Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis

RationalRespons...
Moderator
RationalResponseSquad's picture
Posts: 461
Joined: 2006-08-17
User is offlineOffline
Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis

With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways we can address climate change, from buying a hybrid car to inventing a hotter brand name for global warming. First, though, comes a hilarious set of stories from The New Gore, who turns out to be a stand-up comedian. The former Vice President has plenty of joke material, and he's funnier than you've ever seen him. Then he gets down to grittier matters with a list of actions ordinary people can take to stem the tide of global warming. His message: Doing something is easier than you think.


D-cubed
Rational VIP!
D-cubed's picture
Posts: 557
Joined: 2007-01-04
User is offlineOffline
This may have been an old

This may have been an old video since he mentioned something about after the movie comes out so any criticisms of his presentation may be out of date.  I was disappointed about the focus on carbon offsetting.  Going to the website and calculating the figures my result was 3.7 tons/year recommending I spend $48 in offsets.

The problem is the companies selling the carbon offsets are for-profit companies subsidizing other companies which may be for-profit.  Therefore there is a substantial percentage going into someone's pocket rather than programs reducing carbon output.

So I recommend that you take the money that would go to one of these programs and spend it on improved efficiency for your own home, or buy CFLs for someone who doesn't have them so the middleman is cut out and you can see direct results.  Or better yet, take the money and invest in green mutual funds like the Calvert fund.  Therefore you'll not only be supporting socially responsible companies but you can make a profit as well.

So far carbon offsets is a means for companies to whitewash their own pollution by claiming that they are carbon neutral when, in reality, they still pollute as much as they always have.  I really prefer hearing stories like McDonalds running it's fleet on biodiesel (sadly only in the UK) rather than Pepsi not making a change but claiming they are environmentally friendly simply because they gave a million dollars to a company which will skim off it's profit and give the rest to another company.