Truth_and_Power
12-14-2007, 03:34 PM
The former vice president has installed solar panels, a rainwater-collection system and geothermal heating. He also replaced all incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs -- even on his Christmas tree.
"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.
Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave.
(http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/gore.home.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)
Granted he's throwing money around that most people don't have. But he IS leading the way. His hypocrisy was pointed out, now he's making a change. Who knows maybe his secret service detail will be using hybrid SUV's soon. My point is that a public critique of this guy's life in comparison to his advocacy will be a great thing for america because many of the people pointing fingers are guilty of the same things. So when gore now makes these changes, hopefully it will cause a lot of other public figures as well as average people to consider some of the changes he's making. Regardless of your stance on global warming, reducing our energy use in intelligent ways is a good thing for our country. Powerplants are expensive, oil dominates our foreign policy.
Lets conserve, it's the easy thing to do.
Steps I personally have taken so far:
The funky new lightbulbs in 90% of my sockets
Hurricane shield/tint over all but a couple unreachable windows, hope to reach those soon.
Funny story about the hurricane shield tint.. my g/f was sitting in the home-office using the computer when he heard a huge BANG from outside. Her first thought was some kind of explosion or car accident. She looked out the window and one of the panes was shattered (but still safely in place thanks to the tint). So her next thought was a neighborhood kid hitting a "home run". She went outside to congratulate the little steroid abuser and there was a duck on the ground with a hawk on top of finishing the deed. So I guess the hawk knocked the duck out of the sky straight into the window, or perhaps the duck was making a risky last-ditch attempt to escape through what appeared to be a little cave. Sure beats having a room full of glass with a Hawk vs Duck throwdown going on when you're trying to check your email. Who knows how she would've gotten them out of the house.
"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.
Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave.
(http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/gore.home.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)
Granted he's throwing money around that most people don't have. But he IS leading the way. His hypocrisy was pointed out, now he's making a change. Who knows maybe his secret service detail will be using hybrid SUV's soon. My point is that a public critique of this guy's life in comparison to his advocacy will be a great thing for america because many of the people pointing fingers are guilty of the same things. So when gore now makes these changes, hopefully it will cause a lot of other public figures as well as average people to consider some of the changes he's making. Regardless of your stance on global warming, reducing our energy use in intelligent ways is a good thing for our country. Powerplants are expensive, oil dominates our foreign policy.
Lets conserve, it's the easy thing to do.
Steps I personally have taken so far:
The funky new lightbulbs in 90% of my sockets
Hurricane shield/tint over all but a couple unreachable windows, hope to reach those soon.
Funny story about the hurricane shield tint.. my g/f was sitting in the home-office using the computer when he heard a huge BANG from outside. Her first thought was some kind of explosion or car accident. She looked out the window and one of the panes was shattered (but still safely in place thanks to the tint). So her next thought was a neighborhood kid hitting a "home run". She went outside to congratulate the little steroid abuser and there was a duck on the ground with a hawk on top of finishing the deed. So I guess the hawk knocked the duck out of the sky straight into the window, or perhaps the duck was making a risky last-ditch attempt to escape through what appeared to be a little cave. Sure beats having a room full of glass with a Hawk vs Duck throwdown going on when you're trying to check your email. Who knows how she would've gotten them out of the house.