Shoot the messenger, not the message

If you have a problem with Al Gore living in a colossal Belle Meade Mansion and generating high electric bills while traveling the world to discuss the dangers of global warming, that’s fine. Whether or not Gore is a hypocrite, we need to be aware of our energy consumption and consider how we can change the way we generate the power we depend on.

As today’s Tennessean reports on Gore’s MTSU address yesterday, scientists aren’t questioning whether we need to change our habits. They’re looking for ways to solve the challenges we face:

A 10-year University of California study found that essentially zero percent of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles disagreed that global warming exists, whereas, another study found that 53 percent of mainstream newspaper articles disagreed the global warming premise.

He noted that recently the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth unanimous report calling on world leaders to take action on global warming.

In my opinion, it’s not worth abandoning strategies for smarter, greener energy just because Gore may–or may not–be saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Gore and everyone else: walk your green talk

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is right to question Al Gore’s personal energy consumption in the wake of his well-publicized efforts to raise awareness of global warming. In my opinion, anyone advocating a strong public policy position or philosophy ought to be willing to subject himself or herself to this kind of scrutiny:

[TCPR president Drew Johnson said,]“We went into this just asking the question, ‘Is the leader of the environmental movement basically living up to his word? Given that he’s a Tennessean, I thought it’s a question we should ask.”

I’m sure the Gores can do more to save their own little corner of the world, and they should, but it sounds like they are doing a decent amount, despite reports yesterday to the contrary. In addition to voluntarily purchasing blocks of green power from Nashville Electric Service in recent months, the Gores also have done the following, according to The Tennessean’s Anne Paine:

They use compact fluorescent light bulbs and are in the midst of a renovation project that includes having solar panels installed on their home to reduce fossil fuel consumption … Their car? A Lexus hybrid SUV… [They also participate in a process known as carbon emissions offset, which] means figuring out how much carbon is emitted from their power use, and vehicle and plane travel, then paying for projects that will offset that with use of renewable energy, such as solar power.”

Could the Gores do more? I’m sure they could, and so could I.

[Asides to TCPR: Thanks for hiring Trent Seibert and keeping him around. How about an RSS feed for your Web site, too?]