occasionally, someone in the media has the courage to draw back the veil. one such man is correspondent jonathan mann of cnn, who interviewed al gore after he received the nobel peace prize , which became sorta silly after yasir arafat won it in ’94. kinda like the heisman trophy became in ’97 when peyton manning lost out to charles woodson. anyway - in a post award interview, jonathan mann asked the following, "The Associated Press, among other sources, is reporting that your family home near Nashville, Tennessee, used $1,200 a month in electricity, which is 10 times the average for homes nearby. It's been widely disseminated, and I think that's what he's getting at. Is it true? Are you a little less green than you seem?"
to which al gore replied, “There's a global warming denier group that put out misleading information.”
to which mann parried, “The Associated Press is not that kind of organization.”
to which al gore responded, “No, they reported what that group said. And the -- the -- look, when you try to make a case like this, you are going to have -- you're going to have people try to attack the messenger in order to get at the message. They have not been able to succeed. But the most important element of this is the message. And part of what they -- part of what these deniers try to communicate is that the only way to solve this crisis is for individuals to make changes in their own lives. We've made those changes, many millions of others have, but we have to stop kidding ourselves. This is not a 'me' problem. It's a 'we' problem.”
the italics and bold are mine. i mean, isn’t the main message of conservation individual responsibility? clearly, mann, in totoesque fashion, has pulled back the curtain to reveal al gore for who he truly is - the green equivalent of l. frank baum’s huckster.
but be of good cheer - gore can only pull the wool over the eyes of those of us who have no heart, no courage, or no brains.
3 comments:
I appreciate this. I remember when that information came out, and I also remember afterwards the talk about how much of a carbon footprint the travel Gore used to present his talks would require. Your post gets at one of the central issues for being green in an age of opulence: How can those that are "celebrities" be green with the high level of consumption their lifestyle dictates. True "greenness" begins at the level of lowering consumption (not just electricity, but that's a start) rather than raising it. But most celebrities are in the business of actually INCREASING consumption. They sell some sort of consumption as their business. If they were really green, they would find it cramping their lifestyle in a way I'm not certain they're ready to embrace. Just a thought.
*applause*
al gore is about as green as matt lauer was when nbc did their recent special which made more of a world-wide carbon footprint than it could ever hope to erase.
word is that al reduced his summer electricity consumption by 11% last year as compared to the previous year. and while he won't disclose how much the installation of his geothermal heating, solar panels, rainwater collection, and fluorescent bulbs cost him, it was surely quite a bit. considering how outrageous his consumption was to begin with - and what it cost to reduce it - cutting it by 11% does not impress me. sure, technically, he is making less of a negative impact on the environment, but it doesn't IMPRESS me.
inventor of the internet and nobel peace prize winner. too bad we aren't related more closely.
I love the straightforwardness of Gore. If he wanted to clear the air he would present his utility bill for the past few years. That should be public knowledge, if he is so hardcore about the earth. Also he she log his miles traveled and the amount of fuel used. If Gore was really so "green" he would live green. But the fact is, all he wants is to line his pockets from the latest trend. He is a business man. Business men are just looking for a paycheck. Nothing more or less. Gore is just grabbing the media and making bank. The sad part is most people will believe anything....
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