A (rather) Inconvenient truth

[Gingermick]

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 $2,400.00 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 pumps drawing 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 rural 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.

[Wongo]

Hmm very interesting.

In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR.

and an average American household consumes more energy then anyone else in the world.

[martrix]

Why am I not surprised by that Ginger.

Apparently Australia is the worst Greenhouse emission polluters per capita in the developed world!....according to some "report" that the SMH referred to.

[Wizened of Oz]

Might be interesting if it was true, Mick.
However it is from "a laundry list of outright lies" spread by GW deniers and ultra rightists.
See:
http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/2...reen-home.html

[Wongo]

Now we are getting somewhere.

[Gingermick]

Might be interesting if it was true, Mick.

This mob thinks so.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

The conscious earth link didn't seems to me to be saying any of this was false, just painting things in a Mike Moore like tone. Pointing out the facts that help your cause and ignoring any that don't.
It did say, however, that he was renovating his house to make it more efficient.

1. Gore pays a premium for green power options in his home,
2. that the environmentally friendly renos listed above had been in the works well before the time of their attack,
3. that the only reason solar panels were not installed already is because Gore has been knee deep in a municipal battle over bylaw restrictions, and most importantly
4. that the Gore "residence" is not only a home but also an office for both Al Gore, his wife and runs a commercial kitchen for events.

They sound to me like excuses

[joe greiner]

Probably both true. Also probably some selective truth-telling. So Dubya was on the bus earlier and didn't crow about it, and Al got on later. As they say, "There's no true believer like a recent convert."

Joe