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Zebra
Skeptic Friend

USA
354 Posts

Posted - 06/22/2008 :  17:42:20  Show Profile Send Zebra a Private Message  Reply with Quote
From the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, on 6/20/2008:

Energy Guzzled by Al Gore's Home in Past Year Could Power 232 U.S. Homes for a Month

Gore's personal electricity consumption up 10%, despite “energy-efficient” home renovations

NASHVILLE - In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President's home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

“A man's commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

In the past year, Gore's home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

In February 2007, An Inconvenient Truth, a film based on a climate change speech developed by Gore, won an Academy Award for best documentary feature. The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovered that Gore's Nashville home guzzled 20 times more electricity than the average American household.

After the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore's massive home energy use, the former Vice President scurried to make his home more energy-efficient. Despite adding solar panels, installing a geothermal system, replacing existing light bulbs with more efficient models, and overhauling the home's windows and ductwork, Gore now consumes more electricity than before the “green” overhaul.

...


This libertarian group is no fan of Gore. (Note use of loaded terms in the article. "Scurried" is my favorite.) The update is interesting, but it seems quite possible that the work involved in installing solar panels, a geothermal heating/cooling system, & new windows required a one-time "investment" of electricity which won't be necessary now that those systems are in place.

Old (2007) but interesting comparison on Snopes on the energy-efficiency of the ranch at Crawford with Gore's house in Tennessee, and more info on energy use at Gore's house (includes natural gas for heating the pool & pool house), & counter-claims that aim to help explain or mitigate this energy usage.

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/22/2008 :  18:01:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It's the old argument from hypocrisy fallacy: so-and-so is a hypocrite, and so they hope you read into the piece that he is also wrong.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  03:37:22   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The plain fact is that Gore could be an enegry hog on a scale with any industrial complex; he could be a decrepted wino addicted to scag and have AIDS contacted from sharing needles with other, decrepted winos whilst pimping a stable syphilitic chimpanzees, and it would make not the least bit of difference in his message. The deniers can't deal with that message, so they mount rather cowardly attacks on the messenger.

Another fact is that he is at least trying to clean up the house's act -- I wonder what it's carbon footprint would be if someone else lived there. And how much wailing and wringing of denier-idiot hands there would be over it.




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


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Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  06:48:02   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Its a sign that you have won an argument when your opponents resort to attacking you instead of your argument.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9688 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  07:38:58   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message  Reply with Quote
In the past year, Gore's home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

What a fucking dishonest way to report the numbers, to inflate them.
Saying Gore used 231MWh last year, the compare that to a number of households per month.
The correct numbers should have been 19 households per year, in order to compare apples with apples and not oranges.

Still, that number is way high and there should be ways to decrease it. He's wealthy enough to make investments to make his home more efficient than it already is.


Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
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"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

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tomk80
SFN Regular

Netherlands
1278 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  08:07:20   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit tomk80's Homepage Send tomk80 a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What a fucking dishonest way to report the numbers, to inflate them.
Saying Gore used 231MWh last year, the compare that to a number of households per month.
The correct numbers should have been 19 households per year, in order to compare apples with apples and not oranges.

Still, that number is way high and there should be ways to decrease it. He's wealthy enough to make investments to make his home more efficient than it already is.

Or he can go and just live in a smaller house. I never understand people with big houses. I know a few people with big houses. Life for them, just as anybody else, only proceeds in a few rooms. The rest is just fluff. Costly fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

Although I agree with the sentiment that the arguments should not be judged on the people, I do think it would have been nice if his effort to live more carbon neutral would have included an effort to move to a house that is not extralarge. I feel that part of the problem is our overreliance on lots of stuff we do not need. I think it would have send a much stronger message than making his house carbon neutral. But that's just me.

Tom

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll-
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  08:10:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Gore's home is also his office, which includes a staff.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  08:50:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Gore's home is also his office, which includes a staff.
Right-- one wonders if they took the energy usage of the average house, and coupled that with the usage of a small office, how it would compare.
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tomk80
SFN Regular

Netherlands
1278 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  09:49:56   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit tomk80's Homepage Send tomk80 a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Gore's home is also his office, which includes a staff.
Ah, my bad.

Tom

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll-
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13477 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  11:02:53   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude

Its a sign that you have won an argument when your opponents resort to attacking you instead of your argument.


Bingo!!!

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  11:39:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hmm, this logic is fascinating. Let's work with this...

Newton was a Christian, therefor the Theory of Gravity must be suspect, along with optics, calculus and modern telescopes.

"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  12:33:59   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Kil

Originally posted by Dude

Its a sign that you have won an argument when your opponents resort to attacking you instead of your argument.
Bingo!!!
Gotta be careful, here. We get plenty of visitors who simply ignore the fact that we've demolished their arguments. After a certain amount of repetition of what usually is nothing more than verbal diarrhea, I don't see a problem with saying, "what the heck is wrong with you?"

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  18:24:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Dave_W said:
Gotta be careful, here. We get plenty of visitors who simply ignore the fact that we've demolished their arguments. After a certain amount of repetition of what usually is nothing more than verbal diarrhea, I don't see a problem with saying, "what the heck is wrong with you?"

Yeah, but those people are the ones who never accepted the premise of logical argument anyway. They were never interested in a discussion.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  18:56:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude

Yeah, but those people are the ones who never accepted the premise of logical argument anyway. They were never interested in a discussion.
True, but after we start ragging on them is when they trot out, "it's a sign that you have won an argument when your opponents resort to attacking you instead of your argument," or even worse, something like, "I've obviously struck a nerve with my argument, because you're getting angry like all dogmatists do when faced with superior logic."

I'm just advising caution in declaring victory due to personal attack. It's one thing to say, "this piece is nothing but a slam on Gore." It's quite another to say, "this piece is nothing but a slam on Gore, therefore the author cannot refute the AGW hypothesis." Surely you can imagine a person who doesn't actually care about AGW one way or the other but who wishes to score political points with the right by butchering poor ol' Al.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  19:53:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Damn, where's Bill Scott? He's usually attracted to posts about Gore like flies to shit...

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend

USA
354 Posts

Posted - 06/23/2008 :  20:11:16   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Zebra a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf

Hmm, this logic is fascinating. Let's work with this...

Newton was a Christian, therefor the Theory of Gravity must be suspect, along with optics, calculus and modern telescopes.

I thought you were going to say:
Newton described the theory of universal gravitation, but he was such a hypocrite - he never used gravity in his own house!



I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney

*some restrictions may apply
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