How much energy should Al Gore and other rich people in his class consume?

Question

Many people who don't like Al Gore's message on global warming are criticizing his rich lifestyle, saying he's a hypocrite to be driving an SUV and heating and cooling a big mansion while preaching about the need for energy conservation.

Al Gore is only one person, though, and across the US and the world, there are thousands of very wealthy politicians, movie stars, sports celebrities and business executives who also drive big cars, own huge houses and fly around in airplanes a lot.

Assuming that Mr. Gore is even half right about global warming, how much energy should any of these people be consuming? Especially in a world where 2 billion people live on annual incomes of less than $800 per person, should the average millionaire use 100 times as much energy as the average human? 1000 times as much? 50 times? The same as everyone else?

Whether you love Al Gore or hate him, please share your opinion on this question, since it seems to be much in the news these days.

Answer 1

Al Gore is an ascetic.

A sage. A saint.

So the energy he "consumes" doesn't count the same as the energy you deniers consume.

Answer 2

Much as I have no respect for his global warming agenda, I'll answer your question the best I can while trying to be somewhat unbiased.

I've heard, but don't know as a fact, that Al Gore has installed some kind of solar energy system at his home.  If this is correct, he's entitled to everything that it produces.  Even if it's not, he still has the right to heat or cool his place as temperatures dictate like the rest of us.  When he travels, like every other VIP he's entitled to the security that can only be afforded by private transportation like a business jet.  Even though I'm in no way fond of the man I can fully understand why he wouldn't travel by airlines.  There are too many crazies out there just waiting for the opportunity to make a political/religious statement.

His fleet of vehicles is another issue...apparently while he was making a speech recently he left them running outside, complete with air conditioning.  A preacher who blatantly betrays his teachings, which is what happened, is probably not just a hypocrite but a fraud.  Just my opinion.

Answer 3

Gore does not believe in GW but he wants U to conserve energy for him.

Answer 4

You asked a question that is difficult to answer. What should a person use in terms of energy? How many kwh per day? How many gallons of water or gallons of gas? How many therms of natural gas or propane? Gallons of oil to heat?

I don't think you can put an actual number on this. It will depend on location and other variables.

I attached a link with some data that shows Americans use more energy than other developed nations. Also a method to determine your carbon footprint.

So we should all consume less even the rich.

But you got lots of replies from GW doubters. No evidence provided to support their moronic claims, especially the one where Gore uses 20% more energy now that he retrofitted his home to become more energy efficient.

I challenge you naysayers to supply some evidence to your claims.

Me I accept the scientific studies of NOAA, NASA and the EPA.

So I ignore the thumbs down and instead accept the real science.

Answer 5

As much as they want , they are free to do so .  

Answer 6

Global Warming is a complete lie. scam. etc. did you know by enforcing all these laws in california that supposedly prevent global warming only reduce the temperature by like 1/10 a degree? did you know over the last decade there hasnt even been a rise in temperature-if anything a decrease? Did you know that antartica melts like 1/2 of the continent every summer and freezes back again every winter? That the polar bears are doing just fine? GLOBAL WARMING ISNT HAPPENING!

Answer 7

As Richard Nixon once remarked, watch what we do, not what we say.  

In that light, I'm doing my best to follow the fine example set by Al Gore.  He lives big, travels big, and eats big.  The man is a walking volcano of CO2 effluence.  My goal in life is to be the positive environmentally impactful kind of guy that Al Gore is.  

Now where do submit my request for my own private jet and a 20,000 square foot mega mansion?

Answer 8

As much renewable and non-fossil energy as they want.

As little fossil fuel as they can.

Stopping global warming does NOT mean using less energy. It means using more better energy, and less worse energy.

Answer 9

Fact: since aglore has "modified" his own home to make it "earth friendly"

his energy usage as increased...20%, I think.

Gore is not right... not even half.

algore is a snake oil salesman from days of yore. He has made millions from this scheme and continues to dupe people today. The most telling aspect of his belief in this is that he won't debate with even another politician, let a lone an actual expert, he lets others take the hits for him.

Answer 10

Heh living in huts driving electric mopeds around and living in a third world country working for $1 a day...almost like how they would like to do us if they had the opportunity =o

Global warming is fake and a person should live life like how they please...

Answer 11

It seems like some people enjoy setting around complaining about the rich and famous.

While I am not an Al Gore fan, you do have to give him some credit for what he has accomplished in his life.

And for those that talk about his increase power usage at his home, they need to actually check their facts instead of going by someone else says, you see this all the time on here, one person makes a statement and others take it as fact and start repeating it.

Fact Al Gore Electric usage went up 11% after his renovations, however it was not known how much his usage of natural gas went down.

since he converted to an all electric house, and was still in the process of installing Geo-thermal for heating and cooling when that article was written.

also it does not say how much of his electric usage was a part of the construction.

I have to stop and wonder how many of those that are complaining about his lifestyle, would be doing the same thing if they could afford to.

Answer 12

Well...suffice it to say, if the wealthy want to truly influence other people, they should practice what they preach; it isn't so much how much they actually consume, but taking steps to conserve.  And you know, when a person is one of some celebrity like Gore-and particularly one who has held high political office and is as hated in some corners as he is-there are additional precautions that he can reasonably be expected to take.

For one thing, he isn't going to live in a split level house in some middle class subdivision.  That would be stupid and risky.  For another, he is going to have secret service and other people working for him in an entourage when he travels, and he is going to be required to travel a lot in his position, so he isn't going to be flying economy class with 100 other people at a time.  And when he takes ground transportation, he's going to need space to accomodate other passengers as well as various gear.

So he is going to use more energy all the way around, and to criticize him for having a larger home, flying a lot or traveling in a full sized vehicle doesn't make a whole ton of sense.  What does make sense is for him to consider the criticism he is receiving for his lifestyle and make more adjustments than he already has, especially if he took some conservation measures and his consumption actually INCREASED.  It's like...c'mon Al, DO something to conserve and don't just ramble on about your carbon offsets and so on.  I think he could maintain his credibility on consumption if he would cut his consumption by 20% in the next year.  Without knowing exactly what uses his house is put to-I mean, is he officed there and does he have office staff there, does he host dignataries and meetings?  It is hard to say if it is reasonable for him to use 20 times the energy of the average American household.  But it would be much better if he would cut it to 18 times in 2009, 15 times in 2010...he's always going to use more than average though.  I own and operate my own business in a separate building here on my home property and in total have 8,000 square feet in use; my electrical consumption is twice that of the average residential user here in my home state-but is that entirely unreasonable considering what I do and where I work? Most people would take that into consideration before they would judge me on electric bills only, I think it is fair to consider how Al Gore uses his property before judging him too harshly, too.

For the record, I neither love Al Gore nor hate him.  I probably fall a few degrees to the sympathetic side because he catches so much c**p for stuff like "I invented the internet" which he never said, and the fact that he won the popular vote in 2000 yet lost the judicial decision to Bush.  I don't think he would have done much better or worse than Bush, just different decisions both good and bad.