My Eco Hypocrisy Confession - The Last Word

The other day I started watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth out of curiosity.  I have to confess, I didn't finish it. 

Somewhere in the middle of one of the many 'Gore Is Awesome" video montages, I started wondering if he really practiced what he preached. 

Maybe it was all his name dropping and political grandstanding, but somehow he just didn't strike me as an environmental hero.  One final yawn and I turned to google.

Ages ago I remember reading about Al Gore being the energy equivalent of Jabba the Hut, glutting in over consumption while preaching green, so I started there.  Interestingly enough, I find I'm not the only eco hypocrite skipping around the globe. 

• Al Gore recently urged attendees of one of his lectures to use public transport to reduce their carbon footprints, while he himself pulled up in a car which he left running for the duration of his speech.

 

• While flapping his gums in opposition to old growth foresting in the Pacific Northwest, he added a veranda made of old growth redwood and Douglas Fir logs to one of his houses.

• In March 1996, the Denver Water Department was directed to release an extra 96 million gallons of water to make the South Platte River a better backdrop for one of his campaign photos.  It was enough water to supply 300 average families for a year.

• During his 1992 election campaign, a Nashville station released video footage of a dump owned by Al's family.  The dump was filled with tires, aluminum cans, and old oil filters that drained into a nearby river. 

• During Earth Hour, a global sustainably movement, Al Gore forgot to turn off his own dozen or so spotlights that illuminate his driveway and trees.  His 9,000 square foot house also had lights on inside and the glow of television and computer screens shone in the windows.

I could go on, citing his huge electricity usage, opting for fuel sucking jet travel over more eco choices and his collection of mansions, none of which are set up to be considered 'green', but you know how to use google.  See for yourself.  On a funny note, if you type "hypocrite" into google images, Al's on the first page.  The inconvenient truth Al worries about, I imagine, is his own.

The bottom line is that if Americans use up to 10 times the natural resources over any other nation, then Al is the US poster child of consumption.  I think maybe, as far as eco hypocrisy goes, Al Gore gets the last word.

Read the complete Eco Confessions here.