Al Gores a Hypocrite (Obviously)

[NCAces]

This is now getting richer. Per the Tennesseean, Gore purchases his carbon credits from a company he founded, of which he is the Chairman and presumably draws an income.

Here is a blog that has some info: http://www.ecotality.com/blog/?p=350

And the Best of the Web gives a good account:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009730

What say the Gore defenders now.

NCAces

[troymclur]

I heard about that. Buying capital into his own company [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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What say the Gore defenders now.

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What does this have to do with him being a hypocrite? Does this negate the effect of his actions, simply because it's benefiting him?

[troymclur]

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I'm curious how people respond to the notion of him running office work out of the house and having live in security. It didn't really click with me before, but he is an ex-VP which means he has lifetime Secret Service detail, which probably accounts for the live-in security.

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He is, of course, free to decline the SS detail.

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I said it wasn't anything to get your panties in a bunch over. It is a large house, but not "F'ING GINORMOUS"!!! And it is germane to the discussion because people are using the size of his house as a measurment of his sincerity of his message, so the real problem is one's definition of extravagant.

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What percentage of residences in the US do you think are bigger than Gore's? What percentile do you think you would draw the "extravagant" line at?

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Do you think he doesn't need security? Extravagant for me is different than anybody else, as i don't think there is much of a line for me to judge, and if there is its going to be on a case by case basis. But you cannot argue any of this until it's shown that Gore is asking people to cut down their lifestyles.

Nobody has shown him to by hypocritical yet, all they've shown is that he advocates cutting emmissions then wildly point to his large house and scream 'hypocrite' as loud as they can. For some reason, i was only able to see half of the Video NCAces linked, but there he even states that he's not asking people to cut down on their creature comforts. So i'm not sure where he is hypocritical in having a large house.

[John Kilduff]

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This is now getting richer. Per the Tennesseean, Gore purchases his carbon credits from a company he founded, of which he is the Chairman and presumably draws an income.

Here is a blog that has some info: http://www.ecotality.com/blog/?p=350

And the Best of the Web gives a good account:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009730

What say the Gore defenders now.

NCAces

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Haha, that's pretty good. Almost like the Social Security Trust Fund, but this is the Al Gore Carbon Credit Fund instead.

[tehox]

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This is now getting richer. Per the Tennesseean, Gore purchases his carbon credits from a company he founded, of which he is the Chairman and presumably draws an income.

Here is a blog that has some info: http://www.ecotality.com/blog/?p=350

And the Best of the Web gives a good account:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009730

What say the Gore defenders now.

NCAces

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It is still unclear to me exactly how he uses this company to buy offsets. I read your links to this, and they suggest that "To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks." I have been unable to find any other sources on this. However, I think its really unlikely that he is just kicking the money back to himself. If he is buying the offsets from his company, then they are likely buying them from some other source, and any potential financial gain that he might gain from using his company versus another company is probably pretty minimal.

[MrMon]

Hmmm. Running a business out of your home in that neighborhood. I'll bet that violates the zoning ordinance. Wealthy people do not like businesses being run out of homes in their neighborhoods.

[pvn]

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Do you think he doesn't need security? Extravagant for me is different than anybody else, as i don't think there is much of a line for me to judge, and if there is its going to be on a case by case basis. But you cannot argue any of this until it's shown that Gore is asking people to cut down their lifestyles.

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I'm not claiming he's a hypocrite. I'm made comments critical of both sides in this discussion and supportive of both sides as I see bad and good arguments.

I agree that "excessive" consumption is not inherently bad. I'm all for it, in fact. Well, as long as it's *his* money. Taxpayer money I have a problem with, but that's a different thread. But the fact is, he isn't *forced* to accomodate that secret service detail. As for Gore asking people to cut down their lifestyles, I haven't seen any quote that shows him actually making this specific request (i.e. some call to flatly "conserve" rather than to "reduce use of carbon-emmitting energy" (though I've seen plently of people who *do* think consumption is itself inherently "bad")).

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Nobody has shown him to by hypocritical yet, all they've shown is that he advocates cutting emmissions then wildly point to his large house and scream 'hypocrite' as loud as they can. For some reason, i was only able to see half of the Video NCAces linked, but there he even states that he's not asking people to cut down on their creature comforts. So i'm not sure where he is hypocritical in having a large house.

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I don't think the house is hypocritical, but 10,000 sq ft IS extravagant. I'd bet a penny it's in the top 1% of home sizes in the US. World wide, probably in the top 0.01%

[Jack of Arcades]

Natural Gas actually has a low carbon footprint. If you spent $500/mo on natural gas in a household of 5 people, your carbon footprint would be... half a ton for the year.

Contrast that, one round trip flight cross country on a commercial airplane would be about 1 ton.

[MrMon]

It's still frivolous and a waste of a low-carbon footprint nonrenewable resource.

[anatta]

It appears (although I didnt read the link) that Gore founded a company that helps the environment, dealing with the purchase of carbon offsets, and he is using that company. It is frequently said that we can have econonmic growth and a sane enviromental policy. I see nothing hypocritical there.

Gore drives a hybrid and uses green power in his home. When he needs to, he purchases carbon offsets (which is used to plant trees, preserve rain forest, etc.) so that his carbon footprint is neutral. Seems in line with what an environmental activist would do.

Gore flies commercially whenever he can, but sometimes uses a private jet. His electric bill is high. Maybe he does waste some here. He has home offices and security staff and does the offsets, but maybe he could cut back. Nobody's perfect, right? It seems like he is trying to follow something of a middle road here.

Gore is by far the most popular candidate, albeit "hypothetical", among the "netroots" (Daily Kos polls, for example). He opposed the war, and has been a very direct, harsh, and aggressive critic of a very unpopular administration and its policies. He just won an Oscar for an influential documentary. He got more votes than his opponent when he ran for President. Perhaps some of this criticism is based on the fear that the right wing has of Gore and of a potential Gore candidacy in 2008.