When It Comes to His Own Energy Usage/Carbon Footprint, Al "Bigfoot" Gore Uses 19x U.S. Average
From Al Gore's article "We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change" in today's NY Times:
"It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.
Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.
But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.
I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion. But unfortunately, the reality of the danger we are courting has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work over the last 22 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer."
MP: In 2007, Al Gore's mansion in Nashville burned through an average of 17,720 kWh of electricity per month (see Al Gore's energy bills from 2005 to mid-2008 here, via the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, which first reported on Al Gore's energy usage in 2007), which is almost 19 times as much as the monthly electricity consumed by the average U.S. household (936 kWh), and almost 3 times as much electricity as the average U.S. commercial customer (6,408 kWh), see chart above (Dept. of Energy data here). So it's just a little hard to take Al Gore's preaching about climate change too seriously when his own household's contribution to the "climate crisis" is almost 20 times greater of the average American household, and almost three times greater than even the average commercial user of electricity.
So it's classic Al Gore. He talks about a "criminal generation that selfishly and blithely" dumps "global-warming pollution into the atmosphere as if it were an open sewer." However, if personal energy usage was "criminal," Al Gore might be at the top of "America's Most Wanted List," see chart above. Terms that come to mind to describe Al Gore's carbon footprint include "Bigfoot," "Paul Bunyan," "Brobdingnagian," "Sasquatch," or "the elephant in the room." To paraphrase blues pianist Mose Allison, "If polluting was criminal, he'd live a life of crime."
Maybe the article could have been titled, "We Can't Wish Away Climate Change, But We Can Reduce Our Personal Carbon Footprint, But Only If We Really Want To: I'm Not Willing to Change My Lifestyle, But the Rest of You Should."
"It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.
Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.
But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.
I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion. But unfortunately, the reality of the danger we are courting has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work over the last 22 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer."
MP: In 2007, Al Gore's mansion in Nashville burned through an average of 17,720 kWh of electricity per month (see Al Gore's energy bills from 2005 to mid-2008 here, via the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, which first reported on Al Gore's energy usage in 2007), which is almost 19 times as much as the monthly electricity consumed by the average U.S. household (936 kWh), and almost 3 times as much electricity as the average U.S. commercial customer (6,408 kWh), see chart above (Dept. of Energy data here). So it's just a little hard to take Al Gore's preaching about climate change too seriously when his own household's contribution to the "climate crisis" is almost 20 times greater of the average American household, and almost three times greater than even the average commercial user of electricity.
So it's classic Al Gore. He talks about a "criminal generation that selfishly and blithely" dumps "global-warming pollution into the atmosphere as if it were an open sewer." However, if personal energy usage was "criminal," Al Gore might be at the top of "America's Most Wanted List," see chart above. Terms that come to mind to describe Al Gore's carbon footprint include "Bigfoot," "Paul Bunyan," "Brobdingnagian," "Sasquatch," or "the elephant in the room." To paraphrase blues pianist Mose Allison, "If polluting was criminal, he'd live a life of crime."
Maybe the article could have been titled, "We Can't Wish Away Climate Change, But We Can Reduce Our Personal Carbon Footprint, But Only If We Really Want To: I'm Not Willing to Change My Lifestyle, But the Rest of You Should."
44 Comments:
I am thinking that some of that energy usage is due to the grow lights in the basement.
I saw his movie and believe that he must be smoking something very strong!
And this doesn't count the additional carbon footprint Al Gore generates when he jets off to speeches and board meetings.
The guy is delusional. He says "...has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work..."
People don't have problems with legitimate errors, it's the intentional deception, falsification of data, completely missing data, and false claims. He excuses intentional deception as "mistakes". Is he back handendly trying to apologize for many things in his movie?
Nice that he uses terms like "climate deniers" as if that should apply to those who aren't just making up data and making up conclusions. It shows how unwilling he is to objectively review the science. The science of global warming isn't under attack, it's the science of Global Warming.
how are those bergs related to global warming?
Anonymous at 2/28/2010 2:05 PM is an uninformed kool-aid drinking fool. His/hers/its religious fervor is laughable.
I do not think global warming is the problem it is made out to be. I notice the planet was warmer about 1000 years ago, before CO2 emissions. Higher CO2 levels promote crop growth, BTW.
Nevertheless, Al Gore's consumption of electricity is meaningless in determining whether global warming is really a threat. It may reveal him as a hypocrite, or lazy, but it does not make him inaccurate in his doomsoothing.
What really concerns me about the global warming controversy is the infantile level people sink to in deciding whether it is a cause for concern--as in, I am Republican, so it is fake, or I am Democrat, so it is real.
But Benny,
If Al thought the crisis was a real one wouldn't he do all in his power to cut back on his usage of all the polluting sources?
Instead he uses much more than the average individual. So his belief must not be very strong, if it does not apply to him personally.
Ad hominem argument anyone?
Note that the national average is probably not a good comparison, better to put a tennesee average as climate differences make a huge difference in electricity consumption.The middle tennessee electric coop lists the average usage in its service area as 1500 kwh per month. The coop is directly south of Nashville, so that should be a good comparison. This makes it 11.8 times the local average still high but not as high as including cooler places were air conditioning is not as needed.
Benny & Alex,
Agree completely. What Al Gore does or doesn't do is irrelevant insofar as the proving or disproving the theory of GHGs.
It is Mr. Gore's arguments that should be addressed and refuted not his hydro bill.
Margaret-
Of course, Gore is a slothful, self-righteous hypocrite.
That is separate from whether industrial-induced global warming is a threat.
President Bush II took more vacation in eight years than I will my whole life. He dodged real service in Vietnam, went AWOL, snorted coke and drove drunk (as we say, in America, anyone can become President).
Do Bush's personality flaws make our invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq right or wrong?
Crapping on the personal foibles political rivals is fun. Like clockwork it seems, every month or so a prominent member of one of our two parties is revealed as a total fraud. There was that Republican Senator looking for homosexual bathroom sex at an airport.
Okay, so a senior Republican Senator likes gay bathroom sex--does that make all his political positions suspect?
QT-
Thanks for your comment. All hail Canada!
qt-
while you are correct about al gore's arguments not mattering for the truth or falsehood of AGW, i disagree with you over whether or not his power bill matters.
this is the guy who is telling us to change our lifestyles, that GW is so important that we all need to reduce our carbon footprints, drive less, fly less, and live in smaller homes. he tells us how critical it is that we not let future generations down and that we all need to do our part.
then he demonstrates his commitment to the cause by blithely ignoring his own advice. it's important that you and i change, but not al. he seems to view himself as a part of the privileged elite. what's more, he's an utter liar and a charlatan.
he has flat out said publicly that it's OK to lie about global warming to make sure action is taken.
"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis." -al gore
he and his employer kleiner perkins are merely epic rent seekers. kliener has become utterly disgusting in that regard which is particularly disappointing from a company once on the cutting edge of technology funding. they own the largest portfolio of carbon credits in the world. it'll be worthless without cap and trade, which is a nonsense solution even if AGW were real, which i do not believe at all.
i had the opportunity to see al gore speak early on before he stopped taking questions at speeches. someone asked him why CO2 levels had increased during every previous interglacial as it clearly could not have been man. he flat out didn't have an answer. the reason he stopped taking question was because he was getting repeatedly exposed as totally ignorant of the basic science.
the guy is a fraud and a huckster.
this doesn't make everything he says wrong, but it does mean we should be VERY careful listening to him.
if you have an hour to spend, this is a fantastic talk on AGW by MIT professor (and quite possibly the most eminent climate scientist in the world) richard lindzen . it's a great overview of just how bad this theory is.
http://vmsstreamer1.fnal.gov/VMS_Site_03/Lectures/Colloquium/100210Lindzen/f.htm#
Thank You for posting! I really like your blog!!
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
In that part of the country it is quite common to heat with electricity.
Do you know if Gore heats with electricity, and if so is the comparisons to the average US consumer corrected for that?
RE Anonymous at 4:55 He probably uses heat pumps for heating and cooling, (take an ac unit, and add a reversing valve to change the flow of gas and a different circuit board and an AC becomes a heat pump). When the temps are in the 50s you get 3to 1 magnification of heat over resistance heat. He probably has enough land that they may use ground source heat pumps, i.e. use ground water to provide heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. (Note that in the summer an ac also moves between 3 and 4 units of heat per unit of electricity).
The following link reports on what his house has in the way of green features
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/al_gore_gets_a.php
note the geothermal heat pumps and the solar cells on the roof evidently provide 4% of the electricity.
Of course this still does not address the size of the house issue
the usages suggest a very large house, and from the point of view of the Climate change folks that is the root of the problem. Even if the home functions as an office as well, having an office the size of an average home is huge when you are lucky to get 200 sq ft in private life. OK if CEO you might get 400 sq ft. Having large entertainment facilities which I suspect is not sensible thats what hotels are for.
Hmmm. If you think global warming is not happening, you shouldn't be concerned about his carbon footprint.
You must believe in global warming!
I raised the question about Al Gore on real climate and got shouted down there, saying it was not relevant. I told them it was a matter of putting your money where your mouth is. At least it appears that other than the size of the house Gore is doing things that indicate he is willing to put his money where his mouth is. Note that Gore is supposed by the earlier link to be spending $432 a month additional for electricty from renewable sources.
Maybe Al is really Dr. Doofenshmirtz in disguise?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrCD00acI_M
The problem with your little synapses is that Al Gore's home is also his operations headquarters and like 30 people work there with him.
That factor alone blows all your averages out of the water
Thank God he lost the 2000 election...otherwise we probably would have entered the second great depression!
Don't you people get it? Al Gore needs to be able to use all of that electricity because his work is so important! He also needs to be able to take a private jet anywhere in the world on a moment's notice so he can give speeches about how all of us peasants need to adopt 13th century living standards in order to save the planet.
Of course after we all live in huts and ride bicycles Al Gore will still need access to all of the electricity and travel options the he needs.
Somehow Gore was less-threatening 25 years ago when he and his silly wife just wanted to censor rock and roll records for singing about masturbation.
How does the purported figure of 90 tons of pollutants compare to the total capacity of Earth's atmosphere, and how well (or how quickly) are "pollutants" such as CO2 and Nitrogen scrubbed/ utilized/ broken down by plant and human resources?
It stuns me that assumptions which sound so disturbing are not often questioned or debated. That fact alone should be used to dismiss the priests of hysteria such as Mr. Gore.
936 kwh per month for Joe Average is a lot.
I am from the Netherlands and the average here is about 300 kwh/month, 3600 kwh per year.
Wrt energy efficiency, I think the us is setting the bar too low.
I guess "lead by example" isn't part of Gore's methodology.
Any debate over his credibility truly ended when he bought his St. Regis condo in San Francisco. The condo sits in the very area that he predicted in his fairytale movie that CATASTROPHIC flooding would occur from sea level rise.
Some are actually moving in on getting his Nobel revoked...cheers to them!
Richard: "Wrt energy efficiency, I think the us is setting the bar too low."
Richard,
Many Americans - I suspect half of us - are very skepitcal about either the extent of anthropogenic global warming or the effects of AGW. For us, there is no reason to "set the bar" at all.
Please remember that America is a very rich nation with abundant land resources, abundant timber, and relatively cheap construction labor. There is little economic reason to build small houses or live in multi-family dwellings.
While Al Gore's personal electric use does not either prove or disprove the theory of man-made global warming, it does suggest that he may not really believe that we all need to cut way back on our use of electricity.
On the other hand, he may be genuinely self-deceived about AGW but unwilling to make the sacrifices that he thinks everyone else should make.
Jet,
I guess that's true what you said.
However a small remark. I don't live in a small house and I don't feel I economize on electricity. But I still use about 300 kwh/month, which is a third of what Americans use. I'm also not poor, not even for American standards ;-)
Electricity costs money. In the Netherlands, we pay about 0.23 euro /kwh. That's about $0.30 / kwh
I would think/guess that Americans pay less than $0.10 / kwh
This is not about global warming, but about economics, I would guess.
Hey pseudo benny nice libtard whine about George W...
Are you and Dan Rather good friends?
Professor John Lott does a very good dissection of the SUPREME GORON's New York Times rant...
classic ad hominem argument...same as the january post after obama's sotu speech.
Richard, seeing you live in the Netherlands, I assume you don't need a lot of air conditioning. That is part of the reason the usage in Nashville is 1500 kwh/month and the US average is 936. Also note that ground source heat pumps while efficient do still consume electricty to run the compressor and pumps needed. Also the winters over there are not as cold as a lot of the US. One first needs to normalize out climate in these discussions.
What is standard fare in the politics of today is lying. The exposure of the climategate scandal involves more than the 2 mistakes gore alludes to. More is coming out each day on falsehoods propagating the myth. Of course, we want to be good stewards of our resources. However, the religion of greenism, or environmentalism above human life is looney. Look, why is OK to kill unborn babies but wrong to kill a minnow, or seal, or owl?
Today's new blanket of snow is the Dreaded Global Abominable Snow Reflector that cools the earth without regard to political affiliations. If it stays here until April, onliest way for us to stay warm is to torch all of Al's Gorey Dollars at Bonfire for homeless suffering from economic meltdown, economic meltdown designed to cool Earth through insufficient CO2 production.
Got a match
?
Today's new blanket of snow is the Global Snow Reflector that cools the earth without regard to political affiliations. If it stays here until April, onliest way for us to stay warm is to torch all of Al's Gorey Dollars at Bonfire for homeless suffering from economic meltdown, economic meltdown designed to cool Earth by insufficient CO2 production.
Got a match
?
Al Gore is passionate about global warming, because he has created a firm with two ex-Goldman execs that will make millions if Cap & Trade should pass. Only the terminally gullible buy the man-made global warming hoax.
MIT scientists have already proven that C02 in the atmosphere does not trap heat. They used nearly 20 years of data from a U.S. satellite that measures heat escaping from the earth. They found ZERO correlation between C02 levels and the earth’s heat loss. They still have the data, unlike the global warming proponents. Thus, the global warming that we experienced until 12 YEARS AGO, was natural – not man made.
I am a Ph.D in Theoretical Physics. I have now looked extensively into all of the weather models used in so called GCM's.... I am an expert at modeling. The climate models are nonsense. We can not model an effectively infinite stochastic medium (the atmosphere)...the Global Warming phenomenon is strictly political / religious and has NOTHING to do with real science. AGW and all its claims are nonsense.
17,000 kWh?! How in hell does one do that? The average "consumer" uses over 900 kWh a month? HOW??? My average electric bill runs about 90 kWh in the summer to about 180 kWh in the winter. What are you people doing to waste this energy?!
Maybe there is a sociological explanation for Algore and his GW mania.
All elites everywhere at all times have wanted to be, well, more elite than the rabble. These days there isn't sufficient difference between the elites and the rabble. We all have the same stuff, just that the elites have more of it and it works better. That distance isn't far enough for them.
Look at all the government/elitist programs these days. They are all aimed at making us regular people feel the pain more. WE ARE TOO HAPPY.
They want us to have less light; less heat in the winter; less cool in the summer. They want us to eat less and certainly not eat cake! They want our children off those computers. They want us to drive small, powerless cars. They want us to have less access to guns (dangerous rabble!)
Everything the liberal elites do is aimed at making life worse for regular people. Is it a coincidence or am I just nuts?
Does anyone know if Al is "off the grid" ? I thought I read somewhere that he had spent big bucks installing solar, wind and geo-thermal. If he did, he can use all the power he wants, it's his. The story makes no mention of that. Once again, I don't know if it is fact, but it would have been nice if the story had included information as to how he powers his " humble " abode. Personally, I think GW is a fraud as is Al,but I'm just saying if it's his energy he can use all he wants. anonymous
BE KIND TO THE MAN THAT INVENTED THE INTERNET
I think the reason he stopped taking question was because he was getting repeatedly exposed as totally ignorant of the basic science.
For Al Gore, it is not about slowing global warming. It is about the $15trillion he stands to gain if crap and trade passes. And I'm sure he wants it to pass before it becomes undeniable that we are in a global cooling cycle.
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