It explains Bill, Hillary, and Monica, doesn't it?
Cheers!
Posted on 03/02/2007 7:22:09 PM PST by grey_whiskers
By now, everyone has heard the buzz about Al Gore and his receipt of an Oscar for the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”. Following close on the heels of this has been the outcry from the blogosphere, particularly from conservative sites, about Gore’s hypocrisy. As it turns out, not only does Mr. Gore travel in a private jet from place to place, not only does he drive a large SUV, but even his own household energy use is extravagant. According to publicly available figures, the electric bill on Gore’s mansion was $1,200. Per month. This is about twenty times the usage of the average American household.
“So,” you say, “more hypocrisy from the Democrats. What’s new about that?”
What’s new is that this time, Gore has a better excuse than a faulty memory due to too many ice-tea breaks. You see, Mr. Gore is covering himself to keep his overall footprint (get this) carbon neutral. How can this be? Well, as it turns out, Mr. Gore is offsetting the carbon dioxide emitted in order to heat his house, by purchasing credits which represent conservation of energy—that is, someone else is forgoing the production of CO2, which means that if Gore wants to engage in a little extra polluting, he can buy the credits for not polluting from elsewhere, and it’s all hunky-dory. Get it?
I confess, I don’t get it. If global warming is occurring, and if the warming is due to certain gases which preferentially absorb infrared radiation which would otherwise radiate out to space, and if the increase in emission of those gases is due to industrial processes (none of which is yet certain)…shouldn’t we be lowering the production of those gases? Yes, I know—we are establishing a market for the non-polluting behaviours, and setting a dollar value, in order to encourage that behaviour. That is good, as far as it goes. But something smells funny about this. It is as though, in an attempt to cut down on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, certain people (say, evangelical Christians?) could tally up “chastity credits” which they could then sell to others at high risk of disease—for as long as the total amount of unsafe sex is decreased, that’s the goal, right? Oh, and by the way—Gore purchased his carbon credits from a company controlled by himself. So he’s paying himself to pollute, to reward himself for not polluting. This would be the same as Bill Clinton purchasing chastity credits from Hillary, for not sleeping with her, in order to visit Monica Lewinsky.
But there’s another issue. Apparently the thinking behind these famed carbon credits is due to the Kyoto Treaty, which (did you forget?) was in fact rejected 95-0 by The U.S. Senate. If even such a left-leaning, PC group as the Senate rejected this treaty by a vote (and didn’t just use cloture or a similar parliamentary procedure to block it), why then is it such a good idea for everyone else? Remember, one of the key sticking points on the Kyoto Treaty was that the strictures on polluting would only be on “developed” countries (i.e. The United States). India and China could pollute all they wanted. Given that the meteoric rise in the price of oil has been blamed on the industrialization of India and China (and that China has passed Japan to become the second largest user of oil in the world, and that China uses five times as much energy per unit of economic output as the United States)…it just doesn’t add up. It’s as though Paris Hilton were exempted from having to purchase chastity credits.
But the mention of India and China gives me an idea, which just might make this whole crazy scheme worthwhile. Given that the idea is, China and India have the reputation as relatively poor, so we should give them a break…why not just require the purchasing of carbon credits, but only by folks like Al Gore? And he could buy them from us regular Americans, who don’t spend $1200 every month on electricity. In fact, keeping with the spirit of other subsidies, I ought to get a carbon credit for NOT running my Christmas lights year round. Mr. Gore, how much am I bid?
Shiver.
It explains Bill, Hillary, and Monica, doesn't it?
Cheers!
Ouch!
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