Al Gore: No Friend Of The Planet

Not when it comes to putting dollars in his already full pockets.

CARTHAGE, Tenn. - Al Gore has profited from zinc mining that has released millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances near his farmstead, but there is no evidence the mine has caused serious damage to the environment in the area or threatened the health of his neighbors.

Two massive white mountains of leftover rock waste are evidence of three decades of mining that earned Gore more than $500,000 in royalty payments for the mineral rights to his property.

New owners plan to start mining again later this year, after nearly four years of inactivity. In addition to bringing 250 much-needed jobs to rural Middle Tennessee, mine owners will resume paying royalties to some residents who, like Gore, own land adjacent to the mine and lease access to the zinc under their property.

Comments

[Buzzy]

How much longer before the left gets tired of being embarrassed by AlGore?

He's in deep with Occidental Petroleum too. Now how green is that, I still remember when Gore and the Clinton administration pulled all sorts of strings to get Occidental drilling rights in Columbia even to displacing an indian tribe from their ancestrial home to drill for oil.

Gore is possibly even more tied into huge corporationism than Bush. Of course watch the war drag on in Iraq now that George Soros (the owner of the DNC) owns $62 million in Halliburton stock. A big enough stock share that he could force them to move their corporate offices to the UAE.

[Al Gore]

I had to strip mine the forest to save it.

[yyy]

The left isn't being embarrassed by Al Gore, no one is listening to the nutty stuff that the wingnuts keep on dredging up about Al Gore. You are embarrassing yourselves by attacking a man who is trying to do something good and something that is apart from partisan politics. That's what you can't stand.

[JammieWearingFool]

The left is incapable of embarrassment. Shamelessness is in their DNA.

[seekeronos]

Well, that explains why the left welcomes pedophiles like that Rust-Tierny guy from the ACLU, Islamist/Jihadist sympathizers and enablers like the CAIR, and hypocrites and sham "scientists" like al-Gore as thier gods.

But the instant a non-leftie loon steps out of line, "Off with his head!"

[yyy]

Yeah, much better to be aligned with the jailed and disgraced influence peddlers, bribe takers and of course, the male prostitute banging, meth smoking, gay bashing evangelical ministers and the lewd email gay intern banging congressmen.

Rave on loonies.

[Buzzy]

I haven't figured out yet exactly why the left can't see that their bribe taking, meth smoking, gay bashing, gay intern banging politicans aren't a bit different than those of the right. They certainly seem to be totally blind to the faults of their own side but have 20/20 vision of everyone elses faults.

Tell you what y3 why don't you join the progressives here and call for a change. It's OK to bash Harry Reid for his scammy land deals, AlGore for his zinc mine profits and pollution profits and we'll even let you bash the bribe takers, meth smokers, gay bashers, and gay intern emailers on the right too. The progressive thing to do is demand they all clean up their acts. Wouldn't you agree?

[Jeff]

"The left isn't being embarrassed by Al Gore, no one is listening to the nutty stuff that the wingnuts keep on dredging up about Al Gore."

Wow, that says it all y cubed.

Let me rephrase, "We aren't embarrassed by the facts coming to light about Al Gore."

Don't let the facts shroud Dr. Al Gore's divinity. FYI y cubed, there is a space ship that is going to take us all to heaven, says Al Gore, so its true.

Thank Al for God.

[yyy]

You nutters crack me up every time. When the Bush Administration is awash in REAL scandals: billions lost in Iraq due to mismanagement, US attorneys being fired for failing to bring indictments against the 'right' parties, the FBI illegally using the Patriot Act [gee, that's a huge surprise], gutting of environmental standards, and that isn't even starting on the Congressional scandals and the left is supposed to be upset about Al Gore being a rich guy who lives in a big house.

Pssst: It has been common knowledge for about 30 years that Al Gore is a rich guy, from a rich family with a big house. There is no 'there' there. Being rich and caring about the environment don't make one a hypocrite. It is only because the right wing talking points say that all liberals are communists, meaning that rich liberals shouldn't exist, that causes you so much trouble with Al Gore.

And that you are deathly afraid he might run for President.

[LOL]

Not proof of anything really. If he denied them access to use his land, righties would just be screaming about how he's destroying the economy.

Your source isn't very precise either: "millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances"

Didn't bother to investigate what specific substances they were eh?

Then again Dan and his readers don't bother to do the basic investigation of clicking-through: "Last week, Gore sent a letter asking the company to work with Earthworks, a national environmental group, to make sure the operation doesn’t damage the environment."

Oh

[LOL]

An answer to my first question: "Zinc is used primarily to protect steel from corrosion. Other metals released during the mining process - such as lead, mercury and copper - are necessary to a modern economy. But human exposure to high levels of these metals can cause health problems."

These metals aren't greenhouse gases. Their emissions do not affect global warming. Of course explaining basic chemistry to the wingnut science experts that request this website is a lost cause. Does the earth revolve around the sun guys? A Republican is pushing for teaching that it doesn't--in science classes.

[templar knight]

"Last week, Gore sent a letter asking the company to work with Earthworks, a national environmental group, to make sure the operation doesn't damage the environment."

Last week? And how long have they been mining zinc at this location? Does the word hypocrite mean anything to you libs when it comes to the Gorical?

[yyy]

Um, maybe he sent the letter LAST WEEK because the activity has not been going on for the last four years and is just now starting up again.

[templar knight]

And Al just became an environmentalist in the past four years, huh? He didn't claim to be one prior to that, is that what you are saying, yyy? Again, Al Gore is a hypocrite. Admit it man. Be honest.

[yyy]

Well, the article that Danny himself posted says this zinc mining doesn't harm the enviroment, and as someone else pointed out if Gore refused to allow the zinc to be mined he would be lambasted for being a rich guy in an ivory tower who didnt' care about the poor people in TN who needed these jobs, he was just doing it all for symbolism's sake.

So, whatever he does he's going to be criticized for it. This seems to me to be relatively consistent with the middle road Gore is trying to set out...a balance between economic issues and environmental issues and making green initiatives work from an economic standpoint.

The Occidental Oil stuff is a legitimate gripe, especially some things that were done in the past.

[Al Gore]

"These metals aren't greenhouse gases."

That's because I invented smelters that run on fresh air on good will.

[templar knight]

yyy,

Why would Gore care about criticism from the Right? Or why would anyone on the Left, for that matter? The Left never cared about it before, so why now? Nope, I'm not buying it. Hypocrite.

Look, yyy, I don't care if Gore mines zinc on his property. As a matter of fact, I would encourage it to not only help the people of Tennessee, but the nation at large.

I'm not a bit upset with the mining, it's Gore's hypocrisy that upsets me.

"Do as I say, not as I do." That's Gore's motto, and frankly, I can't stand it or him.

[yyy]

He isn't hypocritical, he is showing that, counter to what the right wing says, you can make money and still protect the environment. You just call him a hypocrite because the fact that he is rich and that he started his own green company to facilitate carbon trading shows what a lie the party line on environmentalists and global warming is.

[templar knight]

That's a lie. I call him a hypocrite because he does the same damn thing he criticizes others for doing. And here Gore is right now on the History Channel decrying big corporations and their pollution. While he has profited from pollution. Yes, hypocrite is the word.

[brad]

Jesus Dan.
Not that you were ever a champ, but this is flat out pathetic.
You might as well just title this post "A reminder that I'm afraid of Al Gore." Honestly, you'd be better served acting supportive of him. It'd do a lot more to lower people's opinion of him.
Desperately casting about for anything to get uppity about only shows how desperate you are.

[yyy]

SO I guess then, having profited from industries that pollute, Al Gore should simply not be allowed to advocate for the environment. Even if he had divested himself of all of his money and lived in a mudd hut, he would still have received his education from the ill gotton gains of his forebearers, and thus, would be a hypocrite.

Of course if he gave away all of his money, he wouldn't be able to afford to advocate for the environment, how convenient.

You guys hate him because he proves everything the right says about the environment is a lie.

He has gone far beyond atoning for any profits he or his family may have made from industries that pollute the environment.

[templar knight]

YOU tell me how Gore has any credibility. And I don't care if he is a multi-billionaire, "it's the hypocrisy, stupid".

[yyy]

Yeah, I know, and George Soros is..what is he? The anti Christ, a Nazi, Commie? Terrorist lover?

[Buzzy]

Oh, he bought up some Industrial Land Rapist offsets?

Y3, if you haven't figured it out by now I not fond of corporationism. I don't view what they do as "free trade" once they start being the de facto rulers of our politicians and I believe it will be the downfall of our nation. And yes I believe that if Al Gore was concerned about the environment he should have divested himself of stock in companies that pollute and he sure as hell should have written that letter about the zinc mining years ago.

You and your fellow lefties have no room to bash anyone on the right for being owned by corporations unless you'll also bash those on the left that are exactly the same.

Here's your AlGore:
"For thousands of years, the Kitanemuk Indians made their home in the Elk Hills of central California. Come February 2001, the last of the 100 burial grounds, holy places and other archaeological sites of the Kitanemuks will be obliterated by the oil drilling of Occidental Petroleum Company. Oxy's plans will "destroy forever the evidence that we once existed on this land," according to Dee Dominguez, a Kitanemuk whose great grandfather was a signatory to the 1851 treaty that surrendered the Elk Hills.

Occidental's planned drilling of the Elk Hills doesn't only threaten the memory of the Kitanemuk. Environmentalists say a rare species of fox, lizard and the kangaroo rat would also be threatened by Oxy's plans. A lawsuit has been filed under the Endangered Species Act. But none of that has given pause to Occidental or the politician who helped engineer the sale of the drilling rights to the federally-owned Elk Hills. That politician is Al Gore.

Gore recommended that the Elk Hills be sold as part of his 1995 "Reinventing Government" National Performance Review program. Gore-confidant (and former campaign manager) Tony Cohelo served on the board of directors of the private company hired to assess the sale's environmental consequences. The sale was a windfall for Oxy. Within weeks of the announced purchase Occidental stock rose ten percent."

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=468

At the time of the sale, which AlGore pushed from his position as Vice President, he listed between $250k and $500k in Occidental stock. After the sale he listed $1 million in Occidental stock.

I remember when Occidental CEO, Armand Hammer, used to joke that he had Al Gore Sr. in his pocket. Looks like Occidental has AlGore in their pocket as well.

No, he can't atone for this with a phony carbon offset scam. Never.

[Jeff]

"These metals aren't greenhouse gases. Their emissions do not affect global warming."

No? Well, they kill trees... Which is like killing carbon offsets...

And yyy, let me put this in a situation that you will understand.

A member of Congress writes laws to protect children, and then he allegedly violates said laws. Is the fact that he wrote those laws "simply proof that a preditor can be a friend to children"?

Because you are pretty much saying the same thing about environmental rapist Dr. Al Gore.

[yyy]

What laws did Al Gore violate? Oh none. That's right. Another faux point.

Buzzy. Who said I don't condemn corruption on the left? I prefer to limit my condemnations to real corruption, not made up corruption and I tend to get more worked up about trashing the Constitution and civil rights than the good ole boys network in its formal and informal incarnations.

Our country is headed for disaster. The culture is in the gutter. Politics has become an absurdity. It is all about winning, attacking and scaring the public into voting for you instead of the other guy, whether you are supposed to be scared of terrorists, gays, evangelicals or big oil.

It's fall of the Roman Empire all over again, even down to the lax immigration standards, weakened military standards and everyone from the emperor on down paying lip service to the traditions of the country while flouting them on a daily basis.

But that doesn't change the fact that George W. Bush is by far the most destructive president in history.

[templar knight]

yyy, I fervently believe in green energy, especially wind, and I think pollution is bad for the planet. My common sense tells me this, as I don't foul my own property with waste. And neither should we foul the Earth any more than is absolutely necessary, but I firmly believe that free markets helped along with tax credits and rewards is the way, not totalitarian regulations and requirements that will cause a crisis worst than global warming, and even add to the problem.

And Al Gore lacks credibility to be a spokesman for the environment. He is a polluter himself, or has profited off polution, however you want to put it. I'm with Buzzy on this one, as I think Gore has been bought off by industry.

And I absolutely hate this corporationism, as Buzzy calls it, and I think big multi-nationals are a threat to the US and its people. A major threat.

[yyy]

I'm not sure we don't need some 'totalitarian' requirements to go along with the tax credits and rewards. A lot of studies believe, just for one example, that overfishing could end commercial fishing within our lifetimes, which would then result in economic collapse and many third world people getting poorer and hungrier. Asking people to fish less isn't going to get the job done, they have to be MADE to fish less or they will, in their own short term, small world view of needing money to live, keep on fishing as much as they can.

It's the same dynamic with development, lumber, poaching, a lot of things. Nobody, except maybe Dan, really wants the polar bears to become extinct or the rain forest to disappear or the coastline to be paved over with condos and hotels. But, individually, people want to make money. Thus, voluntary actions are not likely to be sufficient. There are not a lot of John Muirs out there.

[Buzzy]

Y3, would that include using man made Global Warming as a scare tactic to profit off of "carbon offsets". Why did he fight so hard to have the PRC exempted from pollution mandates if he truly believes global warming is man made. To my view AlGore just figured out a way to make big money from Bush's BS Clean Air Act offsets program.

Even though I'm a hard liner when it comes to criminal public corruption I view so called "soft" corruption as just as wrong and probably more insidious as political crime.

We, as a nation, are headed for the dumpster and for all the reasons you mentioned but I see no answers coming from the left, only more murky reasoning, more taxes, and hidden agendas.

I actually would like to see just one negative thing you've posted about the Democratic Party though. Must have missed it.

[yyy]

I've said more than once that I don't want to live in the Democratic nanny state, though if push comes to shove it is marginally better than George Bush's 1984 Big Brother nightmare.

The Democratic Party has much trouble learning from it's past mistakes. Many party activists still have never met a social program they didn't like. The core problem with many of my fellow liberals is an unwillingness to admit a harsh truth of life, that we are not all equal. We are not all smart or nice and for some of us, no matter how much or self esteem is propped up, how many government programs are aimed at us, we will always be dumb and mean. The liberals can't stomach this, which is a funny irony, given the recent culture wars regarding evolution vs. creationism.. If you believe in evolution then you should by definition be able to admit that some of us are more gifted than others.

I also destest Hillary Clinton, as I have posted here several times. Now there is a first class hypocrite, Al Gore can't touch her. She's also super liberal, much more liberal than her husband was and a politcal viper to boot. But she's better than the neocons any day.

[Scrapiron]

Algore sent a letter to earthworks only after he got caught. I love to watch the left wing idiots try to alibi all of the failures on the left, just like yesterday in D.C., they showed their true colors, yellow. How fitting the yellow signs were as one of the patriots told them. Y with a studder has already progressed from BDS to insanity. Hey y, you're running out of alibi's and reusing old ones. Too bad your momma no longer locks you in the closet to hide you from the public. Algore has spewed more polution in the air than any fifty families you can locate, and most of it was by his ass doing his talking. So you get what you expect from an ass and it ain't all BS, just plain old sh**.

[Buzzy]

If you believe in evolution you should look at global warming as an opportunity :)

[seekeronos]

"Asking people to fish less isn't going to get the job done, they have to be MADE to fish less or they will, in their own short term, small world view of needing money to live, keep on fishing as much as they can."

Trouble with this is:

This speaks of enforcement. Enforcement speaks of funding and a military/police buildup to prevent (read: force) people not to fish.

Do you honestly think that we can prevent the big fishing fleets of Japan (ostensibly an ally) from doing what they wish to feed their nation of 160 million chronic fish eaters?

Or China with its 1.3Bn?

India with its near Billion? Or most of the third world bordering an ocean, where seafood is a significant percentage of their food source?

Don't look to the UN or the WTO to do much --- those bunches of overfed, corrupted gangsters has little else it can do to destroy civilization with inane bickering and jousting for advantage.

And the US Military, overstretched as it is? Pah.

That aside, rightly did you say that some are more gifted than others, yet we are eual in one, no, two respects:

a) Humans, as a race, are chronically stupid. If you must believe in macro-evolution... that we evolved from monkeys, then that doesn't say much for us. There is little that can be done, other than to wait four our eventual self-extinction, and for the dolphins or field mice or cockroaches to evolve to sapience and thence to hopefully make better use of the ruined planet.

b) We are all sinners, created once perfect, but fallen, and trapped in slavery to our selfish, proud, evil natures... and in desperate need of redemption and conversion by God's grace. Hence the source of our wickedness and desire to deprive one another at the hope of bettering ourselves.

I hold that our root problem is not for lack of intelligence, but rather, being too stubbornly proud to see our sin, and to receive God's grace, and to escape from Satan's hold into the open, waiting arms of Christ, that we may be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).

[seekeronos]

Sp. error: "eual" = equal

[LOL]

"Do you honestly think that we can prevent the big fishing fleets of Japan (ostensibly an ally) from doing what they wish to feed their nation of 160 million chronic fish eaters?

Or China with its 1.3Bn?

India with its near Billion? Or most of the third world bordering an ocean, where seafood is a significant percentage of their food source?"

Yes. They're called treaties and they've been made in the past on these issues. The UN over the decades has done more than you give it credit for.

[Cindi]

LOL, you are a real asshole, why Dan continues to allow you to post is beyond me.

[Buzzy]

I'm half American Indian and you want me to believe in treaties? Think again white man.

A treaty is worthless unless it is enforcible. Stalin had a treat with Hitler, that went well. History is littered with worthless treaties and in the end every one of them is broken.

Well we can all sleep safe at night knowing the UN will enforce the treaties. It took one suicide bomber to run the whole UN out of Bagdhad. It took one kidnapping attempt to run the UN out of Gaza just last week. I'd bet an illegal Chinese fishing fleet would make them wet their pants.

Why is it that liberals always throw up the UN like it's actually done something since 1965. Sheesh.

[djangone]

The mine closed in 2003. It was owned by the Gore family, specifically his father. There is no evidence the mine has caused serious damage to the environment in the area or threatened the health of his neighbors.

Oh, that last bit? From the portion of the article you quoted, Dan, you amazing idiot.

The minute you actually have something on Gore, the earth will open and candy will flow from volcanoes. Until then, I'm sure you're going to continue licking the dirt hoping for something sweet.

[LOL]

hmm... the UN prevented a ww3 type event since 1965 and that's its fundamental reason for existence. So I'd say it has achieved.

[LOL]

Plenty of UN treaties have succeeded as well over the decades. Montreal Protocol for example is germane to the fishery discussion.

[seekeronos]

"A treaty is worthless unless it is enforcible. Stalin had a treat with Hitler, that went well. History is littered with worthless treaties and in the end every one of them is broken."

Ah yes, quite true indeed: How was it that Hitler regarded a certain treaty as "a worthless scrap of paper", before rolling the Wehrmacht accross Europe...?

Sheesh.

So... LOL: How did the UN save us from a certain nuclear doom in 1965? I'm curious to hear this one.

[seekeronos]

The point is: a treaty is only as good as the states that choose to enforce it upon their merchant and/or fishing fleets.

China may not (yet) have a blue-water navy, but they seem to have more industrial fishing boats harvesting fishies than the USN has military boats to put into the water.

[Buzzy]

Yeah the mine was owned by the Gore family and now the mineral rights are owned by AlGore. During that time it was warned several times for polluting a nearby river. AlGore has made over $500k from his royalties on the mine which is scheduled to reopen this year.

I love it when you guys decide for political reasons that zinc is not a dangerous substance. It's a heavy metal, can be toxic with serious long term health problems. Admit it, if Bush or Cheney owned this mine or even made money from its royalties you'd be screaming bloody murder. I would too but the difference is I'm also screaming bloody murder when AlGore makes money off of pollution.

[LOL]

"I would too"

let's not lie

[LOL]

Global warming is here. All these idiots that run around and say it isn’t here. That’s ridiculous.

[benrand]

It's snowing this morning.

Care to rationalize "Global warming is here."?

Or are we all just supposed to believe it. Have you ever told a Christian that he is believing in a fairy tale and is an unthinking zombie for believing in nothing?

I'm sure you have, it's in the leftist playbook.

[yyy]

Oooh, it's cold outside so global warming is a lie. Right. Got it. Makes a lot of sense. I mean really, why believe the world's leading experts on climate change. Scientists are known to be overly emotional, irratoinal and prone to lefty politics. Good on ya.

[Buzzy]

About as much sense as Oooh, it's hot outside, lets buy carbon offsets so it'll cool down.

[Gary Maxwell]

Amazing. A heavy metal being strip mined and creating a slag pile of tailings and other trace metals is no big deal. Anyone who knows anything about pollution knows that there are two kinds of pollution. One is organic and the other inorganic. Most organics break down over time into nontoxic substances. Nature has a way of dealing with these substances to clean them up. Many pooluted sites are injected with water or brought into contact with air to speed up these reactions and the break down of the substances into benign and nonthreatening substances.

Unfortunately, inorganic heavy metals do not break down. And if they leach through the soil into the ground water, they can contaminate the drinking supply and have been proven to have a high correlation to elevated levels of birth defects and cancers in a population subject to them in their drinking water.

It dont take much to fool a liberal apparently.

[Buzzy]

Exactly Gary. We have a huge "superfund" problem cleaning up the leach from tailings of the old zinc mines in the Picher / Commerce area here. The area probably won't be fit for humans to live in during our lifetimes, maybe never. Heavy metals, like zinc, also accumulate in a person over a lifetime. Anyone willing to bet that AlGore drinks bottled water while cashing his royalty checks from the mine?