Carbon Footprints

Al Gore didn't waste any time responding to publication of his home energy usage.

What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.

What a bunch of nonsense. I'm supposed to go and calculate some silly footprint and then cough up dough to people I don't know running a for profit business to plant trees in Kenya, develop wind mill technology, etc. Of course, I haven't made a small fortune off green unfriendly zinc mining like Gore has - and if I wanted to stop a wind mill being put up across the street, I'd have much less success than the Kennedy's or certain Hollywood types selling this green nonsense, all the while stipulating not in their backyard.

We'll never know who ultimately owns many of the Kenyan trees planted, probably meant for harvest somewhere down the line, only to replaced by more green money from someone else's pockets. And which companies will be seeing investment from these green dollars? Wouldn't I be better off investing through the stock market, so that I might expect some monetary return?

This is just more liberal wealth transference from people who work for it, to people and countries that either don't, or have come up with a new way to accumulate more of it.

I'd like nothing better than for Mr. Gore to drop by when his private jet has him in the neighborhood. We could discuss my carbon footprint. I'll even wear hiking boots, just to show him what an earth friendly kind of guy I am.

Comments

[salvage]

HAhahahahahah!

You want to kick Al Gore's ass for trying to encourage people to pollute less?

You're very smart.

[richard]

Hey, Dan has to complain about something, no?. He can't just let his friends on the right smear Gore without getting into the act. I just wonder why he can't see that it makes him look impossibly petty, as though attempts to spare our environment are something to ridicule. I live in China right now, and I can see with my own eyes what environmental negligence leads to. If more people spent more time listening to the likes of Al Gore and less time thinking of ways to embarrass him maybe we could make some real progress. (Not "Riehl progress," as in no progress.)

[Jeff]

I don't mind that Gore wants people to pollute less, no one is bothered by that. We are bothered by the fact that he pollutes all he wants, sends a check to his buddy, and that takes care of his pollution. (Doesn't that sound like a penance?)
I try to save energy when I can, I don't like polluting the environment, the air quality is deteriorating, so if I can help why not?
However there are three things I won't do:
1) Claim to love the enviroment and be a champion of "global warming," but contribute to "global warming" 20x more than the average American.
2) When I do pollute I am not about to go send a check to a for profit agency so I can be "pure."
3) I am not go to advocate changing our country, and hurting the economy for an unproven, and increasingly refuted theory. I also won't change my life for it - even if I believed it - after all, Al Gore didn't.

[Kite]

I believe that people can all agree that less pollution is the best pollution (You know....kinda like government? Less is better :P) However, the notion that Global Warming is all mans fault is completely asinine and utterly false. I'll be the first one to jump in there and say "Hey, quit dumping crap in to the waters" or "Stop burning down the rainforests" but I'm not stupid (or crazy for that matter) enough to think an SUV or gasoline/coal/"insert fossil fuel here" is the devil against the planet. Besides....the only reason MOST people hammer Gore is because 1) He is playing the hero card when he is just trying to get rich (which, from a capitalist stand point....thats absolutely fine but at least admit it) and 2) He comsumes more energy than the above-average carbon emitter. All those private jets and cars and huge mansions. They all produce huge amounts of carbon.

I'm a capitalist pig all the way, so if he has found a way to be successful then I can applaud him for that. People should be proud of their wealth and not be held back by those who are poor (I refuse to use less fortunate because success has no relation to fate ((except in the case of the lottery...and those people have proven time and time again they cant handle success))

Gore's situation is different though. He wants people to stop using energy while he does nothing himself to reduce his energy output. Oh, and that carbon offsets bit? Complete bullcrap. A carbon "offset" is described as a means of raising or lowering a carbon footprint of a certain area to "offset" an excess of what one person may be emitting. However, there is no real way to calculate any of that information and the actual offset itself is nothing more than a beaurocratic slip saying "I bought and offset". Yay.

It's hypocrisy really. He tells people to stop using energy, but refuses to actually cut back on the usage himself. Planting trees is good, but I could go to lowes, spend 10 bucks on seeds and a pot and dirt and feed, and grow a tree on my own. Oh! lookie....I just GREW an offset.

Oh, for the guy in China. Don't be expecting China to lower their carbon emissions. They are exempted from the Kyoto protocol so they dont have to lower their output. Sorry, your air is still gonna suck years from now.

The real agenda lies in attacking Capitalist and free-enterprise markets in the industry. That is the true face behind the enviromentalist movements. They seek to restrain the progress of certain elements through elemental regulation and protection so that it inhibits industrial growth. Instead of searching out real "green" methods of industrialization (like clean coal, recycling oil and petroleum by-products, nuclear power, and solar power.) the Enviromentalist crowd wishes to reduce industrial growth all together. Kinda like what Communism did to Russia.

Anyways, rants over.

[Capitalist Infidel]

Let me get this straight, all liberals have to do is say 10 Hail Mary's (write a check) and they can pollute all they want? This global warming myth really is their religion.

[Jeff]

"Let me get this straight, all liberals have to do is say 10 Hail Mary's (write a check) and they can pollute all they want?"

Yes.

Also two interesting facts from Gore's movie: 1) he tours some areas in a Lincoln Towncar. 2) He filmed part of the movie in a private jet, while the private jet was on the run way... he didn't actually fly anywhere that day... but the jet's engines were on for 7 hours...

An Inconvenient Utility Bill?

[Legalize]

The concept of emissions trading still doesn't register with you guys. Staggering.

[salvage]

However, the notion that Global Warming is all mans fault is completely asinine and utterly false.

Right, it must be the other species with the carbon spitting vehicles and factories that's causing the measured and proven carbon imbalance. It’s all a conspiracy by the scientists to get rich selling future shares in house boats!

I'll be the first one to jump in there and say "Hey, quit dumping crap in to the waters" or "Stop burning down the rainforests" but I'm not stupid (or crazy for that matter) enough to think an SUV or gasoline/coal/"insert fossil fuel here" is the devil against the planet.

Uh so the things that pollute the planet don’t pollute the planet? Hard to argue with logic like that.

Besides....the only reason MOST people hammer Gore is because 1) He is playing the hero card when he is just trying to get rich (which, from a capitalist stand point....thats absolutely fine but at least admit it)

Ha! Ha! Yes! The only way a guy like Gore could get rich is making documentaries and encouraging a more environmentally friendly lifestyle and laws. There is no other way he could take his already vast fortune and make more! He want’s that crazy Greenpeace dollar that has made millions for thousands!

and 2) He comsumes more energy than the above-average carbon emitter. All those private jets and cars and huge mansions. They all produce huge amounts of carbon.

Huge amounts! If Al Gore were to take the bus climate instability would vanish in a week!

Except he does make far more of an effort than all of us (me included but I really don’t give a shit if we don’t smarten up then we deserve to be drowned in our own stupid) to lessen his impact.

But typical of your mindset; you don’t like the message so you must smear the messenger as a hypocrite to justify your dislike. You’ll play the same tune with anyone left of Rush Limbaugh.

It doesn’t matter what Al Gore does or doesn’t do, there is a real problem and if something isn’t done it’ll cause us a great deal of problems in the future as a whole. Either we fix it or we stick our heads in the sand.

Since I’m not having kids and I’m a bit of a misanthrope I don’t care but those of you who do have kids and do want a future for them this would be a good time to start.

[templar knight]

Uh, yeah, emissions trading is a concept I get, Legalize, unfortunately, if it doesn't cut pollution, but just shifts it from one place to another, it has zero net result.

Now, here's the way it works, gents, if you want to see results. Don't have a hypocrite tell you what to do, or live a life that says in big bold letters, "Do as I say, not as I do". That person will not be an effective spokesperson.

And Legalize, you need to replace your dealer, cause the shit he gave you yesterday was laced with something bad. Your rants are becoming quite tiresome.

[Zifnab]

Time for another game of "What's Dan Riehl Not Talking About Today?"

Today's non-topic is the leveraged buy-out of TXU Energy by a group of private equity firms. The deal was overseen by Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, who had been one of the primary obstacles in TXU's attempt to build 11 new coal-fired powerplants.

"What I can tell you is, a little over a week ago I got a call from Bill Riley, an old friend, who said that Texas Pacific Group and KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a private equity firm that specializes in buying and selling companies) were interested in purchasing TXU, but would only go forward if they could recreate the company as a "green" power generator."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7615616

TPG and KKR plan to roll back TXU's emissions to 1990 levels, a goal that coincides with the US-rejected Kyoto Protocols. They'll be building only 3 new coal plants, doubling their investment in wind power, and using their remaining capital to increase energy efficency for profit.

[stonetools]

Guess Al Gore can't say anyhting about global warming unless he agrees to live in a cardboard box by the side of the road, even if what he says is cientifically accurate...

[scarshapedstar]

"Uh, yeah, emissions trading is a concept I get, Legalize, unfortunately, if it doesn't cut pollution, but just shifts it from one place to another, it has zero net result."

I'm curious about the reasoning here. If everyone on the planet offset their emissions, then nothing whatsoever would change? Doesn't that violate the laws of thermodynamics?

Maybe before you go around accusing people of taking the brown acid, you ought to remove the dropper from your own eye.

[Legalize]

Wow, templar, really?

The EPA estimates that emissions associted with SO2 output (i.e. acid rain), will be cut by around 50% by 2010; the program was started in 1980. http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/so2/effrt1.html

The Chicago and Illinois trading schemes have worked to cut volitile organic compounds: http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/erms/

New York, and 9 N.E. states have worked to cap carbon emissions, with voluntary assistance from major corporations.

It's true that the EU trading scheme hasn't produced great results yet, but it involves 12 countries and only began in 2005.

But, you know.

[templar knight]

No, Al can say all he wants, he just doesn't have any credibility. That's how hypocrisy works, stonetools. That you people can't see the difference is incredible, to say the least.

And Ziffy, I've been investing in wind energy in W. Texas for 3 years now, and I have made quite a tidy sum, if I decided to cash in, but those capital gains. Crap! I'll wait a while longer, but I do believe in wind energy, and solar, and tidal, etc. I've believed in renewables for years, and I put my money where my mouth is. Gore needs to do the same.

[Jeff]

"Guess Al Gore can't say anyhting about global warming unless he agrees to live in a cardboard box by the side of the road, even if what he says is cientifically accurate..."

Oh brother...

I wish I could talk slowly to you.

Al Gore (you know the Global warming guy, former VP, lost to Bush in '00). He says that we (you, me, everyone else) has to cut down on emmisions (byproduct of a Chemical reaction in combustion engines and many other things). Now Al Gore (the guy I meantioned before), uses 20x more energy (produced by a chemical reaction, leaving our atmosphere full of bad stuff) than the average American (you, me, everyone else).
So Al Gore (again, same guy as before) says that we (you, me, everyone else) can't do something, and he goes and does the thing he tells us not to do.

And stonetools what Gore is saying isn't "cientifically" accurate. There are still many climatologists who disagree that a) global warming is happening, b) that its man made.

Did you know that in the 1970's "cientists" were saying we were about to go through an iceage? By 1990 all the fish would be dead? by 1970 the Panda woud be extinct?

Yeah, we should trust "cientists"

Hey, the weather was supposed to be 45 and sunny here, and its 28 and cloudy... they can't get the weather for next day right, and they are telling me the weather 50 years from now?

Global warming is a farce, and in the future I think that we will look back in shame at how much time and money we wasted.

So does that help you understand young "stonetools"?

[Andrew]

You cons are so damn backward its funny. The backwoods logic is astounding. I always wondered what the residents of Hazard County thought. Keep it up - very entertaining stuff.

[Andrew]

"in the future I think that we will look back in shame at how much time and money we wasted"

Wow, many of us are already saying that about Bush's failed Iraq war. Imagine what will be said in 'the future'!!

[Zifnab]

"And Ziffy, I've been investing in wind energy in W. Texas for 3 years now, and I have made quite a tidy sum, if I decided to cash in, but those capital gains. Crap! I'll wait a while longer, but I do believe in wind energy, and solar, and tidal, etc. I've believed in renewables for years, and I put my money where my mouth is. Gore needs to do the same."

No kidding. There's a huge market for renewable energy. All Al Gore is saying we should do is tap it, and if we don't tap it he's informing us of the consequences.

Somehow, we always end up in this silly debate. If Al Gore says, "conserve energy", and the general public agrees its a good idea, the idea still won't get implimented because Al Gore's electric bill is too high. What does Al Gore's heating bill have to do with capping powerplant emissions? Or offering incentives for companies to invest in clean energy? Or cutting down on night-time air traffic? What's wrong with hybrid cars and more efficent dishwashers? What does this have to do with Al Gore other than these are things that he has suggested?

I just don't see the everyday conservative's goal in pillarying the messanger. If a man starts a movement, and the movement is good, why do you spend so much time fighting it?

[Legalize]

I know that the right wing echo chamber is gleefully happy to glom on to any radical conservative front group as a means of smearing people it does't like, but here's what Al Gore has to say about the accusations of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research

"Responding to Drudge’s attack, Vice President Gore’s office told ThinkProgress:

1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:

What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero."

Here's what the State of Tennessee has to say about the Smear Group: http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?news_id=54656 - "not a legitimate group."

Further, the Group's founder comes straight from Exxon and the AEI: http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=9

[Oregonian]

Poor Danny! You fell for a wingnut press release and thought you'd caught Al Gore in a massive hypocrisy. Now you've made the painful discovery that Gore is actually walking the walk and using his money to fight global warming. And - worse yet - he's asking you to do some simple, third-grade math!

We feel your pain, Dan.

[Legalize]

"I just don't see the everyday conservative's goal in pillarying the messanger. If a man starts a movement, and the movement is good, why do you spend so much time fighting it?"

Because they hate Al Gore. Period.

[Buzzy]

I'll make this real simple so even the zombie left can understand.

We all become like Al Gore and pollute 20 times the average amount.

We buy up emissions offsets for big bucks which go to companies that absolutely nobody checks to see if they actually have offsets to sell.

We have filthy air and they have our money.

Why did you guys let the ecology movement be hijacked by politics. Come up with something that doesn't include the offset ponzi game and maybe we'll take it more seriously.

As for pillarying the messanger, we learned it from the left when they blamed Bush for everything. Turn about is fair play.

[Legalize]

Wow. Buzzy, it's almost as if you just made up everything you just said, in an attempt to pass *something* off as a "point" .... At least you can admit that your only interest is trying to hate on Al Gore, regardless of the veracity of his message; that's more principled than most GOPers.

[Hard Right]

Buzzy, you have to remember that with the left it only the actions that matter. They are not capable of seeing the results since that would prove them to be doing harm and they have built their entire psyche on feeling superior to others and feeling good about themselves. That's why they shriek when you dare to challenge their "religion".

Global warming is another redistribute the wealth scheme and a way for leftists to fell good about themselves. Global Warming isn't man made and can't be stopped.

[Zifnab]

"We all become like Al Gore and pollute 20 times the average amount.

We buy up emissions offsets for big bucks which go to companies that absolutely nobody checks to see if they actually have offsets to sell.

We have filthy air and they have our money."

How do solar panels on your house and buying energy from Green energy companies create filthy air and pollute 20 times as much as the average?
http://www.tva.gov/greenpowerswitch/

If anything, the Gores' epic use of electricity just proves that you can live like a king and still not impact the environment. I'm also completely baffled by how Al Gore makes any money off of hybrid engines or energy efficent appliances or rainforest preservation? Is it because he's been investing in green technology? Templar Knight does the same thing. Does that mean Templar Knight is an evil hippie who's trying to steal your money with lies about Global Warming too?

And Hard Right, you're completely off the deep end. Please do some research before you go shooting your mouth off about evil communist conspiracies.

[Legalize]

"And Hard Right, you're completely off the deep end. Please do some research before you go shooting your mouth off about evil communist conspiracies."

One would think that he would have learned his lesson by now.

[Jeff]

Listen to these libs have a Goregasm...

They can't contain themselves...

[Hard Right]

Legalize, you and Zifnab should get a room together...if you haven't already.

The plan is to give money to "devoloping" countries for "carbon credits" etc. but it's not a redistribution? The major polluters like India and China get a free pass, but it's not a scam? NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING-yet we should wreck our economy over it? Legalize I take it back, you're too stupid to be called retarted. Zifnab, you're not far behind him/her. Conspiracy? No. Movement, yes.

[charles]

they can try to explain it away any way they may like

but the fact of the matter is the leftists are showing their ass again

keep cheering on the taliban idiots, they're your kind of totalitarians

the goracle consumes more energy than any one person honestly should, and that is only one of his houses - what about the other three?

but it's all ok - he can afford it, nothing wrong with being a hypocrite if you're a liberal with money, being wasteful has nothing to do with it

we'll just penalize people for extra pollution rather than reward someone for decreasing it

oh and please everyone the word is pillory

[Zifnab]

Damn those solar panels! China will overtake us in a Friedman at this rate! All is lost!

[Legalize]

Wow, Limp Wrong, those are bold words for something that gets its ass handed to it in every thread. Are you and Riehl still Googling the definition of "perjury."

[katie]

Dan, your blog would be more credible if you didn't hate everyone
who is a democrat. We'd be alot better off if he was president.

[LOL]

a winger wrote sarcastically in this thread: "Yeah, we should trust 'cientists' "

You dug at someone for making a typo first of all. Cientists - Scientists... definitely the mating call of someone with no point.

On the other hand this attitude sums up right wing thinking. Use your microwave, drive your car, watch television, use the internet, but whatever you do remain skeptical of science, because it never accomplished anything. Just because they science was wrong in the 1970's doesn't mean anything. If you called the fire department under a mistaken impression that an electrical socket was about to burn up your house, would you expect the fire department to stop coming when you have a similar alarm? The risks of global warming are too great to have the ignorant attitude of Hard Right. Even Giuliani and O'Reilly concede global warming is happening and is man made.

Put it like this wingers. There's 2 options, global warming is real or it isn't. If it isn't then all this green-movement stuff isn't horrible. It isn't going to ruin the US's economy. Soviet Russia polluted more than the US. Japan is one of the greenest countries in the world. Clearly one can have a high-functioning green economy. If global warming is real and is man made, and we ignore the threat... well you idolaters so concerned with wealth will just be lucky enough to be the last to die from it.

[Oregonian]

An Oscar For His Second Act

By Richard Cohen
Washington Post, Tuesday, February 27, 2007; Page A15

"Now, somebody ought to make a movie about Al Gore. I would call it 'An Uncomplaining Life.'"

"The movie would be about a man who did not quit, who came off the canvas after a painfully close election -- he won the popular vote, after all -- who accepted defeat graciously and tried to unite the nation, who returned to the consuming passion of his earlier days, the environment, and spoke endlessly on the topic, almost always for free, who starred in a documentary based on his speech and who Sunday night, before a billion or so people, won an Academy Award for his effort. This may or may not be a stepping stone to the presidency, but Gore gives us all a lesson on how to live one's life."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022601251.html

[Dan Riehl]

"Dan, your blog would be more credible if you didn't hate everyone who is a democrat."

I don't. I came from a Dem family - voted for Carter - once. And I am not a registered Republican. I am registered Independent and vote that way.

[LOL]

voting for carter after what nixon did isn't proof of anything. Everybody your age or older seems to have voted that way. Who's the last national democrat you supported dan?

[Rob Kaufman]

Sorry Dan but you are as much an Independent as Bill O'Lielly is. But please keep deluding yourself, it makes for a better comedy act.

[Jeff]

I'm sure Dan feels the same way as I.

I'm an American first, then a Conservative. I vote for what is best for both of those, in that order. I voted for Bush (GOP), Tom Reynolds (GOP), Charles Schumer (DNC), and Elliot Spitzer (DNC). For state Senate I voted (GOP, and the GOP controls the state Senate).

And Dan, you voted for Carter? That is as much Democrat as I could take in a lifetime.

[Jeff]

LOL you are aware that Nixon wasn't President in 1976 right?

[Rob Kaufman]

Jeff, you are aware that was the first race after Watergate? So what is your diversionary question supposed to mean?

[Jeff]

Rob... you're not making sense... post when you aren't drowning your sorrows in a bottle of kettle one...

[Rob Kaufman]

Poor poor Jeff, sorry to have to inform you but I do not drink anything with alcohol in it, have never touched an illegal drug in my life, and am quite happily married with two children I would do anything for so once again you are hopelessly wrong. Funny to see you talk about someone making no sense when you made this moronic post, "LOL you are aware that Nixon wasn't President in 1976 right?" There is hope for you though since even a broken clock is right rwice a day, but I must once again thank you for amusing me.

[Kite]

Rob: Alcohol isn't an illegal drug. I'm sure you were just referencing your past exemption of use of an illegal drug, but perhaps next time you could form a cotent segway in there. Otherwise you look like a grammatical idiot and I don't encourage people to look more like an idiot than they already are. Besides, your nefarious bretheren here already do a pretty good job of coming across as a bunch of retards anyways. Try and stay a little bit above the bar next time.

[LOL]

jeff you are aware Ford pardoned nixon and the nation never forgave him for this? Don't let facts get int the way of some good ole ideology though

[Rob Kaufman]

Kite, does stupid hurt? Just where in your warped mind did I claim alcohol is an illegal drug? reading comprehension is not your one of your strengths I take it. Do you not understand the function of a comma? But thank you for once again showing just how stupid a right winger can be, congrats on that accomplishment. I do wonder though which comes first though, the lose of reasoning ability or becoming a right wing nutjob?

[TheSpartan]

Serious question, what the fuck is a "cotent segway"?