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Look over the descriptions of the following two houses and see if you can tell which belongs to an environmentalist.

HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on 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. Wastewater 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 filmmaker) 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.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."
Al Gore is trying to convince people to use less energy and go green, so his acts don't effect the environment as much.
So I can smoke drugs and kill people, as long as I tell other people not to smoke drugs and to not kill people?
Strawgate, it's more like "If my house is really safe, it's okay for me to kill people, then?"

Having an energy efficient ranch doesn't compare to the amount of damage you can do the environment from the position of the presidency...
Wait, You said "only 4,000 square feet"....that's a lot to me. i mean, our apartment and house are only 2,700 ad that's 2 houses!
Strawgate wrote:
So I can smoke drugs and kill people, as long as I tell other people not to smoke drugs and to not kill people?

According to Al Gore you can!

Disturbed Puppy wrote:
Wait, You said "only 4,000 square feet"....that's a lot to me. i mean, our apartment and house are only 2,700 ad that's 2 houses!

My house is about 8,000 square feet. We have 3 floors each at around 2,200 square feet. Then we've got an indoor pool that measures around 2,000 square feet. 4,000 isn't bad at all, depending on how many people are living there.

Hedgemistress wrote:
Strawgate, it's more like "If my house is really safe, it's okay for me to kill people, then?"

Having an energy efficient ranch doesn't compare to the amount of damage you can do the environment from the position of the presidency...

But having a house that sucks up energy and fossil fuels, while telling everyone else not to-do that is just being a hypocrite. Before you try to fix a problem, make sure your not part of the problem to begin with.

Smoko wrote:
Strawgate wrote:
So I can smoke drugs and kill people, as long as I tell other people not to smoke drugs and to not kill people?

According to Al Gore you can!

Sounds like a plan to me.
If the only people allowed to tell us ways to improve the environment are the people who aren't doing anything to hurt it, then nobody'll ever do anything.

I agree that his house is beyond ostentatious... and not a great symbol of his stance... but just as Bush can contribute to the degradation of the environment through his influence and power, Gore's net impact on the environment can be a positive one even with his stereotypical "rich person" house.

And he's not a hypocrite... he practices exactly what he preaches. For the greenhouse emissions created by the power use in his home, he buys what are called "carbon offsets"... which effectively rewards those who are underusing their share of energy. It's a strange idea, but one that allows us to enjoy the fruits of our technological society while still bringing the overall energy usage of the planet down.
I'm a bit late, I know, but I thought I'd point out the Urban Legends Reference page on this subject.

Yes, he could do more to reduce his energy usage - but as mentioned he's (apparently) "carbon neutral" through the use of carbon offsets. The Urban Legends page quotes a spokesman saying:

"In addition, they are in the midst of installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power," Kreider added. "They also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures and then they purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero."