Which house belongs to an environmentalist?

Question

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 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 pumpsdrawing 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 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.

Trevor: What exactly is Al Gore doing except getting rich of the global warming scheme anyway? He COULD have made his house environmentally but chose NOT to - you say he's trying to do something about it, so what is it? Carbon offsets are a sham, they only make money for those who sell them - they do absolutely nothing. This guy is taking money right out of your pockets, selling a concept that he obviously doesn't believe himself & you all jump in line to drink the kool aid. I don't get it.
Seems to me BUSH is the only one trying to do something to reduce his negative impact on the environment.
Brainwashed liberals - wake up and smell the coffee or in this case, the garbage they've been feeding you

Answer 1

Why post this in global warming? It's just politics. Al Gore has absolutely nothing to do with the overwhelming scientific evidence that global warming is real

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know - except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics. Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point,You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/

http://www.realclimate.org

"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 2

From snopes.com "This e-mail comparison between the homes of President George W.Bush and former vice-president Al Gore began circulating on the Internet in March 2007(shortly after the latter's film on the global warming issue, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award as Best Documentary). Short and sweet, there's a fair bit of truth to the e-mail: Al Gore's Nashville mansion is something of the energy-gobbler the e-mail depicts, while President Bush's Crawford ranch is more the model of responsible resource use the juxtaposition portrays it to be.

According to the Associated Press, the Gore's 10,000 square foot Belle Meade residence consumes electricity at a rate of about 12 times the average for a typical house in Nashville (191,000 kwh versus 15,600 kwh). While there are mitigating factors (further discussed in our article about the Gore household's energy use, this is still a surprising number, given that the residence is approximately four times the size of the average new American home.


The ranch home owned by George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, (dubbed "the Texas White House") was designed by Austin architect David Heymann, an associate dean for undergraduate programs at the University of Texas School of Architecture. While its precise size isn't known, scuttlebutt has it that it's about 4,000 square feet, all on one floor.

The ranch utilizes an efficient geothermal heating and cooling system that pumps ground water through a heat exchanger to warm the house in the winter and cool it in the summer, a system that expends roughly one-quarter the energy of a conventional heater/air-conditioner. Water used by the house is reclaimed, treated, and reused, and rainwater funnels from the home's gutters into a large cistern, which holds the water for garden irrigation."

From me: Sure Al Gore could have a smaller house, but he does buy carbon offsets and has done much to advance people's awareness of global warming. He gets a point for that from me. I'm happy that our president is using his wealth to build and live in a house that is so environmentally responsible.

Answer 3

And the eco-fascists show their true colors.

The Church (before it became known as the Catholic Church) used to sell "indulgences", a way to absolve one from their Earthly sins in order to guarantee passage into Heaven. Rich folks could load up on the sins and then buy his way to purity. Why live the life of a monk when you can be a playboy and accomplish the very same thing.

This was the igniting point for the Protestant Reformation, as well as an immense housecleaning within the remaining Catholic Church.

If someone TRULY cared about the environment, then he'd live as an example to all people (after all, alarmists are asking EVERYBODY to sacrifice) by decreasing energy waste AND simply donate the same amount of money he's claiming that he's "offsetting".







Who is kinder to animals: Someone who limits his use of animal products, or someone who clubs baby seals but donates to PETA, in order to "offset"?

Answer 4

Given the slightly sarcastic tone to the question I shall vote A: the bad house belongs to the so-called naturalist. But a lesser evil (a better home owned by an innefectual official) is still evil. Just as no senator can truly claim to be 'for the poor and impoverished' when he can afford a million dollar home. After all he can surely convince himself that he does not NEED a million dollar home and be happy with a 500,000 dollar home, therby freeing his money and time to a life of philanthropy and public service.

CS

Answer 5

Hot damn, this one's a keeper for sure!! I don't know what the best part of it is, the original Q & A by the poster, or Trevor's claim that someone who creates a large amount of greenhouse gas at his private residence is better than someone who creates a small amount of same at his residence because of their respective attitudes. LOL

Trevor, if you want to include the White House because thats where Bush is required to work, you have to include all of those indoor theaters that showed "An Inconvenient Truth"

Answer 6

Has anyone thought about the reason WHY Bush has such an energy-efficient house? Could he maybe be privy to information that pretty soon we're going to run out of our non-renewable energy sources?
Just food for thought....
For the record, I don't endorse Gore's energy consumption, either.

Answer 7

Thank God some people besides me and my family have realized what a hypocrite Al Gore is. For the questioner, here is a website to back up all of your points: http://www.cei.org/pdf/5820.pdf.

source: http://www.cei.org/

It's very long but very informative. You can print it out, or just skim through it. It's very good, and just goes to show how much of a fat, lying, hypocritical guy he is. And everyone else can read it, too.

Answer 8

Yep house #2
House #1 you needed to add created a company to sell carbon neutral credits. Thus making money off the deal. Should be dismiss as a source about the environment.

Answer 9

Al Gore the hypocrite owns the energy sucking house.

Answer 10

Agree with Bob (above).

Don't forget to take into account the other residences of President Bush which aren't so environmentally friendly and don't overlook the fact that Al Gore offsets his carbon emissions. His carbon footprint is smaller than a person living in a one roomed shack that does no offsetting.

Better to produce a lot of emissions and do something about it than produce a small amount of emissions and do nothing.