Al Gore Leaves The Light On For Ya
From Nashvillepost.com
By Kleinheider
Even during Earth Hour. President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark:
I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on.
In fact, most of the windows were lit by the familiar blue-ish hue indicating that floor lamps and ceiling fixtures were off, but TV screens and computer monitors were hard at work. (In other words, his house looked the way most houses look about 1:45am when their inhabitants are distractedly watching “Cheaters” or “Chelsea Lately” reruns.)
The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.
I [kid] you not, my friends, the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees.
More here
Here’s a look at Al Gores Nashville mansion:
Vice President Al Gore has purchased this home, in Nashville’s exclusive Belle Meade section, for a reported USD2.3 million. The deed for the Colonial-style home, which sits on 2.09 acres of some of the city’s most expensive land, was signed on June 17, 2002. Gore and his wife, Tipper, will keep other homes in Tennessee and Virginia. It was published February 28, 2007 that research group in Tennessee, where the former vice president lives, claims that Mr Gore’s 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville consumes more electricity in a month than the average American household uses in a year.
Photo and description Source: Daylife
You can see it here on Google Maps
From an aerial view looking south you can see what could be a handful of solar panels, though the orientation is puzzling if that is what they are. Update: in comments it it pointed out that they may also be skylights, which seems more probable. So it appears there are no solar panels on Mr. Gore’s home. Note the SUV fleet.
Here is a view looking east:
UPDATE: The photos above don’t show solar panels, however an alert commenter found this photo showing the placement on the one flat section of roofing shown in the aerial views above:
The 34 panels look to be between 200 and 250 watts each, for a total capacity at full sun of 6.8 to 8.5 kilowatts for the system.They will provide an offset, but will not fully replace energy consumption there. Given the 10,000 sq foot size and the pool, this is an undersized installation for the home. Some ground based panels would have helped.
– Anthony
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I get a kick out of some neighbors who participated…
They turned out their lights.
Then they had a get together in their back yard complete with tiki-torches, burgers on a charcoal BBQ, and a propane heater to fend off the cold.
Their ‘mistake’ can, I guess, be forgiven. They did what they were told they should do and most likely do not understand why. Gore on the other hand, has no excuse. But then, he is special and thus his contributions don’t count.
While Gore basks in the luxury of his estate; millions die each year in Kenya in part due to the lack of electrical power. They are not permitted to construct a much needed coal fired power plant. Al Gore is, in part, responsible for that situation. The annual energy consumption of Gore’s lavish home could save thousands of lives if it were applied elsewhere, such as in Kenya.
I have a severe problem with people such as Al Gore. His alarmist position and activities, to me, is essentially killing people. All the while he enjoys the convenience and splendor provided by that which he would have, and does have, others denied of.
Do as I say, do not do as I do. This is the politics of CHANGE. Most of Obama’s cabinet nominees to fix our economy are tax cheats. It’s only proper for one of his main Climate Change advisors to act this way. BURN BABY BURN!!!!
In Brisbane it was reported that for Earth hour lots of people *drove* up to the top of Mt Coot-tha to watch the lights go out for Earth hour.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
Inevitably, Mr. Gore’s hypocrisy will be defended. But before you start posting with indignant fury that someone would dare call him out over something ‘insignificant, ask yourself:
How much could Al Gore’s energy usage help these people?
http://www.worldonfire.ca/
It seems to me that any honest person would be disgusted by that level of hypocrisy.
@Peter Hearnden (13:13:41) :
“[…]But, some snooper found that Al Gore had lights on. Big deal, it doesn’t change the science does it?”
No, it doesn’t change the science. It tells me he probably believes the science to be BS (bad science).
Well, you know, those environmental rules are only for the “little people.” And it looks like those carbon offsets are a REALLY lucrative proposition, eh?
Doesn’t change the point of Earth Hour being to sell newspapers and advertising space either 😉
Those are not solar panels. Those are skylights. See how they are all aligned with the windows on that side of the house, as their location is based upon the rooms rather than the sun.
Now, now, people. The Earth Day promotion said to turn off “unnecessary” lights. Obviously the lights we see are required for the proper functioning of the Gore Compound. Who knows what kind of horrors could befall those poor trees if they were deprived of their late-night artificial illumination. 😉
Are those SUVs I see in Al’s driveway?
Just in Peter Hearnden’s honor and showing that I too can recycle, here’s a post I did a couple weeks ago
BUT WHAT IF AL GORE IS RIGHT AND THE ICE MELTS IN FIVE YEARS!
I’ve been tortured by this prospect so I went on a search to find a mitigation strategy. After developing a computer modeling program, I have determined that by the year 2013, Al will be big enough to fill the entire Arctic basin. If we dress him in a white suit and tether him to the geographic North Pole, we can replace all the albedo lost from the melting ice!
The output of this model is “robust” (f you don’t believe me just take a look at Al). Unlike the IPCC, I can say with 100% confidence the problem is man made.
How can we pay for this project? First with the carbon credits generated from having Al tethered in one location. Second, we can use corporate sponsorships (from all of Al’s new friends) and put patches all over Al’s white suit. Individual sponsorships would also be available for which I’m sure a lot of readers would be interested in purchasing. Lastly, would be the naming rights. Anthony, would you be up for this?
There is science, then there is the interpretation of that science.
Many years ago I worked with a research professor in EE at a state institute of technology. At the time the ‘scare of the week’ was that low level electric fields, such as those caused by air conditioners and refrigerators, could cause leukemia.
I asked him what his take was on it. He said, until the researchers unplug their own AC units and fridges, he wasn’t worried. If they didn’t buy into their own research enough to do that, then they were only trying to secure more research funds.
Gore has access to all the experts in the field of climate. If it doesn’t bother him to needlessly dump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, regardless of “off-sets” he may buy, then that screams that there is no problem.
If he cut himself off the grid to reduce his carbon footprint, bought property in northern Canada for a “summer home”, or purchased land in central South Carolina with plans to build a beach resort, then I might pay attention. And if he successfully pushes cap and trade agreements between countries, then I will be pushing for the same type of arrangements on an individual basis. It woud be worth it to see Gore have to spread his wealth among us peons in order to buy enough carbon credits to keep his swimming pool heated.
Those roof structures look like skylights to me, not solar panels.
On March 29, 2009, the RealClimate blog posted a piece titled Lies, Damn Lies and Science. They highlighted an article in EOS, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, about a study of about 10,000 “Earth Scientists on two questions. The first was whether, “compared with pre-1800 levels, do you think that mean global temperatures have generally risen, fallen, or remained relatively constant?” The second asked “Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?”
The author did a bit of cherrypicking and claimed that the article in EOS said that “about 58% of the general public in the US thinks that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing the mean global temperature, as opposed to 97% of specialists surveyed.” Of the over 10,000 Earth Scientists who were sent the questions, about 30% replied. They responded 90% “rising’ on question 1 and 82% “Yes” on question 2. The “specialists” who voted 97% “Yes”, were a sub-group of self-described climate scientists who had published peer-reviewed climate change papers. RealClimate ignored the 82% figure, which also means that they ignored the fact that almost 1 in 5 Earth Scientist did not answer “Yes” – meaning that 18% feel man’s contribution is not significant.
I sent in a comment, describing the study and the fact that only 82% of Earth Scientists felt that human activity was a significant factor. I opined that the study was virtually pointless because they only asked if human activity was a “significant” factor, not the major or most important factor. I suggested that significant is not at all the same as most important, and since proponents of AGW (I think I mistyped it “AGM”) declare that human causes are the most important (and almost sole) factor in climate change, the question was pointless. I went on to suggest that it was irresponsible for policymakers to be considering trillion dollar taxes or cap and trade schemes, especially when the economy is so fragile, when almost 1 in 5 Earth Scientists say man’s activities are insignificant.
I posted my comment and a couple of the usual snarky (but non-substantive) replies came in:
“(and almost sole) ”
A statement often made by denialists. I wonder where they get all the straw from and how the poor horses and cows manage without their winter feed.
Comment by Mark — 29 March 2009 @ur momisugly 3:59 PM
And there’s a beautiful example of the problem — incomprehension by bobz (misunderstanding “significant” and not clear on the verb tense of “is” either). One poll question for him confirms his faith that everything published is wrong.
Comment by Hank Roberts — 29 March 2009 @ur momisugly 4:21 PM
After a while, I went back to see if anyone had actually addressed my points, but to my shock, my post had been deleted! The comments by Mark and Hank Roberts remained (now totally bizarre because they refer to something that no longer existed) but the total number of comments had now been reduced and mine was not among them. I guess Gavin was more sensitive than usual, but I wonder if they may not have now decided that they will no longer broach any discussions by deniers. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
It is, I think, quite appropriate that the title to the piece was Lies, Damned Lies and Science. How ironic.
Ron de Haan (13:15:59) :
listen carefully, you don’t get the picture!.
All the rules to curb CO2 and to save energy are directed at the common people.
You are correct. Commercial, Industrial and Utility are too big to cut back.
Having already hit the law on diminishing returns on residential, they now use Cap & Trade (Cut & Tax) as a Green Initiative.
It won’t turn out a single useless street lamp, let alone make a real dent in the grid load.
Even the supporters of this event freely admitted it was all about the symbolism.
I don’t think the symbolism is lost on people – and it is relevant to Al Gore – it’s one of the clearest ‘let them eat cake’ statements of the past few hundred years.
Having fun watching ‘Snowball Earth’ on the Science Channel. So many tropes being thrown about…the Earth saved by evil CO2…home-made chili and climate science…yummy.
Try to catch the repeat…
Read this front page [snip]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/30/climate-change-nicholas-stern-interview
Because much of southern Europe will be desert. Other places will become underwater.
Southern Europe has been very desert like for hundreds of years and is showing no sign of drought. There is also no sign of any place being threatened by sea level rise.
You’re already seeing people moving in Darfur, where droughts devastated the grazing land of pastoralist people
Darfur’s population movement is because the Sudanese government-backed Janjaweed have been slaughtering the non-Muslim black population. As for drought, 130 years ago General Gordon witnessed and was killed in a Sudan no different to how it is today.
We’re seeing that already on just a 0.8 degree rise.
That 0.8 degree rise is easily contestable if you make corrections for 19th to 20th century smog and 20th century urban heat island effects. Without such contaminated data the real temperature rise over the last 150 years is about 0.35 degrees.
Both respectable professions, but you don’t go to them for the science of climate change, you go to scientists. And what do you hear? That this is basically simple physics. It’s not as if it’s something strange or mysterious that people can’t explain to you. It’s not something outside the experimental. The greenhouse effect is something you can observe experimentally – and most people have observed the greenhouse effect themselves, in greenhouses. Yes?
A challenge then. Would Nicholas Stern debate with Dr John Christy on TV?
Does Stern feel angry with sceptics – or, as he calls them, irrational optimists? “Well, they’re marginal now
I have looked at the comments sections on the Guardian, the Telegraph, YouTube, the BBC, etc and it seems quite clear that sceptics are a majority, but unlike activists they have jobs to go to and do not hijack trains or airport runways. The media, especially the Guardian, practises suppression of dissent wherever and whenever it can. Sceptics are the silent majority and it takes little to make them noisy if you keep lying to them.
We can all make fun of Al but here is the truly important news of the day:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-envoy-Time-to-act-on-apf-14777300.html
Surely there must be more we can do to convince our government that AGW is a non issue. Otherwise, I truly do fear for our future.
Its simple really
Al Gore didn’t participate because he didn’t “invent” Earth Hour.
I’m not a Gore supporter at all, but him ignoring Earth Hour puts him right where the majority of the rest of us were.
I know it seems hypocritical, but I’d rather see us lay off the “gotcha” issues.
That glow emanating from the interior of The Goracle’s home was not evidence of electricity use. Crystal balls just naturally glow in the dark when The Goracle peers inside them to divine the future. Appropriately, during “Earth Hour” The Goracle was especially hard at work preparing to save mankind with additional prognostication. He doesn’t do it for his own large (humongous, actually) self and the money rolling in is really an embarrassment. He does it for “the little people”.
Hmm – one pic. of the no. on a gatepost is a bit light (ho ho) in the age of digisnaps evidence…
Dear friends: Come down here, as soon as possible, these guys, as we say in spanish, “are spitting to the sky”…
Chances are that, for the sake of the majority of the human kind, they will be buried under a mile or more under the ice, or under trillions of tons of those green papers which are being irrationally manufactured.
They will be happy: Their armageddon is for sure.
Maybe he turned off one of his other homes he wasn’t using at the time? lol!
Or he bought carbon credits from his own carbon credit company , no hypocrisy there of course.
And I’m being thuper duper therial.