This article by Walter Russell Mead on Al Gore’s habitual and stunning eco-hypocrisy is frustrating: finding just one part to excerpt is difficult, and I can’t reproduce the whole thing. But, a taste:
Al Gore’s lifestyle is a test case for the credibility of his gospel — and it fails. The tolerance of Al Gore’s lifestyle by the environmental leadership is a further test — and that test, too, the greens fail.
The average citizen is all too likely to conclude that if Mr. Gore can keep his lifestyle, the average American family can keep its SUV and incandescent bulbs. If Gore can take a charter flight, I don’t have to take the bus. If Gore can have many mansions, I can use the old fashioned kind of shower heads that actually clean and toilets that actually flush. Al Gore looks to the average American the way American greens look to poor people in the third world: hypocritically demanding that others accept permanently lower standards of living than those the activists propose for themselves.
Or, as Glenn Reynolds (H/T, by the way) likes to put it, “I’ll believe that this is a problem when the people me telling me that it’s a problem start acting like it’s a problem.” – Only, if you’re going to wait for that to happen then I suggest that you pack a lunch.
Moe Lane
That’s one of the most well-written essays I’ve read on the Web. It’s so spot-on in the assessment of Gore, the man who scalped a mountain, effectively removing acres of habitat for small and large game, impacting waterways and changing the ecosystem forever. It was private property so that’s his (and the developer’s) right. But as the essayist points out, Gore cannot win with a “Do as I say, not as I do” approach.
I didn’t know about that magazine, so thanks for posting this. best, KBD
Al Gore has made the environmental movement a complete failure. I was an environmentalist, but now see the movement completely taken over by the Malthusian’s who claim we are all going to die unless we completely eliminate capitalism and impose socialism on all aspects of society. This article by Mead is spot on. The environmental movement needs to rediscover its purpose and stop trying to change society to fit its global socialism goals.