The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank, has called Al Gore a hypocrite for having high electrical consumption in his Nashville, Tennessee mansion.The electrical bills in his home run about $1,200 a month. Granted, that's approximately 15 times my average monthly electric bill. But a few points:
- The Gores, like many people living in Tennessee, including my parents, probably heat their home with electricity-- it's cheap (see #4). This inflates the electrical consumption
- The Gores, as the article points out, have a home four times the average home.
- The Gores live a "carbon neutral" life-- last year they used 191,000 kwh of electricity, and purchased slightly more than that in blocks of "green shares."
- Tennessee gets the bulk of its electrical power from hydropower generated by the dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority-- a zero emission generator of electricity.
But most importantly:
5. All that aside, how the fuck does this invalidate volumes and volumes of scientific evidence pointing toward carbon emissions causing global warming?
I believe that we call this game "Kill the messenger."
