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htm \_ On the one hand, if this surprises you, you're naive. This is exactly why I'm going to keep driving my H2 and keep going to my church. Of course the irony is that this sort of intellectual dishonesty makes you no better than the people you're ad homineming. Scrimping and Conserving and reducing buy only a few years, as the 10-20% you save gets quickly made irrelevant 5% population and economic growth. It won't happen until you stop breathing, and even then you'll release some carbon gases in the process of dying and decaying. The problem is that he wants to inflict life style changes on everyone else that he's not willing to live with for himself and his family. Paying some sort of bogus "carbon footprint credit" doesn't make him any less wasteful, yet he can afford to pay it for the feel good effect. He's worth at least $50 million so a few extra bucks for him is no big deal. Now then, if he actually truly changed his life style in the way he advocates for everyone else I'd be impressed. As far as Drudge goes, I don't see why anyone gives a rat's ass what he has to say or why Gore bothered to respond at all. He's run it the same way for years and it's no big deal. All his links are either taken directly from other news sources or unsourced and thus dismissable. Sorry guys, Karl Rove style politics doesn't work very well anymore. But now, thanks to Drudges hard hittin' journalism, I'm forced to realize that global warming is a liberal conspiracy to subvert my precious bodily fluids, and to give all my money to the Enterprise Institute. As usual, drudge runs the gotcha without the journalism..
org/2007/02/26/gore-responds-to-drudge \_ That's not much of a response (too short). I was hoping that he explains how many people live there and what goes on in the mansion that uses so much energy. For example, I suppose a 24hr security system for such a big mansion uses quite a bit of energy. Unfortunately, people still think drudge has some amount of value. The more "green" energy he buys, the less there is for others. No, I just like to point out hypocrisy and idiocy when it presents itself. That's basically the "ultrarich liberal" response that "as long as i am willing to pay higher taxes, i should be able to not change my lifestyle". i believe in internalizing costs but it's understood that that is a complicated matter given it's regressive nature. This sounds like the converse of the "liberals are pro-choice cuz they like killing babies" talking point. Saying, "I reduced my waste a bit and spend more on green stuff because I'm rich and can easily afford it" doesn't cut it, no. Planting 5 trees in Kenya does not offset each of Gore's trans continental private flights to pick up an award. Besides, exactly what has he and his family actually done to 'carbon-offset' their life style? At what point would you not call it feel-goodism any more?
com Now then, as I said, what exactly has Gore or his family done to offset their carbon foot- print? The weight is on their shoulders to prove it, not on mine to prove they aren't. I'm just some dude who doesn't spend $30k a year to heat my house or fly around the world on private jets all the time. The answer is easy to figure out: they do nothing but talk about it a lot. And fly private jets around the world to tell other people how to live and collect little statues on TV. the point is the rich can pay their way out while the poorer people have to make lifestyle changes. say we had a draft, do you think it is defensible to pay your way out of it? yes i know all of these things happen, but it is a little disturbing and we should be aware of the disparate impact. mccain could hve gotten out of vietnam service via a legitimate and legal channel. maybe we should not expect that gore or bush wont use political connections to get thir kinds INTO harvard and yale, but i do respect that mccain didnt use his political connection to get OUT of the hanoi hilton. say we had a draft, do you think it is defensible to pay your way out of it? yes i know all of these things happen, but it is a little disturbing and we should be aware of the disparate impact. mccain could hve gotten out of vietnam service via a legitimate and legal channel. maybe we should not expect that gore or bush wont use political connections to get thir kinds INTO harvard and yale, but i do respect that mccain didnt use his political connection to get OUT of the hanoi hilton. However, this is why countries are expected to buy into carbon credit programs as well. I'm not so disgusted by Haves taking positive action unavailable to Have nots... The parallels you cite all have either a direct benefit or direct exculpation to the Have in question. As carbon costs are not currently monetarily/legally realized, I think the lead by example is noteworthy. the international analog is the us vs china, india, and brazil. it will be an interesting question how the costs of dealing with enviro issues are distributed. it may not be unreasonable that the us pays and india and china and brazil change behavior but i have a feeling this negotiation wont go very smoothly. Mine is over $150 and I don't even have air/heat or any appliances running other than 1 computer (iMac) and 2 (relatively new) refrigerators. I am calling bullshit unless you live somewhere like Washington state where power is cheap. I have a gas dryer and I line-dry my cloths on sunny days. I also wrapped an insulation blanket on my water heater, and set its thermostat such that the water is just hot enough but not any hotter. I completely power off (not energy- saving mode) my PC and monitor when not in use. I use mostly fluorescent blubs and tubes, and we turn lights off when not in use. I have double-pane windows and we wear jackets at home when it's cold, so we use the gas furnace only occasionally. I have a gas dryer and I line-dry my cloths on sunny days. I also wrapped an insulation blanket on my water heater, and I set its thermostat such that the water is just hot enough but not any hotter. I completely power off (not energy- saving mode) my PC and monitor when not in use. I use mostly fluorescent blubs and tubes, and we turn lights off when not in use. I have double-pane windows and we wear jackets at home when it's cold, so we use the gas furnace only occasionally. This is more for conserving water than gas energy, though. My Buick was energy efficient in 1963 when it was made but not when I drove it in 1986. That is for two people who both work and are gone from 9-8pm every day. I do like to turn lights on at night from 8pm until midnight. My family (me, wife, 2 kids) have an electric dryer, and a gas heater. Mostly due to not being able to dry our clothes outside, and heating the house to a toasty 65 degrees. Are you heating the house all day and night, even when you aren't there? I have a gravity (gas) furnace which doesn't use electricity at all. BTW, I read that the average US household uses 934 kWh/month, which is less than I use (usually 700-900). You mean to say that you use 70 kWh for all of your other electricity needs with 4 of you and an electric dryer? Are you getting some sort of discounted bill on some special program? Just your laptop and some light cooking would cost more than that. We are careful with electricty usage, turn off the computer, unplug the entertainment stuff when we aren't using it, etc. But that stuff is chicken feed compared to how much more you're using. From the replies here it seems like you're using a lot of electricity and not getting a lot out of it. Your bill is similar to what my dad pays, and he has a well for his water (electric water pump), and runs 6 computers all the time. Maybe your wife has a secret server farm in the basement. Also, CA has much lower per captia energy useage, just over half.
"I think we ought to be out there talking about ways to reduce energy consumption and waste. And we ought to declare that we will be free of energy consumption in this country within a decade, bold as that is." htm Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a f...
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