Gore's Inconvenient Truth

I laughed and then quickly went into rant mode when I read the story that USA Today released about how Gore pretty much is being a little hypocrite. Or maybe just a politician? I think it's stories like this, of a person saying what they don't mean, that has led people to distrust authority figures and make politics just one big joke.

For those of you not going to the story and reading it, here is what it says, boiled down. So Gore is going around telling everyone that we are on the verge of apocalypse and that we need to change the way we live drastically or we are in a heap of trouble. I haven't really bought into the whole "global warming" thing yet and so I think that Gore is full of garbage. Well, it seems that he was and still is.

Basically, for the man who advocates reducing consumption to preserve the environment and resources, he owns three homes. One "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.)." Kinda funny, huh? Man, if that is reducing consumption, sign me up! He also has control of a trust that owns hundreds of thousands of dollars in an oil company that has been criticized for drilling is "ecologically sensitive areas" and receives royalties of $20,000 from the Zinc mine is sits on. It is interesting to note that the company which that pays those royalties has been cited "for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River."

The article is summed up very well in the concluding paragraph.

"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."

The funny thing with this whole issue is the question "What is Gore going to do now"? If he sells everything off, he will look even more like a political creep that caters to the public. If he doesn't he will continue to look like the politial creep that he already does.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not a tree huger, but I also don't advocate chopping them all down either. I think that protecting the environment is important, but A) within reason, which means not so the cost outweighs the benefits (and no, the benefits are not infinite, ask an Economist) and B) done in a sane and reasonable manor, which sounds that same as A but I mean let's not chain ourselves to trees to get the point across or enforce conservation laws on everybody. Use incentives to get people to stop doing harmful activities and to start doing the beneficial activities. Anyways, that's my laugh and subsequent rant for the day.

Here is a commentary on the article.

There are other articles out there that have pretty much the same information as the USA Today article from NewsMax.com, SoundPolitics.com., The American Thinker, National Association of Manufacturers.