Former Vice President Al Gore is on a personal crusade to warn people of the perils of global warming and encourage them to take action to reduce this threat. As far as Gore is concerned, global warming is the most serious threat to our existence in history. What’s more, he claims this global warming is caused by human activity.

Al’s solution to this dire scenario is for us to substantially reduce our “carbon footprint”. His website is full of truly helpful suggestions for reducing our output of carbon dioxide (CO²). Regardless of whether you believe the man about global warming, there is no denying the fact that his websites give very sound advice on saving energy. By following these suggestions an average family should be able to make fairly significant savings on their utility bills and may end up leading healthier lives through eating more fresh food and less meat and by cutting down on travelling by car.

Given the sense of urgency in Al’s book and film, An Inconvenient Truth, one would expect the Gore household to be a model of energy efficiency and a temple to the environmentalist cause. After all, global warming is supposed to be “…the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced…”

Sadly, it seems the prophet hasn’t been very good at taking his own warnings to heart. The average household in Tennessee uses 10,656 kilowatt-hours per month. According to the Nashville Electric Service, over at Chez Gore, they consumed 221,000 kilowatt-hours per month during 2006. For what it’s worth, President Bush’s ranch in Texas is more environment-friendly.

How could this be? It’s not as if the Gore family are unaware of the eco-damage such profligate consumption must cause. Also, they can’t claim to be ignorant of ways to reduce their consumption.

Perhaps this should not be so surprising to readers. Don’t forget this is the same Al Gore who wrote “Earth in the Balance”. Let us revisit a page or two from that book:

 “air pollution from waste incinerators typically includes dioxins, furans, and pollutants like arsenic, cadmium, chlorobenzenes, chlorophenols, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury, PCBs, and sulfur dioxide. ... municipal waste incinerators are now the most rapidly growing source of mercury emissions into the atmosphere. .... [It] creates a new solid waste problem that is in some ways worse than the one we have now.”
 pp. 156-157

Just prior to becoming Vice President, Gore made a specific promise that an incinerator built by Waste Technologies Industries would not be permitted to operate until a full investigation had been completed. The incinerator in question, which is permitted to emit lead, mercury and hundreds of other compounds, is only 400 yards from an elementary school.

His exact promise:

“The very idea of putting WTI in a flood plain ... you know it's just unbelievable to me,” Gore told the crowd. ”I'll tell you this, a Clinton-Gore Administration is going to give you an environmental presidency to deal with these problems. We'll be on your side for a change instead of the side of the garbage generators, the way [previous presidents] have been.”

The Vice President let the incinerator operate with no changes to its site or output. It may or may not be a coincidence that the owner of the incinerator was also the biggest single contributor to the Clinton-Gore 92 election campaign.

This shows that Gore’s words when campaigning do not match his actions. In fact they are in direct contradiction.

Perhaps the incinerator was really Clinton’s fault, and Gore might be more principled when Slick Willy’s not around? Dream on.

The Gores have a nice retort to those who think they are using more than their fair share of energy resources. They buy carbon offsets. In simple terms, a carbon offset is a situation whereby someone who is producing more carbon dioxide than he or she should will pay someone to ensure that another person consumes less carbon dioxide than normal through cutting back on something or other that produces the gas.

Think of it in terms of cancelling a $20 donation to the Salvation Army’s local soup kitchen and adding the money to your usual day’s budget for food. If you then splurge on a hotel buffet downtown, you will have eaten far more than normal. But that’s OK because several other people will have starved, so your meal will work out calorie neutral.

For anyone who thinks this concept is a fine way to excuse excessive consumption, there is a link on Gore’s climate change website to a very nice, caring looking outfit that will invest in carbon offsets on your behalf. All you have to do is pay them, and they do the rest, whatever that is. They even take credit cards.

Al Gore, being a concerned, responsible citizen buys carbon credits from an international company. Specifically, he invests through a firm called Generation Investment Management LLP. Guess who’s the Chairman and founding partner? None other than Al Gore. So Gore is buying carbon credits from a company he founded and which is tax exempt. Incidentally, Gore is a substantial shareholder in Occidental Petroleum. No prizes for guessing where they invest in carbon offsets.

At moments like these, you see exactly what a man is made of. In Al Gore’s case, it would come in very handy as fertiliser.