[GenuineRisk]

Look guys, Gore is forking out his own $$ to pay off his carbon use with carbon offsets. None of you seem to have any interest in addressing that, because it undercuts your screams of hypocrite. But right-wingers expect their own politicicans to be crooks and the Dems to be Gahndi, when in fact they're both just human. Gore is trying. And he's trying in a way that is also possible for the rest of us to attempt, too.

Carbon offsets are a marvelous way for people to start to combat global warming without having to go move to a hut. He's trying to show that you can live a carbon-neutral life and still HAVE A LIFE. How many Americans do you think would move to huts if Gore did? Come on. They'd say how nice it is that he's doing that and go back to turning their A/C down to 65 in August. Better to see someone doing something that frankly, we all could do (buy offsets, get our power supplied by green sources, etc.) You're not going to convince Americans they aren't entitled to big houses. How big are all your houses? I live in a 700 sq foot apartment. How about the rest of you? If I manage in 700 sq feet with no yard, why can't everyone? You're all hypocrites, yelling at me for defending Gore while you're using up more land than you need!

See how stupid that sounds? No, Gore doesn't need four houses. No one does (keep that in mind, rich folks, if/when your tax handouts get taken back). But better to run them on green power than not to. And better to encourage people to run on green power than not to. He's not perfect. No one was, with the possible exception of Jesus Christ.

The other thing I find entertaining is the screaming that Gore's a hypocrite because he's still, heaven forbid, using electricty, taking trips, etc. I think people use that as an excuse to absolve themselves of any sort of responsibility towards our planet ("I don't want to believe Gore drives a hybrid, therefore I don't have to do anything myself"). Typical modern American attitude- it's someone else's responsibility, not mine. So if someone doesn't live up to an impossibly high standard, then why should anyone bother? How ridiculous is that?

Here's the thing with carbon offsets, like tree planting- trees are marvelous storehouses for carbon. Wood is mostly carbon- when trees grow, they basically take carbon from the atmosphere and store it in themselves. Coal and oil do the same thing, but we're not really capable of creating those in anything less than several millenia. When trees, coal, oil, etc. is burned it releases that carbon into the atmosphere, which is not good. Look at trees as toxic waste storage facilities- except ones that are environmentally sound, provide habitat for animals and are pretty to boot.

As for the house bit- it takes more resources to tear down a house and build a new one than it does to attempt to make the existing one more green. Better to revamp an old house than tear it down and build new, from an envirnomental standpoint. Look, huge props to Bush for having a house heated by geothermal technology. But it doesn't take away from Gore greening his current homes without demolishing them. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right?

Eat less meat- it takes 500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef
Plant something on your lawn in place of grass
Let food warm up to room temperature before microwaving it
Keep enough water in the tea kettle for only as much as you're making (don't heat up a whole kettle for one cup).