Mr. Gore, Mr. Gore, you are such a whore

after much trying, i finally came up with a new address. note to self, starting anything other than baking in the middle of the night is a bad idea. After neglecting my old blog, forgetting the address, I wanted to start a new blog for venting, clarifying my thoughts regarding currents events and a general potpourri.

i heard about the stats about Al Gore's house this morning on Dave Ross's radio show (I love listening to Dave. The man has common sense coming out of his ears). I read the comments in the Seattle P-I and I wanted to post my own but I needed an account. Screw that!

Also, people who does not lead by example should sod off. I think by preaching conservation, warning the dangers of global warming, and not leading by example hurts the environmental cause. According an article in the Guardian UK,

"The headline figures, released to the group under federal freedom of information rules, were striking. Last year the Gore household consumed 221,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity - more than 20 times the national annual average.

His household consumption of energy rose between 2005 and 2006, the bills showed, from 16,200 kWh a month to 18,400 kWh last year. In addition, he spent on average $1,080 (£550) a month on natural gas. Combined, his electricity and gas bills reached almost $30,000.

...

By yesterday morning Mr Gore's team was pulled into the controversy. Kalee Kreider, his environmental adviser, told the Guardian that "you can attack the messenger but the message remains the same". She said Mr Gore's fuel bills failed to tell the whole picture. All the energy used for the Nashville home came from a green power provider to the Tennessee Valley that draws its energy from solar, wind-powered and methane gas supplies, among other sources."

At the heart of environmental protection is conservation. By creating a market for carbon is great because to mediate pollution problems take multiple approaches. However, I fear that allows people who can afford it use that to make them feel good. Global warming is a key issue but not the only one.

Currently, United States consumes greater proportion of total energy and natural resources than all other countries. We use huge amounts of petroleum based energy to grow our crops, then feeding them to livestock. We also have habits of throwing away our food and not decomposing it for fertilizers. The energy transfers are not efficient by any means. Don't get me wrong; I love meat. I would cry if I believed that meat would suddenly disappear one day. We should eat a balanced meal (Now I sound like the Dept of Health). The inefficient energy use probably contribute partly to food inequalities between developed and developing countries.

I challenge everyone to estimate their ecological footprint. Last year, I used www.myfootprint.org and my footprint is about 1.9 earths (which means that if everyone existing at that point used as much resources as I did, we would need 1.9 earths). I don't drive. I take buses. I recycle. I minimize my water usage. I don't fly (flying uses high grade petro = much larger footprint).

So what if Mr. Gore uses alternative energy like natural gas, wind, and solar? He still takes up disproportionate amount of other resources. I would not vote for Gore unless he can show that $30, 000 gas and electricity was used efficiently.

I don't care about celebrities but I like to point out that Di Caprio is one of the few celebrities that fly commercial like everyone else. Others may drive hybrids to make themselves look good but flying your own jet is really unnecessary.

ha..