Icefear

So, how does environmentalist Al Gore stack up against his alleged "enemy of the environment", President George Bush? Not very well, it turns out. In fact, President Bush is 20 times more green than Al Gore in terms of energy consumption.

If this sounds far-fetched to you, think again. It has been confirmed.

Can you guess which house belongs to the environmentalist?

HOUSE # 1: A 20-room mansion, not including 8 bathrooms, heated entirely by natural gas. Add on a pool and pool house and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household does during an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month and in natural gas alone, which last time we checked was a fossil fuel, this property consumes more than twenty times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern 'snow belt,' either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (The twenty room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee and it's the home of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

How inconvenient that truth is for the hypocrite Al Gore.

Scribbler1

So their homes are different. That hardly defines either man.

While Gore may not live as "green" as he preaches, I seriously doubt Bush can be considered better overall.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Bradgriff

Do you actualy expect any living person to believe for one second that George Bush considered how green his house would be when he had it designed?

This is right up there with $400 haircuts.....what had to happen to you to make you care????

Now, if you can show me anything that shows George Bush during the design phase of his house saying.........."Now lits put that BBQ away from the house a bit there' hehehehe, that way it won't make the house hot....saves the environment from nucular waves from the sun...hehehehehe"

Then I might think you actualy have a foundation for this.....(tap tap tap)...argument

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iTaliAN_ICe

Wow. Tell me you all aren't so intensely partisan that you refuse to acknowledge Gore's blatant hypocrisy.

Alun

Gore endorses the Kyoto treaty's "Carbon credits" and I'd guess he absolves himself of responsibility for his giant house by buying enough credits to even out the difference. Of course, that still doesn't accomplish what building an eco-friendly house would, so if he built it larger specifically thinking he'd counter it with Carbon credits, then he's fooling himself.

The contradiction still stands I'd say, but that hardly impacts Gore's message; it just speaks to his character. Well there you have it: Gore is a hypocrite so you shouldn't vote for him. Oh wait.

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Scribbler1

While I'm no defender of Gore, I see a pretty fair amount of hypocrisy in what some of you are saying. The way I see it, if he's talking about what he sees as a GLOBAL problem, where he lives is just a wee bit irrelevant.

I suppose anyone who advocates such things ought to live in a goddamned mud hut before you would assign any credibility to what they say.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

iTaliAN_ICe

I'm still completely convinced that Gore's "environmentalism" is a ploy to gain support and attention. His hypocrisy only convinces me further.

Scribbler1

It might well be a ploy. But nailing on what kind of house he lives in is still petty and hypocritical.

The fact is, he lives in that house because he can AFFORD to. The last time I looked, conservatives had no problem with a rich person living in a big house. So if this particular rich person, although with an opposing political philosophy, chooses to say what he says and lives in a nice place, it is extremely hypocritical to condemn him for where he lives.

And at the end of the day, his house isn't going to shift the balance of the global ecology either way. It almost sounds like you use his choice of homes because you don't have anything else to nail him for.

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

iTaliAN_ICe

There are plenty of things we can "nail him" for.

His claim to have invented the internet comes to mind...

I find it hypocritical on his part that he claims to want to "save" the environment, and yet takes no steps to make his own home eco-friendly when, as you pointed out, he could easily afford to do so if he wanted.

Seer

Ummm… Gore is not the only expert on global warming in the country… he is not the president of environmentalists and yet many others are saying what he’s saying.

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