Carbon Footprint in Mouth: "Carbon Credits" Examined (Trees And Things)

zyxwvutsr: Re: Where do I start?

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 21:10:06 EST

Does Al Gore need a house that is many times the size of the average American house? Does he need three houses? Does he need a large, heated swimming pool? Does he need to travel by private jet? The obvious answer is that, no, h

zyxwvutsr: Re: Where do I start?

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 21:05:51 EST

If [Gore] were some rich playboy churning out CO2 just for the sheer pleasure of it, then yes...big fucking hypocrite

There's little chance that anyone will mistake Al Gore for a playboy. That being the case, we might ask why

shatov: What are carbon offsets good for?

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 06:32:41 EST

Is Gore engaging in a "repulsive moral dodge" available only to the privileged, akin to the purchase of papal indulgences or paying draft "commutation fees?"

I would say that this is definitely a case of papal indulgences, for

marduk: YHBT

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 06:58:49 EST

Gore's energy use is slightly below the average per sq ft for his location.

zyxwvutsr: Re: Where do I start?

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 13:20:47 EST

Can I say something?

Steve Urkel: Re: Simple question

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 21:49:52 EST

If he wished to bring his actions more in line with his rhetoric he needn't live in yurt, a modest home would be enough. I've known some rather wealthy people, who weren't environmental evangelists, who lived in reguluar houses and drove ordinary cars. If

Lou: Simple question

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 21:27:58 EST

How would you have him live, then?

Steve Urkel: Re: Where do I start?

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 18:38:30 EST

In many ways I'm in agreement with little Lou-Lou. As a philosopher of ethics (whose name I forget) once explained to a student who was shocked to learn he was a bit of a womanizer: "There's a difference between the sign that points the way to Boston

gerrymander: Re: Snark Aside

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 12:22:12 EST

Thanks for the link, rombuu. I'll check into that.

Purchasing carbon offsets seems like the best thing to do in this case

If Gore's money was actually offsetting anything, I'd be more OK with it. Right now, he's claiming offsets for his own pr

gerrymander: Re: yeah, right

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 12:18:02 EST

Then every chairman of every corporation is fraudulent.

Your counterexamples make no sense. Gates is an advocate for Microsoft products, as is Henderson for GM. It stands to reason for them to use their products. Gore, in contrast, is an advocate

rombuu: Re: Snark Aside

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 12:09:54 EST

(Ideally, there would also be an auction market system in place so that the most money would flow to the accredited groups instead of into speculators' hands in some after-market derivatives exchange; so far, nobody is even talking about establishing th

gerrymander: Re: Snark Aside

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 11:42:33 EST
Well, draft replacement had the notorious downside of a very good chance the replacement would end up dead. A working carbon offset program wouldn't suffer the same flaw.
The key word, of course, is "working". An honest carbon credit purchasing system w

Lou: yeah, right

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 11:27:58 EST
I dunno; is "silly" the appropriate term here? Gore claims he's "carbon neutral", but he buys his carbon credits through Generation Investment Management, an investment firm he co-founded and for which he currently serves as chairman. Personally, I'd ca

uncarved block: Snark Aside

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:50:13 EST
though you don't seem particularly interested in doing so, there's a good example from American history that illustrates why this won't fly, namely the former policy in the Civil War buying a replacement to fill your place in the draft. Led to some nasty r

gerrymander: Offsets for everyone!

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:16:04 EST
Carbon offsets are a great idea that should be exported to non-environmental areas. Are you a vociferous anti-drug advocate with an chemical addiction? Buy some addiction offsets at a methadone clinic! Are you a big-name homophobe preacher who enjoys gay s

gerrymander: Re: Where do I start?

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:02:52 EST
If he were some rich playboy churning out CO2 just for the sheer pleasure of it, then yes...big fucking hypocrite.
GQ parties, Vanity Fair parties, Oscar appearances -- yeah, it's nothing but work, work, work for our environmental

uncarved block: Why Yes

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 09:59:17 EST
Should every person who expresses a pro-environment point of view be expected to live in a yurt and ride a donkey/camel/mule . . .
Of course. If they do, you can dismiss them as fanatics; if they don't, you can call them hypocrites.

MayorBob: Eeeeewwwwwww!

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 08:34:41 EST
"Rush's personal emissions not included."
Thoughts of herds of methane-spewing cows not being so bad for the environment spring to mind. On the other hand, if you got downwind of Rush's gaseous eruptions, it might stink, but you might get a

Lou: Where do I start?

Thu, 1 Mar 2007 22:22:07 EST
First off, whether you like him or not, Gore is a rich man. I would hazard to guess that he lives in a mansion or on an estate, like other rich guys. I would go further to guess that mansions/estates can be expensive to heat and cool. I w