Al Gore, who did nothing about the environment when he was Vice President for 8 years, is becoming the world's first "carbon billionaire" profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in. Big Al recently claimed the earth's core was millions of degrees Fahrenheit (it is actually about 7,000). Gore ignored an inconvenient truth that there was a medieval warming of the earth well before CO2 emissions were contributed to by man.
I look at the planet as my home; and like my home, I want it to be clean, tidy and sweet smelling. I believe if we all did our part to insulate our homes, educate our children to turn off the lights when they leave a room and to not stand in the doorway yapping while the cold air from the outdoors chills the whole house, carpool, keep our car engines tuned and maintain tire pressure, take public transportation (a third of the CO2 is directly injected into the atmosphere by guys like our peripatetic President, House Speaker and Al Gore in their jets), and even eat less beef (livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together - "An Inconvenient Truth" didn't mention this source of methane which is more harmful than CO2 - eating a pound of hamburger does as much damage as driving a car for 3 weeks - Al Gore is in the beef business) that the combined effort would be massive in reducing carbon emissions. Energy efficient light bulbs use just 20 percent of the energy of the old ones and last 10 times longer - these bulbs mean the saving of millions of tonnes of CO2. But it doesn't matter whether we can prove climate change is man made; what does matter is that we have clean air and water - a nice place to live. Over the next 6 years Iraq will increase oil output from over 2 million barrels a day to over 12. And if Nigeria gets its act together we will have plenty of cheap oil - enough to continue using the stuff for the next 50 years. In the meantime, we could all take part in consuming less with better engines and habits.
The Antarctic ice has increased in mass and the Arctic has stabilized. Over the last 12 years the earth's temperature has cooled AND polar bear populations are increasing even doubling in some parts; despite these facts, governments are talking about taking $50 billion, which could save 4.3 million kids, from development aid to go towards climate change policies. It will cost $40 trillion a year at the end of the century if we follow President Obama and other heads of state in their quest to reduce temperature by 2 degrees Centigrade. If we spend this obscene amount by the end of this century we could postpone global warming by about 6 hours.
Are carbon emissions that pressing a problem? Absolutely not! 1/4 of the persons who die each year succumb to easily curable infectious diseases. 80 percent of African children deaths comes from contaminated water. We should be addressing tangible problems like malnutrition by improving: free trade (removing export subsidies), water, research and development, agricultural technologies etc. But these more important issues are not glamorous enough for the eco warrior cult who prefer making the police drag them through the streets by their dreadlocks. These green washed fanatics are worse than those with Bush Derangement Syndrome - Bush, whose home in Texas is more environmentally friendly than Al's home as Bush's ranch uses geothermal heat from water pumped 300 feet into the earth and is relatively water-efficient thanks to a 25,000 gallon underground cistern, which purifies rain and home wastewater before the newly clean water is used to irrigate the surrounding landscape of native high-prairie plants and flowers. The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh, more than 20 times the national average. Gore's house consumed more energy in a month than the average American household does in a year. Sure Big Al buys energy credits, but from his own company which is tax exempt. Big business for Big Al and we all have to pay into the hype.