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March 1, 2007
Al Gore's big utility bill
Drudge and parts of the political blogosphere made a big deal out of Al Gore's supposed hypocrisy in personally consuming more than average amounts of energy while advocating conservation of energy to reduce global warming. But my sense is that James H. Joyner, Jr. has the right perspective on Gore's energy usage:
Regardless of what Al Gore preaches about these matters, the way he lives strikes me as reasonable. He was of the manor born, to be sure, but he has earned a lot of money on his own. He has every right to a ginormous house, a fleet of cars, and to be flown around the world in private planes to speak out against the dangers of global warming. While it’s funny in microcosm, it strikes me as a perfectly defensible trade-off to use a thousand times more energy than the average guy in an effort to influence macro-level energy and environmental policy.Where Gore and I differ is that my aim is for more people to get to live like Gore. While environmental degradation in general and global warming in particular are real problems, certainly a serious case can be made that they pale in comparison with the ravages of poverty. Further, if millions of people not starving to death isn’t its own reward, UC-Berkeley professor emeritus of energy and resources Jack Hollander explains in The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy, that, contrary to conventional wisdom, as societies become more affluent, they produce less pollution. That’s not particularly surprising, when you think about it, as those whose basic human needs are met have both the inclination and resources to worry about cleaning up their environment.
Read the entire piece.
Posted by Tom at March 1, 2007 4:11 AM
Comments
While I'm certainly no fan of Al Gore, I can't claim he is a hypocrite because at least he is cognizant of his high use and is trying to offset it by purchasing carbon credits. Granted, it is debatable if that market really works correctly or not. However, Gore certainly is not sufficiently dealing with the economic realities of his policy and that is the real issue. Of course, this is the case that Mr. Joyner is making.
One small sidebar, guess whose house (admittedly, his "retreat" house) is fairly environmentally-friendly? Yes, perhaps the relative isolation of the location necessitated the use of these design principles, but it is still kind of funny.
Posted by: Sean Flinn ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blog.kir.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 1, 2007 10:07 AM
He may be buying offset credits, but just as his attempts to use the death of his sister from lung cancer as an example of personal suffering over the curse of tobacco companies while simultaneously holding sizable investments in tobacco companies in his investment portfolio, with Al Gore, there is always more than meets the eye.
Gore buys his offsets through Generation Investment Management, whose chairman is . . . Al Gore. GIM's business is not to itself remove carbon from the air, but, it says, to "buy high quality companies at attractive prices that will deliver superior long-term investment returns".
Nice.
Posted by: cmilford at March 1, 2007 12:34 PM
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