It’s good to be green - Al Gore buys $9 million seaside home

[bobv13]

Just in case you had any doubts about good ol Al is all about... did I hear someone say greed?

http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Its-good-to-be-green--Al-Gore-buys-9-million-seaside-home

[phatlip]

I don't get it, you didn't know Al Gore was rich?

[bobv13]

Yes he's been in politics, so everyone should know he's rich, but I think they should also know where he gets his money, how he lives and about the carbon credits that he pushes. He's getting fat on peddling fear.

[tokenuser]

Yes he's been in politics, so everyone should know he's rich, but I think they should also know where he gets his money, how he lives and about the carbon credits that he pushes. He's getting fat on peddling fear.Right ...

And George had extensive ties to the petroleum industry ...
And Dick had mercenary (sorry) "security" ties benfiting from middle eastern instability ...

Sorry, but I have a much easier time dismissing the alleged hypocrisy of someone profiting from planting trees than someone raping and pillaging the planet, and shooting it up. I sure know I feel safer because of it <sarcasm btw>.

OK, Al has some money. BFD. Is it against the law to have some personal wealth unless you are republican?

[masherscf]

Not only that...But, it's typical "attacking the messenger" tactics.

Personally, I think the business of carbon offsets is a crock. But, I don't think it makes the problems of climate change any less real.

I don't think that trafficking in carbon offsets is any less despicable than exploiting faith in Jesus and using fear of damnation to shake people down for cash.

[phatlip]

Yes he's been in politics, so everyone should know he's rich, but I think they should also know where he gets his money, how he lives and about the carbon credits that he pushes. He's getting fat on peddling fear.

....yeah, he's rich because he was in politics. He used some of that money to invest into an emerging industry to which he's passionate about. I don't see your point. This is all very public knowledge and is something I've never heard him deny.


So a rich guy invested his own money into something he dedicated his life to. And? It's not uncommon for people to invest their money in something they're passionate about.

[timewizarded]

Right ...

And George had extensive ties to the petroleum industry ...
And Dick had mercenary (sorry) "security" ties benfiting from middle eastern instability ...

Sorry, but I have a much easier time dismissing the alleged hypocrisy of someone profiting from planting trees than someone raping and pillaging the planet, and shooting it up. I sure know I feel safer because of it <sarcasm btw>.

OK, Al has some money. BFD. Is it against the law to have some personal wealth unless you are republican?

Al Gore and his GLOBAL WARMING story of lies. Just like he said he invented the internet. Give me a break. I can say this about the internet that the Commodore 64 toke the internet to where it is today as the BBS scene was blowing the PC side away! I should know as part of C*BASE and the many other BBS programs that had everything a user could ever want back in that time. Its when freaking was cool. But now you have Obama in office and he is an liberal Anti-America who is trying to destroy this country. But any way Global warming is nothing more but a way for liberal to fill there pockets full of tax payers money!

[tokenuser]

Al Gore and his GLOBAL WARMING story of lies. Just like he said he invented the internet. Give me a break. I can say this about the internet that the Commodore 64 toke the internet to where it is today as the BBS scene was blowing the PC side away! I should know as part of C*BASE and the many other BBS programs that had everything a user could ever want back in that time. Its when freaking was cool. But now you have Obama in office and he is an liberal Anti-America who is trying to destroy this country. But any way Global warming is nothing more but a way for liberal to fill there pockets full of tax payers money!Awesome. Rehash the Al Gore invented the internet fallacy. That was never said. That was never claimed. The Al Gore connection is that he sponsored the bill that provided the funding for the morphing of ARPANET into the internet we all have access to today.

Have you ever "freaked"? Or did you read about it somewhere?? And the word is Phreaking. PH. Not F.

Back to global warming. It's a misnomer. It's global climate change. Weather patterns become more extreme. Winter is colder, summer is hotter. Hurricanes and tornados are stronger (but oddly enough less frequent).

Learn some history. Learn some basic science. Then come back for a debate.

[bobv13]

I have no doubt about that there is climate change. In question is it's severity, the degree to which man has contributed to it's change and what within season can be done about it. I also feel reasonably sure that the purchasing and selling of carbon credits is a scam, a scam that will make climate alarmists like Al Gore billionaires.

All that said I think that someone at BP needs to be held criminally responsible for what is happening in the gulf and needs hard jail time.

[tokenuser]

I have no doubt about that there is climate change. In question is it's severity, the degree to which man has contributed to it's change and what within season can be done about it. I also feel reasonably sure that the purchasing and selling of carbon credits is a scam, a scam that will make climate alarmists like Al Gore billionaires.Well said.

I am not an alarmist "OMG! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!" climate change person. I come from one of the driest countries on earth. Like it or not, management of natural resources is a big deal - so all Aussies are at least a little green (especially in comparison to other nationalities).

I worked for many many years for a large multinational mining and manufacturing conglomerate. Much of that time was onsite in a number of steel plants. I am not sold on the idea of buying carbon credits, but I know that we bought and sold other environmental credits extensively. There is a huge backroom market trading credits for all types of waste. At the end of the day if you can minimise your emissions, you can sell your excess to others not as friendly - and those go to your bottom line. Unfortunately the net result is the same - regardless where the pollution is produced it is still out there.

As for personal carbon credits - meh. I live in a forest. I have no lawn. The lot is covered with oak and walnut trees, with an undercover of native plants. It is green and lush ... and loaded with oxygen (hard to quantify, you need to experience it). It can be crappy in town, but out here it is cooler and fresher. I should point out that "town" is 5min away, and I actually only live 10min away from a major university.

Regardless of whether you are conservative or liberal, or have a belief in climate change or not, it makes economic and social sense to embrace environmentalism to an extent.

All that said I think that someone at BP needs to be held criminally responsible for what is happening in the gulf and needs hard jail time.Is it BP that is responsible? or the operator of the oil platform who were under contract to BP? or the politician that thought that allowing drilling for oil in an environmentally sensitive location was a good idea?

Not having a plan "b" for the failure of the primary valve was a critical mistake.

BP appear to be stepping up and taking responsibility - but I am not convinced it is all on them. The gulf coast is going to be a mess for a long time.

Disclaimer - I did some contract work with BP corporate many years ago. Nothing to do with their petroleum operations, but I know that internally they have a pretty good environmental stewardship ethic. As a company that deals with risk and risk mitigation on a daily basis, I am surprised they go caught out on this ... which is why I think blame is heavier on the platform operator than BP themselves.

[makaiookami]

Just in case you had any doubts about good ol Al is all about... did I hear someone say greed?

http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Its-good-to-be-green--Al-Gore-buys-9-million-seaside-home

Ya and john mccain has millions of dollars worth of homes that he got from cheating on his wife, and marrying an heiress. What's your point?

Just because someone gets rich off of green tech doesn't mean that green tech is evil. How many millions of dollars worth of houses does big oil bring in?

What's your point specifically cause what ever your agenda is it's completely veiled by some of the most blatantly obvious post I've seen in a while. May I call you Captain Obvious? Squire Obvious? Sir Obvious?

Or do you have a more interesting point that you failed to mention?

Al Gore and his GLOBAL WARMING story of lies. Just like he said he invented the internet. Give me a break. I can say this about the internet that the Commodore 64 toke the internet to where it is today as the BBS scene was blowing the PC side away! I should know as part of C*BASE and the many other BBS programs that had everything a user could ever want back in that time. Its when freaking was cool. But now you have Obama in office and he is an liberal Anti-America who is trying to destroy this country. But any way Global warming is nothing more but a way for liberal to fill there pockets full of tax payers money!

Now this guy is actually stating an agenda...

Global Climate change is not a liberal conspiracy douche bag any more than Evolution is an evil conspiracy to take God out of public discourse.

I'm not going to explain why you're wrong because global climate change deniers are of the same intellectual capacity in debate as creationists. That is, not much at all really. Go look out your window again and laugh at yourself because it seems to be a fairly normal temperature and ignore the actual science being done and debated with people who actually dedicate their life to finding a balance between depleting all of our resources, and living our advanced lifestyles while they try and improve your standard of living as you spit on them and act as if you're somehow superior because you have a freaking thermometer you sometimes look at.

[bobv13]

Ya and john mccain has millions of dollars worth of homes that he got from cheating on his wife, and marrying an heiress. What's your point?

That 95% of the politicians in Washington are out for themselves.. btw you point about McCain helps support my assertion.


Just because someone gets rich off of green tech doesn't mean that green tech is evil. How many millions of dollars worth of houses does big oil bring in?

What's your point specifically cause what ever your agenda is it's completely veiled by some of the most blatantly obvious post I've seen in a while. May I call you Captain Obvious? Squire Obvious? Sir Obvious?

if you would have taken the time to read before jumping to conclusions you would have discovered that my "agenda" as you put it, was to shine a little light on the hypocrites, who pretend to serve us but in the end use us for their own gain.

BTW name calling is rather silly don't you think? Your weren't trying to be silly were you?

[makaiookami]

That 95% of the politicians in Washington are out for themselves.. btw you point about McCain helps support my assertion.


if you would have taken the time to read before jumping to conclusions you would have discovered that my "agenda" as you put it, was to shine a little light on the hypocrites, who pretend to serve us but in the end use us for their own gain.

BTW name calling is rather silly don't you think? Your weren't trying to be silly were you?

Al Gore is a hypocrite. I'll admit to that. Until his house is running on renewable resources and he's running nothing but gas sufficient vehicles and using solar chargers and such, then he's a hypocrite.

But what does his hyporcisy really do for the grand scheme of things? It doesn't invalidate the global climate change, which precedes him.

There is a kid that created 3D solar energy collectors. Would you consider it wrong if that kid were to get rich off of his discovery?

I mean it does allow light to be collected more efficiently, as well as even during cloudy days. Would he be a hypocrite if he ended up profiting on his discovery? Would that invalidate the benefits that the tech can produce?

[bobv13]

Al Gore is a hypocrite. I'll admit to that. Until his house is running on renewable resources and he's running nothing but gas sufficient vehicles and using solar chargers and such, then he's a hypocrite.

But what does his hyporcisy really do for the grand scheme of things? It doesn't invalidate the global climate change, which precedes him.

Yes, climate change is real in spite of Al's hypocrisy

There is a kid that created 3D solar energy collectors. Would you consider it wrong if that kid were to get rich off of his discovery?

I mean it does allow light to be collected more efficiently, as well as even during cloudy days. Would he be a hypocrite if he ended up profiting on his discovery? Would that invalidate the benefits that the tech can produce?

OMG you're not arguing in favor of capitalism are you? haha

In my mind there is a big difference between profiting from a product or invention than profiting from a law which Al promotes as being solely for world welfare. Al wants to become a big player in the carbon credits market but he needs laws passed first. How can his word be trusted?

It's impossible to take all money out of politics, so what must we do? Make it visible to everyone and make every one's motives visible.

[tokenuser]

OMG you're not arguing in favor of capitalism are you? hahaI am not anti-capitalism. It is possible to be a capitalist, and not be a self serving douche :)

Al Gore is no longer in politics. Yes, carbon credit trading would benefit the investment company he is president of.

I have far fewer issues with Gore lobbying government for environmental issues (including cap and trade) than the insurance companies, auto companies, and financial companies pushing for bailouts and industry protection.

[makaiookami]

Yes, climate change is real in spite of Al's hypocrisy


OMG you're not arguing in favor of capitalism are you? haha

In my mind there is a big difference between profiting from a product or invention than profiting from a law which Al promotes as being solely for world welfare. Al wants to become a big player in the carbon credits market but he needs laws passed first. How can his word be trusted?

It's impossible to take all money out of politics, so what must we do? Make it visible to everyone and make every one's motives visible.

I don't trust Al Gore. Someone is going to have to benefit somewhere along the line if we are in fact going to create a strong vibrant industry. Al Gore has made it his life to profit off of these changes.


Let's say that the tap water is borderline toxic enough to kill you after around 30-50 years of use so may die in your 50s-60s but it's not guaranteed. Let's say that there's a man named Bill Dorh that owns a water bottle company called Dorh water and a purification company called Pure Dorh. Now he starts standing up and saying that his water purifiers and water bottles will increase societies chance to live. But they are more expensive than drinking tap water of course. But let's say that he's a millionaire from all the people who have bought his water purifiers.

Now let's say that Bill Dorh decides that he wants more money so he makes a deal with the federal government saying "We can put water purifiers on the opposite end of the deal, so that water is being purified before it gets to the tap, all you have to do is contract us out, and everyone will be saved"

Because of it your initial costs for water coming out of your pipes go up, but the chance of you staying alive longer without you having to do much effort goes down, and eventually it's likely that the cost could get even lower because now you dont' have to pay for new water filters directly and water bottles yourself. Maybe the farms have plants that grow bigger and fuller so that you get better food for the same cost you were paying before, and the longer time goes on the better your life becomes, even though initially you were paying more than you originally did with the water that is likely toxic enough to lower your life expectancy. Let's say that the costs were higher for 20 years but were the same or lower than your original costs after 25 years. Let's say that you were healthy at the age of 75 and you're healthy and doesn't seem like you're likely to die any time soon.

But due to all of this Bill Dorh becomes worth 1 billion dollars in total. Now I'm not saying that it's guaranteed that you would have died at 60 or 65 but all the water analysts agreed that the water was a danger of reducing your life even though they can't 100 percent prove it, because if they did, it'd be too late for you.

Are you going to have a grudge against Bill Dorh for having a net worth of a billion dollars? Are you going to just deal with it since it seems like what he did, did increase your overall standard of living, despite costs going up a bit?

That's kinda the situation we're going up against. If his self interest helps improve overall life style, even if it requires a bit more out of us at the start, then I'm fine with that. It's better htan waiting for the chemicals in the water to slowly kill our livers and things like that right? Does it really matter if that man makes tons of money hand over fist? Ya it would be nice if we had to pay a bit, but would you rather die younger and sicker than live older and a bit higher quality lifestyle?

That's the way I see things on this discussion.

Hell even if global climate change wasn't a serious risk. I would still be for green tech. Why? Because even if we're not destroying this world, we're still going to have to use tech other than oil and coal. We are going to have to find some way to have fuel that will support the industrialization of 3rd world countries, handle our ever expanding technological needs, and still be here for future generations.

So no matter how I look at this issue, I don't understand what point you're making with Al Gore.