture of oil consumption. A single kid gets driven to his weekend sporting event in the biggest SUV mom can find and my neighbor has every form of mechanized recreational vehicle known to man, ATV, 4 motorcycles, two ski-boats, jet-ski's...you name it...that's America and he can afford it. I have a place in the Catskills and you'd be suprised how little use the hiking trails get. We are all conditioned to getting places at lightning speeds (including the internet) and have almost all been raised in a culture constantly provides instant gratification. There are obviously some extreme positions on global warming...some hysterically green and some hysterically in denial, as with most issues the truth lies somewhere in between. Thanks for commenting.

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 1:03 PM  

  • I don't know, listenting to "Gore the Bore" rail on about global warming is like listening to an fat man talk about sensible nutrition. Now it's Senator Barak Obama talking about global warming at Town Hall Meeting and leaving in a GMC Envoy SUV. It might just be me, but I'm tired of hypocrites.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:50 PM  

  • I know...Al can be a less than compellling spokeman and he has diehard "Al sucks" fanbase and Obama, like all politicians, has security issues and hasn't got his armoured Prius yet...Doesn't change the science...just makes it easy to tear it down...

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 9:22 AM  

  • Oh, I forgot...good "fat man" simile.
    g

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 9:24 AM  

  • 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

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2006-08-16-gore-letters_x.htm

    In a 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.
    Page 10A

    http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060817/correx17.art.htm


    Peter Schweitzer, Al Gore, and hypocrisy

    ...

    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.
    ...

    http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/8/17/133652/848

    The reader should ask: where is your evidence, Schweizer? Why should I believe you?

    Well, Schweizer of course showed no evidence to back up his claims, but apparently that's business as usual in his world.

    Beyond the obvious lies there is Schweizer's fallacy that if you own stocks in oil companies or benefit financially from a zinc mine you cannot urge people to reduce their carbon emission without being a hypocrite.

    Gore doesn't have any interest in any oil, coal or mining company nevertheless he never advocated that people should sell their stocks in companies which produce GHGs. He never advocated that people should not be in the mining business at all or that we shouldn't mine zinc (which by the way has little to do with the global warming problem). These, if done, would obviously destroy our economy -- and it would be a totally unrealistic proposal anyway.

    But he is indeed doing what he has advocated in the book and the movie.
    And the vast majority of Americans do not do half what he is doing in order to reduce man-made GHG emission. He has the moral authority to urge others to act like he acts.

    Let Schweizer refute that - with facts for a sake of change -, if he can.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:30 AM  

  • I think that puts a cap on that debate. Thanks for all that vital and truthful rebuttal info. It's unfortunate that as soon as Al Gore regained a more prominent role as spokesperson on global warming he also became a target for partisan shananigans.

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 9:40 AM  

  • The facts are far from established about global warming and so is the "crisis" Al's personal PR rep refers to. If Al is so carbon neutral lets see him take mass public transport to one of his speeches.

    I bet Al has never even sat on a bus that had public passengers. I don't see Al advocating anything other than fear.

    Anyone else notice that this seasons hurricanes just aren't materializing?

    When we have a few hurricanes we see people jumping up and down and shouting "THERE IS OUR PROOF!" Knee jerk reactions are everywhere. But when forecasts fall short of predictions they keep silent.

    Henny Penny politics at its finest.

    Kevin again

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:51 PM  

  • The article linked below is just one example of how politics and science don't mix. Take a minute to appreciate that this is not some hack writer. Fear equals power and money. Can anyone imagine greenpeace publishing a study that says global warming is a natural phenomena and that mankind has nothing to do with it? I would not happen because their livelihood and political clout depend on reinforcing fear. Anyone who disagrees is a threat to that power base. Burn the witch! She turned me into a newt!

    Kevin Again


    http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:29 AM  

  • Yeah, the USA Today author is going to get fired because he dared to shine a light on this Limo Liberal and his amazing hypocrisy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:02 AM  

  • Didn't see where the guy is getting fired , but if he is it's because the author didn't get his facts straight and used old info. Change is terrible thing and by the way so are lame catch phrase like "limosine liberal", though Nancy Pelosi asking for a gigantic pimped-out military jet for her and family does harken back to it...

    By Blogger Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 11:07 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home