Michael Ivanovich

Gore: "Go solar or die." Walk the Talk, Take 1
July 18, 2008

In a speech at an energy conference in Washington, D.C., Nobel laureate, Academy award winning filmmaker, and former vice president Al Gore, stated that the United States must totally convert to carbon-free renewable energy technologies by 2018. “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said (really). “The future of human civilization is at stake.”

At the conference, Gore rebuffed critics of the increased electrical consumption of his Tennessee home since the release of An Inconvenient Truth by unveiling a 50-megaWatt wind farm recently constructed on his yard. 

“This wind farm will produce all of the electricity my home needs to run today, tomorrow, and probably through all of next year,” he said. "The cost for these turbines is mitigated by not having to purchase carbon credits on top of utility bills. And the EPAct-2005 tax credits were a big help, too--thank you, Mr. President..”
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Note: After running this by a few colleagues--who didn't get it that this was satirical, I decided that this post needed some annotations. 

First, although the green movement is necessary (in my humble opinion), its leaders who are as outspoken as Mr. Gore should be "walking the talk," especially if they believe 'the future of mankind depends upon it." Otherwise, their very important messages can be easily undermined by their detractors by reasonable accusations of overt hypocrisy and elitism.

Regarding the satire, the first paragraph of this post is true, and the link is to a NY Times article that reported Mr. Gore's remarks. The second paragraph is partially true, i.e., the link a report on the increase of electricity usage of Mr. Gore's Tenessee home since the release of An Inconvenient Truth. The installation of the wind farm is not true, and the photograph is a Photoshop composite created by Consulting-Specifying Engineer's art director, Myles Adamson.

That this is "Walking the Talk, Take 1" indicates that there might be more of these. Some of this was started when I wrote, "When the Green Fad Fades," which was well received.

Posted by Michael Ivanovich on July 18, 2008 | Comments (0)