The full article from Forbes here is quite interesting to read, but the comments are even more interesting. I particularly got a chuckle out of Bell’s rebuttal to serial regurgitator Tenny Naumer, who unfailingly reposts most anything that agrees with her worldview from CP on her website and does so without question and mostly without comment. This one from Tenny had me ROFL:
Tell them how the explorers trying to go through the Northwest Passage took 3 years to do so in the olden days, not a matter of days like they do now.
Its motors Tenny, motors trumps sails. Oh, and icebreakers. And precise maps, and GPS…and…oh never mind. As an example, here’s one Northeast Passage story that took days (thanks to nuclear powered icebreakers) Tenny never reposted if she read it:
The surprising real story about this year’s Northeast passage transit: The media botched it
This is correct. Anybody that’s bothered to read Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth knows this to be an accurate assessment–elevating it to the form of a cult. And you know what happens to cults: They tailspin into oblivion.
cult /kʌlt/ Show Spelled
[kuhlt]
–noun
1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cult
Northeast, Northwest… eh whats the difference? 😀
Not just motors. GPS navigation systems, radar, sonar, weather reports, ice breakers, accurate charts, known safe harbors and refitting communities etc. etc. etc. etc.
REPLY: Heh, thanks, you are correct. I just added much the same thing after another cup of coffee. The point is all of our travel is faster today than in “the olden days”, thanks to improved technology. – Anthony
Sorry, I find people like Tenny much too frightening to be laughable.
Just read where the Obama administration is proposing giving the EPA much more control over groundwater. He’s choking our country of energy. And people like Tenny are enablers.
If you like dystopian fiction, read D. Keith Mano’s speculative novel, The Bridge, for a look at Greenism taken to its logical conclusion. The Amazon reviews are at http://www.amazon.com/bridge-D-Keith-Mano/product-reviews/0385028709/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Before, you would get the Salvation Army and other religious charities standing on street corners asking for donations, now you get the WWF and other greenies on these same street corners. Before, you got mendicant priests that depend on your goodness for a living, now you get mendicant scientists begging for grants and funding at every opportunity to maintain their lifestyle, but they tell you it’s because the salvation of mankind is at stake. The analogies don’t get any better.
Why isn’t anyone worried about the weakening of gravity? In 1850 we were totally incapable of flight, yet in 2011 we are able to lauch massive pieces of metal out of our atmosphere! My god in another 100 years we’ll all simply float off into oblivion unless something done! We cannot afford to wait!
Unfounded belief is a common facet of many politicized ideas. In adopting a belief, people tend to ignore or attack facts that are counter to their belief. Very often this behavior resembles a crowd of fans cheering on a team despite whatever many faults the team may have (unfair play, etc). In short, ‘belief’ is often the dangerous antithesis of ‘objectivity’. And unfortunately in a world of large numbers of people, it is the majority of people who lack critical thinking skills that become ‘believers’ of ideas that are false.
Also, how many miles could they sail through the Northwest passage during the winter during those 3 years trip? Not many, I guess. Same as if you try to use the passage on January.
Australia’s $180,000/yr Official Climate Archbishop, Dr. Tim Flannery is quoted revealingly in the Globe and Mail review of his latest book, Here on Earth:
“A leaf is a small miracle, for through it a transubstantiation occurs – of a lifeless gas into a solid, living being. It’s a sort of resurrection of CO2, the gas given off with death and decay, the gas that enshrouds dead planets. Yet from it plants forge beauteous forms that support all the hosts of earthly life, ourselves included.”
The whole review is well worth reading for an insight into the uncritical jettisoning of rational thought by those seized by the rapture.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/here-on-earth-by-tim-flannery/article1987204/print/
Amen to that.
It’s getting closer and closer to the time where the climate change cultists will have to drink the Kool-aid.
More evidence of ‘cult’ in the comments section of this factual and well-written article by Ted Lapkin in ABC’s “The Drum” of all places. I can only surmise that education has been very seriously dumbed down if this is the sort of response he gets, why oh why do CAGW proponents have to resort to adhoms, smear and innuendo. They don’t seem to be able to recognside the difference between facts and fiction!
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/387130.html
K2 says:
April 28, 2011 at 8:53 am
Good point. So now that guy on the corner with the sign that says “World Ends Tomorrow” could be a climate scientist or a religious believer.
That article on the Northeast Passage is most interesting as was the media’s attempt to portray a transit defined in 1934 as a novel product of Global Warming and hence bad. Stupid or calculating?
Your link to the Bell article didn’t work for me, but this does:
http://blogs.forbes.com/larrybell/2011/04/26/climate-change-as-religion-the-gospel-according-to-gore/
[Link fixed, thanx. ~dbs, mod.]
Not to mention the fact that in the really olden days, a lot of the explorers died of lead poisoning from the lead used to seal the cans of the provisions that they packed.
Mark Gibbas says:
April 28, 2011 at 8:58 am
Unfounded belief is a common facet of …..
ALL beliefs are unfounded!
Andy Revkin just posted an analysis by psychology fellow Stephan Lewandowsky that is related to climate change and deniers of facts. Guess who the fact denialists are…
“Ideology trumps facts.
And it doesn’t matter what the ideology is, whether socialism, any brand of fundamentalist religion, or free-market extremism. The psychological literature shows quite consistently that a threat to one’s worldview is more than likely met by a dismissal of facts, however strong the evidence. Indeed, the stronger the evidence, the greater the threat — and hence the greater the denial.”
“In its own bizarre way, then, the rising noise level of climate denial provides further evidence that global warming resulting from human CO2 emissions is indeed a fact, however inconvenient it may be.”
Perhaps it is also evidence that hypothesized catastrophic warming from human CO2 emissions is, ah, incorrect, and people are catching on. Or as Michael Tobis might calmly assert, the chickensh*t catastrophic fracking warming from fracking human fracking CO2 fracking emissions is fracking incorrect, you fracking fracker.
Achtung! Socialists and climate deniers (now we’re dropping catastrophic, anthropogenic and change?) are lumped into the same sorting bin.
What is climate denial?
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/on-birth-certificates-climate-risk-and-an-inconvenient-mind/
Unfortunatly it is a religion to many, and they will be crying about global warming even as a Glacier reclaims NYC. Nothing will change their minds.
Mark Gibbas says: “Unfounded belief is a common facet of many politicized ideas. In adopting a belief, people tend to ignore or attack facts that are counter to their belief. Very often this behavior resembles a crowd of fans cheering on a team despite whatever many faults the team may have (unfair play, etc)….”
Yes. The presence of noisy fans can and often does influence the outcome in the desired direction. The desired direction in climate science is political subjugation of the population. Gore and the rent boys of science KNOW they can’t make AGW real, but that’s not their objective. Legislation to establish an irreversible oligarchy is the goal. .
@ mkelly. If the sign says,”World Ends Tomorrow Unless You Give Me All Your Money”, it’s a climate scientist.
ew-3 says:
April 28, 2011 at 8:43 am
“Sorry, I find people like Tenny much too frightening to be laughable.
Just read where the Obama administration is proposing giving the EPA much more control over groundwater. He’s choking our country of energy. And people like Tenny are enablers.”
Just heard on the radio this morning where two “green” organizations were successful in litigation blocking some more oil drilling here in WY to save “sacred Indian” sites and some desert land. This while gas prices are skying and unemployment is rampant. This collateral damage to our country and economy was not even mentioned, of course. It was pesented more like a hero story with no rebuttal of any kind.
The greens continue to be the most dangerous bunch to our country’s economy and national security, much more negative in total impact than a few idiots with bombs that never seem to go off. They stop progress of any kind; energy production, refinery construction, nulear power plant development, and you name it. They are even trying to stop ranching, ie food production, using sage grouse ( not endangered) as an excuse. I am not surprised that water is on their list of issues to prevent progress.
Due to the constant litigation by these left wing fanatics many projects are not undertaken or even planned for fear of years of delay and legal costs. No wonder that the trial lawyers tend to be lefties as well. This disruptive activity ensures that small businesses that might get into a variety of productive areas never do as deep pockets are required to even consider entry. Of course, small businesses create most of the new jobs, another big loss due to our socialist friends the “greenies”. But it sure makes many of them them feel proud as they think they saved some snail or rat or whatever.
Rocky Road posted an accurate definition of cult–it is a pejorative for religion, like “the N-word” is a pejorative for blacks. I find it offensive that people pretend there is something wrong with being black, and I find it offensive that people find something wrong with religions. The cult word offends me greatly and I do not even believe in God.
However, when something pretends to be science, like politician Al Bore and his warmists, but then they function as a religion, that is offensive, too.
But I like Organic food, and fight against pollution when I can.
Fortunately what I believe or what you believe has no bearing or influence on whatever the truth is.
The truth will out and the people who knowingly tried to misrepresent the truth in science should be thoroughly expunged from science.
Politicians can still lie with impunity because that is what we expect them to do.
All absolute statements are incorrect, including this one. Therefore, I believe you are in error, as most beliefs have some form of foundation.
Better to say: Many beliefs, especially of a spiritual nature, are untestable by the scientific method.
Of course, that lacks the impact of an absolute statement. It does, nevertheless, have one virtue that absolutism lacks: it is correct.
Ten Commandments of the Greenoverlord.
1. Thou shall have not other Greenoverlord than Earth First.
2. Thou shall not make your self able to use Mother Earth to live.
3. Thou shall not take my name unless its for a grant or other thing of value.
4. Remember Earth First Day and keep it free from oil and gas.
5. Honor Mother Earth only now and forever.
6. Thou shall not use oil and gas to cause CO2 which is murder.
7. Thou shall use incest to promote the Greenoverlord cult.
8. Thou shall not allow others to steal your e-mails.
9. Thou shall only bear false witness for grants or other things of value.
10. Thou shall never use facts and you will bear false witness against deniers.
So, speak the forked minds of the Greenoverlord Cult.
An interesting article, but the comments seemed to be merely a screed on who can yell loudest, not best. Tenny would be funny except for the fact the joke is so old, but then most know that by now. Still, a thank you for the link to the older article. I had not read that before, but it is amusing and does support one theory of mine – about the Mainstream media.
This link that shows the “hockey stick” still lives is actually about the premature release of BEST data from Dr Muller.
I think he may yet regret having said anything. Or maybe not…
I just loved one of the many rants by ‘tenneynaumer’ in the actual Forbes article (she really has an issue with left/right, warmist/denialist, Google/Koch, etc):
Oh my, I always knew some of the alarmists weren’t the brightest bulbs in the pack, but really????? …… yes a shining example of the typical alarmist. Olden days….. oh my……….
ew-3 says:
April 28, 2011 at 8:43 am
Sorry, I find people like Tenny much too frightening to be laughable.
________________________________
The mismanagement problem grows when people with little understanding and skill acquire power. Government is filled with people like that. Their world is all about regulations, revenue, and power. The Judicial branch is little better with a legal construct that self-consistent and logical, but progressively out of touch with real world constraints.
Consequently, it is important to limit the size of government and its intrusiveness. It should not complete with the people. The private sector makes individual decisions based on countless experiences and unique analyses, collectively taking into consideration the complexity of our economy and other factors. It is bound together with money transactions. No central planning apparatus can possibly perform better. Parallel processing units, like the human brain, can accomplish far more than linear programming. A free private sector with real competition can do better than government.
Collectivists fear individuals. Individuals are seemingly disconnected from society and might do anything. Well, that’s called freedom. Collectivists want people to do things that the group decides is acceptable. That is a soviet (council) model of society. When you hear governments advocate local council review of businesses, television programming, or radio shows, your alarm bells should ring. This approach sounds reasonable to the uninformed. However, soviet democracy is very restrictive and oppressive.
Imagine a world where you must wear beige or gray to avoid offending someone or making them feel inferior. You must do a job that helps society best (defined by the council). Be sure to keep your religion to yourself. You must only eat foods that minimize the healthcare costs carried by the government. This is the direction we are heading, and it will get worse as the economy collapses. We will all have to do our part. Right. Government is making this happen.
Free people could solve their own economic problems. However, too many elitist individuals and corporations are making money from government regulatory impacts on the economy. We are paying for all of this.
The part I can’t figure out is, don’t they realize they are killing the golden goose? By killing the middle class, they are dooming the world to an 18th century level of technology, if that. Only a well educated middle class can maintain a high-tech world. If we stay on this track, we are looking at a population of less than 1 billion people and a feudal society.
Greens are seriously dangerous. They have no business being in charge of anything. However, Prince Charles is the tell. I am not convinced he actually believes in green anything. He does believe in money from carbon credits. Same with his buddy Al. Prince Albert of Tennesee?
On the other hand, suicidal greens don’t run the whole world, fortunately. China’s involvement in green tech is just another way to siphon money from the west. I don’t think China is going to stay the way it is now. There will be more freedom there given another 20 years. That is because of the fierce competitive spirit of chinese people. They will not be held down forever. One more generation should do the trick.
China’s government can’t really control everything, but it can set a direction. Anyone who threatens the growth of the nation has a short half-life. On the other hand, even if you are doing something technically illegal, if it is good for China, you might be allowed to continue.
We need some sort of national goals and let the people figure out how to get there. We need to get government out of the way. One goal should be 100% energy independence.
The real passage or the metaphorical one? Both surprisingly difficult to navigate!
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.
Oh, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage,
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
Hoser says:
April 28, 2011 at 10:40 am
Very well said. I hope you don’t mind if I share your words with others?
All absolute statements are incorrect, including this one. Therefore, I believe you are in error, as most beliefs have some form of foundation.
Better to say: Many beliefs, especially of a spiritual nature, are untestable by the scientific method.
Not strictly true. Belief requires no foundation merely a feeling of being correct. Absolute facts like absolute zero are absolute. So NO absolutes is also absolute wrong.
send them all to mars for a holiday 2nd class
And I thought “Fallen Angles” was just a fun work of fiction …. scary.
tango
April 28, 2011 at 11:43 am
send them all to mars for a holiday 2nd class
###
Nah, Steerage. Tell them its the Gaia approved way to travel.
re: Chris y’s comments and link:
I’m fascinated by the growing number of psychologists and sociologists who are eager to trot out psychological explanations (while relying on their professional credentials) in an attempt to discredit AGW skeptics. It never seems to occur to these people that, (i) understanding a complex of phenomena like climate might not be entirely straightforward, especially when one must basically rely on uncontrolled observations, (ii) the repeated demonstration of overblown claims and dodgy methodologies might indicate at least some bias among people making claims for AGW. It would be worth checking out the credentials of some of these people in terms of actual experience in a field of experimental science. (I’m sure that in the case of the sociologists clambering on board this train there is none.)
I can’t help thinking that the self-annointed complex is also at work here; perhaps this is one reason why they’re jumping to the defense of their fellows-in-arms. (But of course now I’m psychologizing, too. Which makes this whole situation even more interesting for real students of nature.)
“peterhodges says:
April 28, 2011 at 9:27 am
Mark Gibbas says:
April 28, 2011 at 8:58 am
Unfounded belief is a common facet of …..
ALL beliefs are unfounded!”
Faith and belief are as much a part of science as religion and have no bearing on truth.
I suppose you agree with the theory of relativity. Even if you don’t, let’s use it as an example.
There are very many facts that support the theory of relativity but if you haven’t performed experiments to prove it and at the very least understand all the math and have reviewed all of Einstein’s calculations yourself, you can only assert a belief in relativity, not proof of it.
We stand on the shoulders of giants and build on their work in the BELIEF that they are correct. Just because your work seems to be correct, the assumptions you used to get there are not necessarily correct.
Darkinbad the Brightdayler says: …
Perhaps you should give credit for “Northwest Passage” to the author — the late Stan Rogers. Here’s a U-tube link to Rogers singing the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI
It’s a really terrific song.
I’m not sure that your TLP makes it clear what Chricton was talking about.
At the same time I find it more and more difficult to find his “Environmentalism as a Religion” piece anywhere on the net – even more worrying if you ask me.
But then again any sensible person will have kept a copy of his work locally …
Lady Life Grows says:
April 28, 2011 at 9:48 am
“Rocky Road posted an accurate definition of cult–it is a pejorative for religion, like “the N-word” is a pejorative for blacks. I find it offensive that people pretend there is something wrong with being black, and I find it offensive that people find something wrong with religions. The cult word offends me greatly and I do not even believe in God.”
There is at least one definitive difference between a religion and a cult IMHO; and that is that a cult controls the communication of its members and shields them from outside information to shape their thinking into the desired direction.
Compare to the Australian ABC or BBC; where voices opposing the AGW consensus are simply not reported and AGW is not treated anymore as a scientific hypothesis but as fact. Let alone the Deutsche Welle or any other German broadcaster.
Good find. Thank you.
Re Betapug’s helpful reference to the Globe and Mail review of Flannery’s latest (written by Alanna Mitchell), I was reminded of that old put-down, “Bring up another waggon, Joe. This one’s full.” I know Mitchell from an earlier book that she wrote on the supposed coming death of the oceans through acidification and from a description of her trip to “Antarctica” that proved to be a tour that anyone can make on a commercial basis. And…..her trip, which she passed off as an insight into the future of Antarctica, didn’t take her even half-way along the Antarctic Peninsula.
My impression is that she is shameless.
IanM
Always compate what people say they want to what they do.
What poeple do is what they want. If what they do doesn’t lead to what they want? They’re demonstrating they’re willingness to compromise their desires.
The green movement has cost the west some of it’s productivity, jobs and ability to produce life saving wealth and technology. This is obvious to anyone paying any amount of attention to anything going on over the last 30-40 years.
What the green movement, therefore, wants is to stiffle western style development and progress. Why would the green movement do what it does if this wasn’t the case?
Oh I forgot, it’s become a religon.
Lady Life Grows says:
April 28, 2011 at 9:48 am
There is nothing wrong with being black. That being said, may we eliminate the “N-word” by eliminating racism and focusing on character as Dr. King so elequently said:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
There is also nothing wrong with religion. That being said, may we also eliminate the perjorative “Cult” I’ve applied to climate science by treating it as a science and not by making a religion of it, for it automatically becomes a cult when it is devoid of truth.
Anyone who doubts that environmentalism, at least as represented by AGW, is the new religion has only to read the introduction to An Inconvenient Truth. Let me quote:
‘The climate crisis also offers us the chance to experience what very few generations in history have had the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhilaration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared and unifying cause; the opportunity to rise.
When we do rise, it will fill our spirits and bind us together. Those who are now suffering in cynicism and despair will be able to breathe freely. Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives will find hope.
When we rise, we will experience an epiphany as we discover that this crisis is not really about politics at all. It is a moral and spiritual challenge.’
And so on, and so on! Gore is the quintessential American evangelist! All he lacks is a Sunday television show and a sex scandal!
In my view Al Gore’s real aim is about getting rich quick via his carbon investments.
Now he has pushed back his prediction in the face of the evidence. He will continue pushing back his failed predictjons until he gets it just Goldilocks style!
I could rant on about Al Gore but I’ll leave it here for now.
I went to the Forbes article, and engaged in a series of comments with tennynaumer and renewableguy. What I found was typical AGW talking points, and no command of facts.
The renewableguy had his underwear in a twist over the Koch brothers, which I will never understand. What the heck have the Koch brothers ever had to do with anything related to climate?
The real sad sack is tennynaumer. She is conversant with last year’s AGW talking points. Otherwise, she is poorly informed. Her strategy seems to be to snipe continually at the article’s author until he gets tired of dealing with strident comments saying the same thing, over, and over, and over.
The sad part is that she doesn’t realize just how far out in the weeds her thinking really is with conspiracy theories, bad science, and a religious dedication to the AGW meme.
Whenever you folks get wind of a good fight like this, cruise on over and engage. It is fun.
Jim G says:
April 28, 2011 at 9:35 am
The Greens have lots of practice from years of getting injunctions stopping all salvage logging and endangering replanting of burned forests. They have graduated.
Now they are after all forms of energy that they don’t approve of.
There are even stirrings of them targeting agriculture itself.
An idiot with a religion is a bigger idiot
it’s an echo chamber in here.
exxon is loving this comment thread
You guys are crazy. I kinda like Al Gore. You like to pretend like he’s some sort of cult leader, but he really just felt strongly about an issue facing the world we live on and it resonated with people all over. There were environmentally conscious people before Al Gore presented ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ too.
Now tare my comment to shreds! I know you can’t resist. And you have nothing else to do anyways.
The irony of the these pieces and discussions are so typical and based on the lack of real transparent information and/or consensus, with a splattering of self denial.
Lets face facts industrialisation has both positive and negtive impacts, costs, implications and consequences, which both the corporations and consumers don’t want to accept or face up to unless our lives, profit or families are directly or personally effected by it..or unless there’s additional profit to be made from it. I love all this finger pointing madness, cos it shows how far the truth is from us and how delluded we are, about some of the key fundimental realities of life. To say we are not influencing, polluting or changing either our environment or the climate with the toxic waste and junk we create and dump …is worrying, but not surprising as we are living in denial about so many things around us these days. Which technology can’t help because like governments, corporations and all institutions science is also corporate machine of division too. My suggestion is stop reading, open you mind, go do your own field research and see for yourself. You might surprise yourselves just how f@%*ed things really are.
Dale says:
April 29, 2011 at 8:55 am
“Now tare (sic) my comment to shreds!”
I would “tare” it but there’s no weight to it.
@John says:
April 29, 2011 at 5:09 pm
“[…] To say we are not influencing, polluting or changing either our environment or the climate with the toxic waste and junk we create and dump …is worrying, […]”
Yeah, but… CO2 isn’t a toxic waste. It’s plant food. Put down the Diet Coke and think about it.
Meanwhile, industrial toxic waste in the U.S. is handled very well nowadays and reduction and containment of toxic waste in the U.S. is continually improving. You might want to go discuss toxic waste with China. They’re not doing very well in that department at the moment.
And state-mandated use of toxic materials to replace rather benign materials (I’m talking CFLs replacing incandescents here) which will then generate a toxic waste stream seems to be a topic you should be discussing with your congress-critter.
Toxic waste = bad.
CO2 = plant food (and livens up beverages).
If Al Gore really believed the things he says, would he be living like he does?
ABC News found Al Gore’s power bill has been around $30,000 (yes, thirty thousand!) a year. How do you even spend that much money on power?
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=5072659
“(2/27/07 – NASHVILLE, TN) — Back home in Tennessee, safely ensconced in his suburban Nashville home, Vice President Al Gore is no doubt basking in the Oscar awarded to “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary he inspired and in which he starred. But a local free-market think tank is trying to make that very home emblematic of what it deems Gore’s environmental hypocrisy.
Armed with Gore’s utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president’s 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours.
“If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills, I wouldn’t care,” says the Center’s 27-year-old president, Drew Johnson. “But he tells other people how to live and he’s not following his own rules.” ”
Look up Al Gore and Occidental Petroleum on Corpwatch.org
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=468Al Gore: The Other Oil Candidate
“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 Coelho 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.
That was good news for Gore. Despite controversy over Dick Cheney’s plans to keep stock options if elected, most Americans don’t know that we already have a vice president with oil company stocks. Before the Elk Hills sale, Al Gore controlled between $250,000-$500,000 of Occidental stock (he is executor of a trust that he says goes only to his mother, but will revert to him upon her death). After the sale, Gore began disclosing between $500,000 and $1 million of his significantly more valuable stock.
Nowhere is Al Gore’s environmental hypocrisy more glaring than when it comes to his relationship with Occidental. While on the one hand talking tough about his “big oil” opponents and waxing poetic about indigenous peoples in his 1992 book “Earth in the Balance,” the Elk Hills sale and other deals show that money has always been more important to Al Gore than ideals.”
Gore isn’t quite as green as he’s led the world to believe
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm
“For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film’s distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore’s office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, “Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence.” The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has “tried to move people to act.” Yet, astoundingly, Gore’s persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn’t threatened.
Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn’t Gore dump his family’s large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family’s trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.
Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn’t mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.
Humanity might be “sitting on a ticking time bomb,” but Gore’s home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.
The issue here is not simply Gore’s hypocrisy; it’s a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn’t he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.”
Chris Shaker
And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for setting me straight.