An Inopportune Certainty

A report issued on June 18, 2008 by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization has released information documenting Al Gore’s home energy usage in comparison with average Americans after his recent green home renovations. This report can be viewed at http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=764

We all know Al Gore as a former vice president of the United States, a Nobel Prize winner, and the number one proponent for global warming activism in America today. His global warming stance is the “little-engine-that-could” in the perpetuation of the climate change hysteria we currently face. Gore’s fire and brimstone climate change argument has government agencies, media outlets, and numerous scientific think-tanks world-wide cringing at the mere thought of carbon footprints and Co2 emissions. Much like a vegetarian hates all aspects of a steak dinner, this new breed of climate change proponent views carbon dioxide emissions as new found blights on the world we inhabit and will stop at nothing to convince you that your energy usage is in diametrical opposition to the future health of our planet. Whew, that’s a mouthful.

What has me scratching my head; however, is the audacity of Mr. Gore’s argument when applied to his current energy usage when evaluating his consumption. Based on the aforementioned research, Mr. Gore is using more energy per year alone than that of 20 average Americans combined.

My objective is not to have a global warming debate. I do not believe global warming exists. Maybe you do. Maybe you think that humans have reached a tipping point and if we don’t change our habits, our planet will fall from its axis, the poles will melt, and we will be rendered prisoners on a planet slowly burning from the outside in. While this view is ripe for the climax of a disaster movie, its popularity is growing and I may just be one of a minority who think it’s a load of horse manure. Regardless of our differences in viewpoint, I like to point out a hypocrite when I see one. Al Gore, you are a huge ass hypocrite! Even worse, you expect me to buy into your energy consumption viewpoint when one of your homes consumes 20 times more energy than that of my only home in one year. Has there ever been a bigger hypocrite than you? Now there is a question.

Steven Millory, author of www.junkscience.com by the junkman has done the heavy lifting for me in this endeavor. He too has concluded that Al Gore wins the title of biggest green hypocrite of 2007. I would assert that this tile be bestowed upon him again in 2008. Interesting to note the correlation between green hysteria over global warming and green dollars in one’s pockets, isn’t it?

Green has traditionally been the color of the deadly sin of envy. But this year, a trendy upstart mounted a serious challenge to envy’s claim.Here are green hypocrisy’s top 10 poster children for 2007.

1. Al Gore’s Inconvenient Lifestyle. While the former veep and nouveau-$100 millionaire jets around the world squawking about the “planet having a fever” and demanding that we all lower our standard of living, his own personal electricity use is 20 times the national average, including an indoor pool costing $500/month to heat. While Gore deflected criticism of his inconvenient electric bill during March congressional testimony by saying he purchased “green” electricity, the truth is, he didn’t start doing so until 2007. (and now, with green upgrades, he is using even more.)

2. Google’s Sky Pig. A photo-op of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plugging-in a hybrid car was part of the search engine giant’s June announcement promising carbon neutrality by 2008. But how this PR-fluff squares with the so-called “Google party jet” — Page and Brin’s gargantuan personal Boeing 767, which burns about 1,550 gallons/hour — is any one’s guess.

3. RFK Jr. Tilts at Windmills. Outspoken global warming activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently railed against coal-produced electricity because “climate change is the most urgent threat to our collective survival.”Meanwhile, Kennedy vigorously campaigns against a proposed Cape Cod wind farm that would generate CO2-free electricity because it would “impoverish the experience of millions of tourists and residents and fishing families who rely on the sound's unspoiled bounties.” Unmentioned in Kennedy’s tirades, however, is the windmill’s unfortunate proximity to his family’s famed Hyannis Port compound.

4. The U.N.’s ‘Bali High’. Early December will witness 10,000 climateers descending upon the paradisiacal island resort of Bali for the 13th annual U.N. global warming meeting. The reason for much jet and limo travel — and other prodigious greenhouse gas generating activity associated with such a mega-conference — is relatively modest: setting the agenda and timeframe for a post-Kyoto treaty. Sure seems like something that could have been handled in a less carbon-intensive way — either by Internet and video conferencing or, if meeting is necessary, somewhere in North America or Europe where most key attendees are based.

5. Nancy Nukes Nukes. Supposedly concerned that “global warming and energy independence…have profound implications for our nation’s economic competitiveness, national security, environmental quality and public health,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming to take the congressional lead on those issues.So who did Speaker Pelosi pick to chair the committee? None other than long-time nuclear power opponent Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who appeared with anti-nuke celebrities Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne at an October Capitol Hill press conference to denounce legislation promoting the development of ultra-green nuclear power.

6. Every home a Superfund site? “Mercury is highly toxic to everyone, but particularly to children and developing fetuses,” says the activist group Environmental Defense, a long-time campaigner against mercury from power plant emissions and in automobile convenience lighting.So it came as quite a surprise when the group began advocating that consumers bring the “highly toxic” mercury into their homes in the form of compact fluorescent light bulbs in order to reduce power plant CO2 emissions. CFLs are so hazardous, according to public health officials however, that special safety precautions must be taken for disposal or if the bulbs break.

7. Doesn’t everyone own a NASA scientist? In March 2007, NASA’s climate alarmist-in-chief James Hansen criticized “special interests” campaigning against climate regulation.“By larding the campaign coffers of numerous politicians, the fossil fuel industry has succeeded in subverting the democratic principle…Until the public indicates sufficient interest, and puts pressure on political systems, special interests will continue to rule.”Though Hansen poses as a humble civil servant, it recently came to light that his alarmist efforts have been bankrolled by leftist billionaire and MoveOn.org sugar-daddy George Soros. Doesn’t Soros qualify as a “special interest,” Dr. Hansen?

8. Like a Virgin’s Carbon Footprint. London’s Daily Mail reported (“What planet are they on?, July 7) on the climate consciousness of Madonna and other Live Earth performers.“[T]he pop stars headlining the concerts are the absolute antithesis of the message they promote with Madonna leading the pack of the worst individual rock star polluters in the world… Madonna alone has an annual carbon footprint of 1,018 tons… the average Briton produces just 10 tons… [her] Confessions tour last year produced 440 tons of carbon pollution in just four months, simply in flights between venues.”That’s one small footprint for the average Brit, but one giant footprint for celebrity-kind.

9. The NBC Poppycock. NBC-Universal kicked-off of its “Green is Universal” initiative by dimming the studio lights — but not two giant video screens and advertisements — during a break in the Nov. 4 Cowboys-Eagles game.Candle-lit host Bob Costas then cut to video of Today show personalities Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry reporting about climate change from the Arctic, Amazon and Antarctic, respectively. None gave even a nod to the energy-hogging effort required to send them and crews to do such pointless broadcasts from exotic locales.

10. California’s Hypocritenator. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared in June 2005 that, “California will be a leader in the fight against global warming…the time for action is now.”But just two years later, the Los Angeles Times reported that state efforts had been derailed by the governor’s mismanagement and deceit. Schwarzenegger even fired the state’s chief regulator for refusing to limit the number of greenhouse gas regulations. Columnist Debra Saunders noted that, “Schwarzenegger boasts that he is a world leader in the fight against global warming — but his advocacy shouldn't keep him from flying in private jets or driving a Hummer.”

What ever your viewpoint in the global warming debate, people like Al Gore and other politicians are simply lining their pockets with “green” while you skip your vacations, give up your station wagons, pay $4 plus dollars per gallon for fuel, and freeze your collective asses off for the “green” sake of our planet. When will you demand the same from your politicians? Now that’s an Inconvenient Truth” isn’t it Mr. Gore. Just a thought.