I heard about this on the radio, but I did not know where the story came from. Fortunately, Carol at The Median Sib did (from the UselessA Today)
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."
Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
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.
Ah, the old standard progressive "do as I say, not as I do." Much like Babs Streisand and her huge, environmentally unfriendly, water hogging, AC using, house in California. Laurie David and her screaming at SUV drivers, then jumping in a private jet that uses more fuel crossing the country then most cars use in a year. Or how about Arriana Huffington saying "it was going that way anyhow" about the private jets she takes.
But, still, nothing takes the cake like Al Gore, who thinks that global warming is more important an issue then global terrorism, yet ignored both during his years as a Senator and as Vice President.
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.
These people, like Gore, on the Left who claim to love the environment, but then are continuously caught being obsessed, over the top, and hypocritical. Maybe if they practiced what they preached (and didn't over do it, too), people would actually listen.
