Heard this story on the news this morning, so looked up a related article I could post. The people bashing Gore on this may be a bit biased, but I must say, Gore's excuses are pretty unconvincing. He seems to be saying it's OK for him to be an energy hog, as long as he's investing some money in renewable energy projects. :unsure:

http://www.cbs46.com/Global/story.asp?S=6151266

Now let me see.

Sunday. Al Gore wins an Oscar for this documentary.

Days later, he is accused of being a hypocrite.


Highly suspicious.

Drew Johnson.. president of conservative think tank of economic issues. Vested interests? What do you think??

Duh! Of course the guy is biased an out to criticise Gore, but still, Gore didn't seem to be denying that he's consuming relatively huge amounts of energy. He was just trying to justify it as being OK, because of the other positive things he does. Seems kinda lame to me. Why not do the other positive things AND be responsible for the consumption a more normal (or if you're really passionate about the issue, below normal) amount of energy.

Hmm.. the question at the end of my post was a rhetorical one! Ah well, ought to have stated it more explcitly.

Going by your reasoning, then does that mean that people should also not fly all over the world, and the donations re: carbon footprints being a hollow gesture? Someone gives money to an organisation dedicated to reduce carbon emissions gives then the green light to fly here there and everywhere?

After all, Al Gore flies all over the world to give his lectures. i'd have thought he would have been picked up on that too, going by that logic. :)

btw I don't think that he is necessarily being hypocritical. As is mentioned in the article, he is in the process of fitting solar panels in his house. and I'd bet that there are other things that he does too, that just aren't advertised, you know? If you were to read his book or see his film then he does mention a lot of 'think globally, act locally' style things that all people could do. I'd be gobsmacked if he didn't practice what he preached to some extent.

I mean... who has the right to determine what level of energy saving is acceptable for him? Bit presumptious, isn't it? It's like lambasting a vegetarian for wearing leather shoes. Who's to say where they should draw the line?

It should also be pointed out that the electriity company have stated that they never gave out the details of Gore's bills.......so it can't actually be proven that he uses any more than anyone else.

I guess the story "Al Gore uses electricity" probably doesn't have the same ring to it!

But if the vegetarian goes out of his/her way to lambast people for treating animals badly because they are made into food for us, then yes - they are hypocritical and deserve to be criticized and mocked for their actions.


It goes along with the idiotic line that the Oscars were "green". The caterers didn't come from grean sources, the areas power grid isn't green and the stars, along with many other guests, showed up in gas-hog limos. Far from being a "green" event.
Reminds me of the 20th aniversary of Earth Day in DC. Over 100k people out on the Mall area celebrating keeping the earth clean. The Park police afterwards showed pictures and stated that they'd never had such a mess to clean up in their history, even from much larger crowds.

:blink:

I;m sorry, i don't follow......


(You know, ever since i left Uni i'm convinced i'm getting more stupid....... :blink: )

It went with the vegetarian comment that use to be above :doh:

well, you just proved that I am getting more stupid......or unable to read. i just didn't read that line in petalp's post....... :doh:

So do you speak from authority with this? Or just had a few bad experiences with vegetarians or something.?

No, there's nothing wrong with someone wearing leather shoes and then lambasting people for treating animals badly.

How many shoes do you buy a year?

How many animals are killed for their skin? The meat is the primary reason, not the hide. Teh exceptions to this are things like mink etc. and most people are against that, whether vegetarian or otherwise.

To think that someone can't say anything about the way that animals are treated whilst wearing leather shoes is quite ignorant, and crass to say the least. It means that you have to be pure as the driven snow before you say anything, and there are shades of grey here as in all walks of life.

i believe in gore's fight, but he's a really rich/privileged/powerful man. no one gets that way caring about the environment and does so by exploiting planet and it's people and/or resources. fyi...gore's family made their money in tobacco... :doh:

believe in the message, just don't pay as much credence to the (celebrity) messenger.

:ok:

i'm a student at the university of toronto and he was in town just before the oscars to give a speech on our campus. everyone was going ga-ga over the guy. it was kinda silly.

If you're flying all over the world just for pleasure travel and donating to "green" causes to make up for it, that would be similarly hypocritical. Flying all over the world to help champion his cause is a bit different, though. I wouldn't pick on him about that.

I won't pick on him about his home energy usage, either, without knowing for sure that those figures are correct, but if they are, that's a huge amount of power consumption. Even if it is a 10,000 square foot house, that's huge, proportionately. That's about 3 1/2 times the size of my home, but about 10 - 12 times the amount of power consumption. He might need to fly around the world to deliver his message, but does any one family need to be consuming that much energy?

Nick, you'd have to tell me if this is the same in the US, but in this country, only the named account holder can get information on any energy bills, unless they have given express permission to the company that someone else can have that information. Is that not the same in the US?

Pretty much the same here.

I have my doubts about the source, but follow-up reports seem to confirm the magnitude of the energy usage for his home, and the comments from Gore's "spokespeople" seem to be justifying, more than disputing, the numbers. So, they're probably fairly accurate.

Sorry to dredge this thread back up again, but I thought I would post this link to an editorial that pretty well expressed the view I have on this matter.

http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2007/03...editorial04.txt

Ever heard the phrase 'do as I say, not as I do'? It is still a valid message, even if Gore is not practicing what he preaches. In tennis terms, if Federer was to only listen to Tony Roche's advice as long as Tony did the things he suggests himself, Federer would never improve and would stagnate at Tony's (61 yr old) level. Wish I was at Tony's 61 yr old level though....