Jenny and Erin

Oh, what kind of fool am I? I found myself outraged and intrigued last week by the homes and energy consumption of President Bush and former Vice-President Al Gore. In fact, I cared enough to research and write a post about it. Click here to read last week’s post “President Bush, In the Closet? Al Gore a Hypocrite?”. Now I’ve realized that not only was I missing the big picture this whole time, I’ve also been drastically underestimating the players – a couple of shifty politicians. Worse yet, if I’m right, not only have I been duped - so have you!

One of our readers forwarded me the link to “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, a documentary challenging human’s responsibility for climate change. Click here to watch the film. For those not fluent with the climate change debate (also referred to as global warming), it is widely believed that the rise in carbon dioxide emissions is one of the largest contributors to our changing climate. Carbon dioxide is emitted when we do things such as produce electricity from coal, drive and make plastic. “The Great Global Warming Swindle” never asserts climate change is not occurring; rather it convincingly argues that a link does not exist between climate change and carbon emissions. Thus, the role we can play in stopping or reversing climate change is radically less than popular propaganda would have us believe.

Since Al Gore appears to understand the “climate crisis” so well, I’d argue it’s highly probable that he is aware of this data and believes it. This explains why he has done so little to personally to reduce his “carbon footprint”, especially in relation to the comforts of home (and a two year $30,000 gas and electric bill and a pool buys you comforts!). Does the persona of environmental crusader promise him enough notoriety (and potentially a second bid at the White House) that he is unwilling to “out” the true facts, and the potentially even scarier truth, that personal responsibility isn’t enough to reverse the impending climate changes? If so, what does this say about Al Gore the man?

Maybe President Bush isn’t as dim as he’s been publicly portrayed, especially on the subject of climate change. Say he also believes that carbon dioxide emissions are not linked to a changing climate and is therefore equally unconcerned. So why his sustainable home? I’d imagine in his role as President of the United States he is privy to a lot of information that the rest of us aren’t; such as doomsday scenarios. There are dwindling resources worldwide and gaps in our country’s internal and external security as well as disaster planning and readiness. What better place to be if our country’s infrastructure collapses than at home secluded on hundreds of acres with animal herds, vast amounts of security (or at least guns) and sustainable water and energy supplies. Makes you wonder, just what DOES he know?

If carbon dioxide emissions aren’t responsible for climate change, it sheds some light on the seemingly contradictory private versus public behavior of both Al Gore and President Bush. It also raises some very scary questions, questions I’m almost too afraid to ask. What aren’t they telling us? And why?

Related Posts:
President Bush, In the Closet? Al Gore, A Hypocrite?

This entry was posted in Social Commentary on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 by Erin Dietrich. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.