Apparently Al Gore uses a lot of electricity. This came up twice yesterday because apparently it was on the news, and although neither of the people have seen An Inconvenient Truth they were very happy that Al Gore got discredited via New Zealand's news media.
Well, I'd heard nothing about any of this, so I went googling and found out what appears to be the story: Al Gore's house uses a whole lot of electricity. More than all the other houses in the neighbourhood and more per month than the average American uses in a year!
Why do we care? Because this makes him a hypocrite, and in Kiwi society that's a big sin. Plus, he's also a tall poppy, he's always going on about saving the planet and making us feel guilty for our lifestyles.
Why is it not really a problem? Because Gore's house uses green energy; solar panels and wind energy providing the power he apparently uses. Anything he can't make green, such as the hundreds of thousands of air miles he uses to get his message across he buys off with 'carbon offsets' like forests to make himself and his family carbon neutral.
Why should we get away from the 'tall poppy' syndrome in this case? Because Al Gore has arguably done the impossible and made people all over the world care about global warming. His movie has changed my life, it must have changed other people's lives. How many of us can say that what we do alters lives? So what if he uses electricity to make his Powerpoint go? So what if he flies to New Zealand, stays for three hours and then flies out again? He's making a real difference and spreading the message that needs to be heard.
(That is: global warming is happening, and there's things everyone can do to minimise the impact. In case you've missed that.)
Here are my sources for the news item that sparked this whole thing:
The Drudge Report, a right wing 'watchdog' kind of thing that came out after Gore won a best documentary oscar for Inconvenient Truth.
Response from Think Progress, a left wing organisation.
A compilation of opinions on the whole thing from The Chattanoogan.
Fox News: we report, you decide. If you keep reading down the article it is actually a balanced bit of reporting. I'm as surprised as you are.
and finally....Snopes is on the case, researching if the whole thing is an urban legend or not. (Urbandlegend.com has said it's "true, with spin".)
I couldn't find anything about it on New Zealand's stuff.co.nz news site, but then the search engine on there is a little dodgy.
What's my conclusion on all this? Al Gore is a human being. That is, he isn't perfect. He may be using massive amounts of electricity, but he's doing it the best he can; using green sources and buying up offsets. More importantly than any of this, he is making a real difference in the world because he cares about what he believes in. Why can't we just appreciate that?
PoF: tokidoki
CO: indignation?