How Do You Define Hypocrite?

HOUSE # 1:
Consider a 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Waste water from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and film maker) Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Now, If you think that this is something I made up feel free to check it's validity on snopes.com (updated March 28, 2007). This was also mentioned on the syndicated radio show "Bob and Tom" in which they cite reading about it in the "Drudge Report". My point being that it is a well documented and researched e-mail that was circulated shortly after the "documentary", "An Inconvenient Truth" was released.

Now I am not looking to get into the ongoing debate of how serious global warming may or may not be. We can save that for a future entry. My main concern here is that we have one of our leaders taking the reigns in an issue that he preaches to be true. All the while he is not practicing what he is preaching. Which makes me question Al Gore's motivation for becoming the poster child of global warming.

Many argue that Mr. Gore's intentions are genuine and he truly believes in his cause. If this is true then I argue that actions speak louder than words. Why hasn't he made the effort to convert his home to become more energy efficient. Someone who believes in their cause lives in a manner that supports that cause. Instead, it seems that he is more interested in telling us that we should live in the manner that supports his cause. I am not saying that we should not make the effort to live in a more energy efficient way, but that people are reluctant to change if their leaders are preaching "do as I say, not as I do". Leaders that do not live according to their teachings can hardly be taken as genuine. This is how I view Mr. Gore and many of his supporters. Sorry Al, I just see your environmental concern to be a shameless way of self promotion and until you begin to live the lesson it will never be more than that.