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FEW people in Africa would get to see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff last weekend - because most have neither television nor electricity. That's just as well, because they would be aghast at LiveEarth's bizarre message. In Africa, we have much more serious things to worry about than climate change. Indeed, if they achieve their objective, the concerts will have done harm to the people of Africa. Britain's former Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, recently said that the rest of the world cannot aspire to the UK's standard of living because:...

On the 23 of June, I had the opportunity to attend the Friends of Trees Conference in Barcelona. It has taken me a few weeks to digest all the information, which I, together with about 900 other people managed to inhale: The fumes of change, the organic revolution, the climate crisis, the need for solidarity and action. It was a most overwhelming task: and Al Gore's redundant joke of: "I used to be the next president of the United States," has hardly helped ease the intensity of the situation. The crowds clapped at every comment made by the speakers, who...

SEU Dodo walks through the lush Brazilian woodland he knows well, picking out medicinal plants: lobera for diabetes, one known as "the king of medicines" for the menopause, another he claims can cure flu in a day. But the search for the plants is getting harder and harder. "A lot of our medicinal plants died this year because of the lack of water," he says ruefully.

What you probably won't hear at the Live Earth concert: a call for higher taxes on gasoline and fuel. The current crop of US presidential candidates can only wish for the spotlight that will shine on Al Gore Saturday. He's the luminary for a globe-spanning, rock-star-studded, anti-global-warming concert called Live Earth. Most likely, though, his most radical idea won't get a mention. The former vice president (and almost president) wants to replace the current payroll tax with a consumer tax on fossil-fuel use. This "carbon tax" would, of course, raise the price of gasoline and home heating/cooling. And it would...

Former US Vice President Al Gore appeared on BBC television today, and thanked Apple CEO Steve Jobs for proposing him as the next President of the United States. In May Jobs stated that Gore - also an Apple board member - would win the presidency if he ran for election. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." Today, appearing on the...

A New Hampshire presidential poll by WHDH-TV and Suffolk University shows that local Democrats prefer Al Gore to any of the current contenders. Hillary Clinton has a solid lead over the rest of the current Democratic field. The poll, released this afternoon, shows 37 percent of likely Democratic voters backing Clinton or leaning towards her. Barack Obama was at 19 percent, with both John Edwards and Bill Richardson at 9 percent. Al Gore, however, could enter the race as the leader. When his name is added, Clinton loses more than a quarter of her support, while Gore is backed by...

An annual accounting of Prince Charles’s households - printed on recycled paper in vegetable-based ink – finds that he has cut his annual carbon emissions by nine percent, to 3,775 tons, between April 1, 2006 and March 31 of this year. He achieved this historical feat by cutting back on helicopter jaunts and converting his Jag and Landie to run on used cooking oil, reports The Associated Press. The prince offset the other 91 percent of emissions created by his households - the Highgrove estate in western England, Clarence House in London and Birkhall in Scotland - by investing $60,000,...

You'll hear a lot of speculation about Al Gore running for president. The former vice president -- and Oscar winner -- will be in the news all summer and fall, what with a new book tour and appearances to argue for federal action to combat global warming. The buzz works to his advantage, so he's not going out of his way to stop it. At worst, it draws more attention to his favorite cause -- global warming -- and helps sell more books. At best, it sets the stage for a late dash for the Democratic presidential nomination if the...

Recently, The Sun — hardly the most erudite or sophisticated of Britain's newspapers, I grant you — published a feature article entitled "Why is TV more keen on Paris Hilton than on saving the planet?" Actually, it's not so much an article as a write-up of an interview with none other than Al Gore. "Al Gore is a man on a mission to save the planet — and is enraged that everyone else seems more interested in saving Paris Hilton," writes reporter Victoria Newton, who had a talk with the former Vice President. Now, I'm a little tired of Gore's...

Recycling worsens global warming Chris Mellor June 4, 2007 Fancy some contrary thinking? Try this; if you want to save the planet from global warming, don't recycle. There is lots of muddled thinking around global warming. The UK government is proposing to have all goods marked with a carbon index to indicate their friendliness or antipathy to global warming. The index would measure the amount of carbon emitted during the goods' manufacture and whether it can be recycled or not. Recycled? What has that got to do with global warming? My instinctive reaction was: none. Why on earth should sticking...

I recently booked a trip through Travelocity. The roaming knome (D) returned this so that I would not feel guilty about using all those nasty carbons on my journey. Today, many of us recycle and walk, bike, or take public transportation when we can, but there's still no way to get across the country or ocean in time for that important meeting or family event - or to reach that great vacation spot out of driving distance-- unless we get on a plane. And while air travel is considered a contributor to the carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global...

Carbon trade scheme 'is failing'http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/6720119.stm Tuesday, 5 June 2007 By Julian O' Halloran BBC File On 4 The EU's carbon trading scheme has increased electricity bills, given a windfall to power companies and failed to cut greenhouse gases, it is claimed. An investigation by BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme has found that after two and half years the scheme has yet to cut in carbon dioxide emissions. The consumer body Energywatch said customers are getting a raw deal. But a government minister has promised that the scheme's next phase will be a big improvement. The EU's Emission Trading...

LONDON (AFP) - Al Gore said the war in Iraq mirrors the lack of action on climate change in that the best evidence has been ignored, in an interview published Saturday. The United States was sucked in by "crass manipulation" over the moves towards the invasion of Iraq, the former US vice president turned environmental campaigner told British newspaper The Guardian. And Gore, who is repeatedly asked if he will run for office again, said he did not have the skills it takes to get elected as US president -- though he admitted there was no job in the world...

BERLIN - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she led a congressional delegation to Greenland, where lawmakers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality," and she hoped the Bush administration would consider a new path on the issue. After meeting with German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Pelosi praised Berlin for its leadership on the issue. Her trip comes ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit and a climate change meeting next month involving the leading industrialized nations and during a time of increased debate over what should succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps...

"The Issue of the Potential Impacts of Global Warming on Recreation and the Recreation Industry" Thank you for having this hearing today, Madam Chairman. I have to say, however, that we seem to have hearing after hearing after hearing on climate change – indeed, this is the Committee's second one this week alone – but we don’t seem to actually discuss legislation. While other Committees without jurisdiction on this issue attempt to write our nation’s global warming policies, this Committee sits idly by talking about tangential issues. I believe that if we do wrestle with actual legislation, then the folly...

Former US vice president Al Gore on Friday criticized the "trivialities and nonsense" of celebrity gossip in the media and called on people to focus instead on issues like Iraq and climate change. Gore, who is promoting his new book "The Assault on Reason," made the comments at a book signing in New York, where he was treated to a rock star reception by more than 1,300 cheering and screaming fans. "What is it about our collective decision-making process that has led us to this state of affairs where we spend much more time in the public forum talking about...

Apple board member and former US vice president Al Gore would win the presidency if he ran for election, says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time Magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." The report explains the background Gore's strenuous campaigning to persuade people to address the growing threat of climate-change caused environmental collapse. "We have dug ourselves into a 20-foot hole, and...

This generation is one that thrives on media publicity, and right now global warming is in the spotlight. From melting icecaps to rising temperatures and sea levels, global warming seems to be the hot topic. With the help of Al Gore's Academy Award-winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth," the issue of global warming has been projected from television screens worldwide, including those at Central York High School. Both Gregory Wimmer and Eric Webb, teachers of global studies and environmental sciences at Central, have used Gore's film as a teaching tool. "In a social studies classroom, "An Inconvenient Truth" allows for an...

Uh-oh. Don’t look now, but somebody who wants to be President forgot to take their medicine. It remains uncertain as to whether the failure to follow the prescription will be politically costly. But the Senator formerly known as Hillary Rodham Clinton seems to be caught in another little conflict, and this one could be a problem with, shall we say, “the faithful.” By “the faithful,” I mean the left-wing contingency within the Democratic Party that long ago abandoned any historic, western understanding of the relationship between the human person and the earth (an understanding that is so commonplace for most...

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio sent out a message about global warming at the Cannes Film Festival. The heartthrob has made a film, the 11th Hour, warning that human beings face extinction as a result of the environmental crisis. At a press conference in the South of France following the screening, The Blood Diamond actor, 32, attacked US President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement." The Titanic star's latest film, which he narrates, follows another environmental warming documentary by former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year....

Prominent political fundraisers who backed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign are reserving support for the current slate of 2008 Democrats in hopes the former vice president will swoop in for another White House bid. H.E. "Sonny" Cauthen Jr. told The Washington Times he has been flattered to get calls from candidates asking for his help this time around, but said he is hesitating on picking one while he waits to see what Mr. Gore decides. "If he wants to run, I would be very supportive of that," said Mr. Cauthen, a founding partner of the Washington lobbying firm Cauthen Forbes...

EasyJet has warned that the carbon offsetting market is riddled with "snake oil salesmen" determined to make excessive profits from green-minded air passengers. The low-cost airline has delayed the launch of an offsetting scheme for customers because of concerns over its cost. Instead, easyJet will go it alone by acquiring credits in UN-accredited schemes and selling them back to customers.

Will Media Report Global Warming 'Carbon Credit' Fraud? Posted by Noel Sheppard on April 25, 2007 - 22:54. It’s conceivable that years from now, America’s media will be reporting one of the biggest frauds in history: the idea that a wealthy person, for instance, soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore, can purchase “carbon credits” to offset his lavish lifestyle making him quote “carbon neutral.” Given the media’s love affair with the former vice president as well as advancing man-made global warming hysteria, few American press members have dared to expose this hoax for what it is. However, on Wednesday, an impeccably reputable publication,...

In several parts, with frequent updates, starting here if I’m not mistaken.

Earlier this week, Vermonters Ian Baldwin and Frank Bryan wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post advocating Vermont’s secession from the Union. Taxpayers should respond, “Go ahead, and take Peter Welch with you.” Welch (D., Vt.), Vermont’s newly elected representative, has proposed a bill called the Carbon Neutrality Act of 2007. Should it become law, Congress could order government agencies like the State Department and the Pentagon “to use portions of their budgets to buy greenhouse-gas offsets and renewable-energy credits,” according to a report in the Burlington Free Press.....

CARTHAGE, Tenn. - Al Gore has profited from zinc mining that has released millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances near his farmstead, but there is no evidence the mine has caused serious damage to the environment in the area or threatened the health of his neighbors. Two massive white mountains of leftover rock waste are evidence of three decades of mining that earned Gore more than $500,000 in royalty payments for the mineral rights to his property. New owners plan to start mining again later this year, after nearly four years of inactivity. In addition to bringing 250 much-needed...

BARNET, VT. -- Sara Demetry thought she had found a way to atone for her personal contribution to global warming. The psychotherapist clicked on a website that helped her calculate how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide she and her fiance emitted each year, mostly by driving and heating their home. Then she paid $150 to e-BlueHorizons.com, a company that promises to offset emissions

I got so incensed with all this offset business to help with the guilt of over-consumption,,,, and the fact that you can 'offset' excessive use of energy, that I built a website specifically so WE (the "little guy") could buy offsets and send them TO the rich and to celebrities so they could walk the walk. Enjoy!!!! CELEBRITY CARBON OFFSET. Also checkout the blog portion. CELEBRITY CARBON OFFSET BLOG. I really have the packets and the seeds if you want to 'pay it forward'.

Some neuro-scientists see evidence that man is genetically hard-wired to be disposed to religious conviction. If this is so, it might explain why amongst even the French — the most secular culture on Earth — only 25 percent claim to be atheists, and a full 60 percent believe in a spiritual component to life. It might also explain why the environmental movement tends to veer toward a religious, rather than a scientific, sensibility. This oft-observed aspect to environmentalism in general, and global warmingism in particular, has been shrewdly analyzed in a new book, "The Future of Everything: The Science of...

Gore's carbon footprint may be the size of Godzilla's, but he eases his conscience with "carbon offsets." He buys them from himself. And every time someone else buys them, Big Al gets richer. ...Speaking of carbon offsets and shell games, guess where Gore buys his carbon offsets? Well, he buys them from a firm call Generation Investment Management LLP, a tax-exempt U.S. 501(c)3 corporation. The chairman and co-founder is Al Gore. In other words, he buys his carbon offsets from himself. Others who buy these offset are really buying stock in Gore's growing business. You, too, can green up his...

Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?">company=generation+investment+management&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompanyhttp://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1375534/000117266107000053/0001172661-07-000053.txt

When Coldplay released its second hit album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, the band said that part of the environmental damage caused by its production would be offset by the planting of 10,000 mango trees in southern India. More than four years after the album's release, however, many of Coldplay's good intentions have withered in the arid soil of Gudibanda, Karnataka state, where the saplings it sponsored were planted. The idea of saving the world while making music was proposed by Future Forests, a British company since renamed CarbonNeutral. It declared that the scheme would soak up carbon...

IF you own a cat, you know the smelly truth: they break wind and it's foul. Not only that, it harms the planet. All forms of flatulence – from cats, dogs, even from Dad – contain methane, a greenhouse gas thought to contribute to climate change. If you've been feeling guilty about it, help is at hand. For just $8, a Sydney-based company, Easy Being Green, can now make your cat carbon-neutral, so it can "live guilt-free for a year". Make no mistake, the cat will still smell, and its emissions will still contain methane, but Easy Being Green vows...

Al Gore defends his extraordinary personal energy usage by telling critics he maintains a "carbon neutral" lifestyle by buying "carbon offsets," but the company that receives his payments turns out to be partly owned and chaired by the former vice president himself. Gore has built a "green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including himself, but he set it up so that the average Joe can't afford to play on Gore's terms," writes blogger Dan Riehl. Gore has described the lifestyle he and his wife Tipper live as "carbon neutral," meaning he tries to offset...

A pardoner was a charlatan who sold people indulgences, or pardons for their sins. Al Gore and his friends have come up with a modern equivalent: the "carbon offset" to make up for your greenhouse gas emissions. Now, good men, Earth forgive you each trespass, And keep you from the sin of greenhouse gas. My carbon offsets cure and will suffice, So that it gains me gold, or silver brings, Or else, I care not- brooches, spoons or rings. You must embrace fully Al Gore's line of bull, While o'er your eyes we will pull the wool! An offset certificate...

Rush just ran two stories and the positioning of the stories brought an interesting question to mind. Al Gore apparently wastes fuel like a sonofagun but says it's okay because he buys "carbon offset credits" designed to excuse his fuelish habits. Then it turns out the company he buys credits from is one that HE OWNS! So he buys shares of his own company to cleanse his soul over the abuse of energy resources he would condemn if you or I did it. So, how many carbon offset credits do I have to buy in order to nuke an offending...

With a winter that brought snow to Tucson, Ariz., and 70-degree weather to New York City -- along with an Academy Award for the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" -- climate change has become more ingrained in the public consciousness. Not everyone may be willing to overhaul their lives to accommodate the environment, but more people are opting for the rising number of options offered by companies to neutralize their "carbon footprints," meaning the amount of energy they consume. Most carbon-offset programs require consumers to make small payments that in turn go to programs that create renewable energy or absorb...

There is an irresistible quality to the story about Al Gore's energy-hungry Tennessee home, replete with a heated poolhouse that burns more natural gas -- $500 a month worth -- than most of us can afford to use while heating houses that shelter people, as opposed to swimming lanes. Did you know that Mr. Gore's house uses more electricity in a month than the average household does in a year?

Purchasing carbon offsets brokered by AlGore reminds me of the sales gimmickry surrounding the “Naming Stars” routine; except with star naming, everyone understands from the onset, it’s a novelty item.

In the late Middle Ages, professional pardoners sold indulgences to Roman Catholic parishioners with the promise that their sins would be forgiven. It was one of the practices that led to the success of Martin Luther's Reformation. Today, some environmentally conscious people purchase so-called carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emissions they are personally responsible for. ...At least 50 companies sell offsets for air travel for between $5 and $30 per ton of CO2. Some of them sell offsets for other activities as well.

You can neutralize the rest of your pollution—through offsets. When you buy offsets, you essentially pay someone to reduce or remove global warming pollution in your name. For example, when you buy 10 tons of carbon offsets, the seller guarantees that 10 fewer tons of global warming pollution go into the atmosphere. While the pollution you produce yourself is the same, you get the credit for that 10-ton reduction.

Making the rounds at yesterday's Ad Club meeting was Andrew J. McKeon, a former investment-banking consultant who is now a true believer in the inconvenient truth of global warming. In November, McKeon launched the nonprofit Climate Change Foundation--the name is supposed to be taken literally on two levels--and is looking for support from the ad community and marketers. The idea is to help make Americans aware of the seriousness of global warming and to raise money for the cause. "My goal is to approach companies like Starbucks and the Gap--companies that want to have a good position on this issue...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Jill Cody used to feel guilty whenever she drove her car or flew on an airplane. She worried about pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. But the San Jose professor found a way to ease her conscience. She paid a San Francisco company called TerraPass to offset emissions from her car and air travel by investing in wind power and reducing farm pollution. "I'm part of the solution, not the problem," said Cody, who sports a TerraPass decal on the decade-old Lexus she drives about 6,000 miles a year. "Now...