Yes, but what shade of green?

Found this on the Internet today. Thought it was funny.



Al Gore's posh home in the Nashville suburbs might be "carbon neutral," but it still uses a lot of power.

So much that last August Tipper and Al Gore used twice as much electricity in their two-building property as an average U.S. household uses in an entire year, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a think tank, reported Tuesday.

Public power and gas bills turned up by the group show that the man behind the Oscar-winning global warming wakeup documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," uses much more overall carbon-based fuel than the average American, spending thousands of dollars a month on electricity and gas.

"As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use," Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson said in a statement. The center says on its Web site that it "promotes personal freedom and limited government."

Kalee Kreider, Gore's spokeswoman, doesn't dispute the numbers the report is based on but says the numbers need a little context.

"You can't just look at a month's utility bills, or a year's utility bills and understand a man's life," she said in a phone interview.

She also said that Gore's message is consistent with his lifestyle. He has said that families and organizations are going to use different amounts of energy, and they should first determine their carbon footprint — the overall energy usage in terms of carbon emissions — and do their best to reduce it.

The think tank report cited figures from the Nashville Electric Service that showed Gore burned through 22,619 kilowatt-hours of electricity at his house last August, a rate that is twice the level used by an average U.S. household in an entire year.

So, just think, when you're feeling that pressure to save energy and all, you can't do the same damage to the environment in one year as what Al Gore can do in a whole month.

But in all seriousness, I'm all for preserving the earth God's given us and using resources intelligently and looking for alternative fuel sources - but don't be all "I'm Mr. Good Earth and am single-handily working to save the world" and use energy at 12 times what I'm doing. Or if you are, stop trying to make me feel guilty and be the bad guy because I have to drive my gas-saving car while your butt is flying around in a private jet.


Grrrrrr.