Al Gore denies he is 'carbon billionaire'
As he publishes a new book, critics say climate change has made him rich
Al Gore, the former American vice-president, yesterday hit back at critics who are labelling him the first "carbon billionaire" from his earnings as an investor in green technology, dismissing them as "global-warming deniers".
Since leaving office in 2001, Mr Gore has become a powerful advocate of government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions. This week sees the launch of his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, a sequel to his earlier work, which was also a successful film, entitled An Inconvenient Truth.
As the Copenhagen talks on a new climate-change treaty approach and the US Congress grapples with draft laws to curb emissions, Mr Gore's profile will only swell further. But as it does, so does the chorus asking if his advocacy for action on climate change is about self-enrichment as much as saving the planet.
Some of his green investments were outlined yesterday by The New York Times. Mr Gore is a partner in the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, which has interests in companies developing alternative energy and energy-efficient technologies. He is also a co-founder of London-based Generation Investment Management, which has holdings in eco-energy companies.
He defended his business activities on ABC TV and denied he was on the way to becoming a carbon billionaire. "I am proud to have put my money where my mouth is for the past 30 years," he said. "And though that is not the majority of my business activities, I absolutely believe in investing in accordance with my beliefs and my values."
The new book reiterates the mantra that nothing will happen on climate change without political will. " We need to protect our national security, create more jobs, solve the climate crisis and do right by our kids," he said on ABC.
The book also explores numerous possible solutions to climate change, touching on such issues as forest management, geo-thermal energy and nuclear power generation, drawn from a series of "solutions summits" he held at his Tennessee home with experts.
It was almost inevitable that Mr Gore would become a target of those unconvinced by the alarm bells about global warming, particularly on the American right. "If you really want to save the planet, put down the cheeseburgers and pick up your veggie burger," Glenn Beck, the conservative TV anchor, quipped recently, apparently referring to the dangers of methane emissions from the bovine species.
While the former presidential candidate is not a lobbyist in the traditional sense, he is a frequent visitor to Capitol Hill where he continues to press members of Congress to pass legislation to curb emissions. In April, he was famously put on the spot about his business interests in the industry by the Republican Marsha Blackburn.
Mr Gore, who earns in excess of $100,000 (£60,000) for speaking engagements reacted testily to the implication in her question about a possible conflict of interest. "Congresswoman, if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed," he said, "you don't know me".
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Comments
Steve Forbes must also be in on this conspiracy for never once mentioning Al Gore in his annual richest people in the world announcement. If he's involved, I wonder just how deep it goes. Run for your lives everybody!!!
For decades, opponents of environmental regulation have argued that green energy and environmentally friendly lifestyles were not profitable, so somebody went out and made it profitable, and now you complain that people are making money off being more environmentally responsible.
What a world.
And if you can cite just one source that questions the science of anthropogenic global warming, that wasn't funded by the oil industry or any other big polluters, I would be happy to consider it. But until such research exists...
Ferenc Miskolczi is one source who comes to mind. He used to work for NASA (arch advocates of AGW), but had to publish his research independently when they refused to because it challenged their 'consensus' position. He is not in the pay of Big Oil or anyone else. He is an independent academic - as are many of the skeptics of AGW.
And I still have yet to see anyone provide even a shred of evidence to corroborate the topic of this article, that Al Gore is a billionaire.
Then you clearly don't know the first thing about Miskolczi or his work, and you should keep your stupid, ignorant opinions to yourself.
Branding people who disagree "global-warming deniers", implying they are equivalent to Holocaust deniers, is a shabby move. There are certainly doubts about global warming; if doubters are simply shouted down as "deniers", rather than having their concerns addressed, then those doubts will continue to grow.
Ah, savor the irony.
Al Gore is a fruit cake! He is not even a scientist, not even a geologist!!!! My dad was a geologist and he would be having a field day about now with ole Al Gore. This global warming bull Sh!! is identical to our big government takeover of healthcare. Obama, all of his lobby and lawyer buddies, his Czars, Queen Pelosi, Prince Rahm, Axelwierd, etc....wrote this stupid HC bill and none of them know one dang thing about medicine - absolutely NOOOO medical experience!!! Jeeeez. We gotta get these old hippies out of the WH.
Gillingham, Al Gore went around telling America he was the one that invented the computer! Are you from MN? This may explain your very liberal beliefs. HaHa! This would also make us cousins and we certainly are not like minded. Yes, many of my WI, MN and IA people left the republican party for the democrat party. Mainly because of farmer subsidies. I love my liberal yankees, but man are they painfully misguided.
I know which type of investment I prefer.
Sustainability is a laudable goal whether you 'believe' in the climate change scenario or not. Why? Well fossil fuels are going to get more scarce and more expensive and supplies will become more unreliable. Simples! Ask that nice Mr Putin. Sustainable energy on the other hand does not deplete finite resources - otherwise it could not be called sustainable - and some technologies (like wind or tidal) don't need any fuel to run. Sounds good. Bio-mass and Bio-fuels can also be sustainable though their use needs to be balanced against other needs such as food crop production.
Whether current use of fossil-fuel induces catastrophic climate change or not, this old-fashioned economy results in the pollution of the atmosphere with CO2. Where else, other than in the minds of rabid climate change sceptics, could the idea remain that pollution is OK?
I do continue to like "global-warming deniers" - it conflates pre-supposing facts in a debate with the emotional baggage of the Holocaust. A tactic Limbaugh, Beck and Hanratty would be proud of, had they thought of it.
He wants us peons to cut our energy use, but yet he can't seem to figure out how to reduce his personal home electric bill below $18,000 a year (enough to light a fair sized town all pouring into his personal home), or find his way to the airline ticket counter, so he keeps taking his private jet in his daily travels (spewing more carbon into the atmosphere each trip than the average person does in a lifetime).
Was it Algore that once said: "If the peons have no bread, let them eat cake like I do."
~
Rather than compare his to your own monthly power bill, you might try seeing where he ranks with other former vice-presidents on monthly consumption.
Personally I don't think environmentalists should be leaping to Gore's defence, except to counter the more non-sequitur man-not-the-ball attacks. The fact is that a millionaire lifestyle can never be sustainable, and I think given his standing Gore's wealth is a real problem for the environmental movement. People will, not without reason, balk at having their £5 flights to Barcelona taken away while businessmen fly to Beijing on company expenses and celebrities jet to the Caribbean. I'm not convinced people like Gore understand this and more importantly, neither are the people still on the fence about whether preventing climate change is worth the sacrifice.
Climate Change fraud will ultimately make Sub-prime mortgages look like a raid on a child's piggy bank.
It would seem the laugh is on those who believe Al Gore is going to save the planet. As I said Climate Change fraud, of which Cap & Trade is part of, will ultimately make Sub-prime mortgages look like a raid on a child's piggy bank.
Bush, like other ex-presidents before him, was reportedly paid at least $100,000 to appear at the motivation seminar. He will headline another in San Antonio.
It was a rousing, upbeat celebration of positive thinking and conspicuous success. Speakers were introduced with peppy music, confetti drops and bursts of pyrotechnics exploding from each corner of the stage (but not for Bush – Secret Service orders).
Bush is reportedly receiving $150,000 for other speeches, which doesn’t include the private jet he sometimes receives.
I would much rather hear Al Gore say something sensible about global warning that listen to "Dubya" prattle on about carpets.
A few weeks ago, Al Gore was in Madison, Wisconsin for a speaking engagement. A fellow from the UK, [think he was a writer], stood up and cornered Al Gore about some false data Al was spinning concerning polar bears verses global warming. What happened next? Al Gore's security guard turned off your UK fellow's microphone. Wish I could remember his name. UK fellow was on Fox a couple nights later talking about the incident.
Apparently, if the number of polar bears are low this means global warming is a huge threat. Well UK told Gore, according to objective statistics and reearch, polar bear population was way up. Click! Off went the microphone.
Beck on Fox had PETA on the other night. The lady rep also proved Al Gore wrong about some of his claims concerning [animal and carbons], environment and global warming issues.
Can't believe anyone would invite Gore to speak. If Al Gore did not have Global warming he would not be a billionaire. If this worthless bill passes guess who profits? Guess who suffers?
Al Gore is sooo painful. Too bad you guys don't have a spot for him somewhere in the UK.
the temps on the planet are getting cooler again due to the sun's surface activity calming somewhat. but hey, weve been telling everyone its getting hotter and hotter. what do we do? HEEEEEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!
you know what al? we tell them its called climate change. thats it. climate change. and its all their fault with their light bulbs, cars and protein diets. it has nothing to do with corporations. nothing to do with big business and their pollutive practises. nothing to do with their practises in agriculture either. its their fault. the sheeple. and you know what we do al? we tax the bastards with it. we break them down once and for all.
wake up you clowns.
What could people possibly have to gain from denying climate change? How about corporations justifying their most polluting excesses, oil companies protecting their biggest profits, so many puppet committees getting payoffs from said big business in order to deny what nearly all scientists agree is a real and credible threat to our planet and therefore to ecosystems and countries and people.
What do people possibly have to gain from spreading awareness of climate change
? It's not going to win Al Gore the presidency. There is that small matter of trying to maintain our planet in a healthy state. But I guess altruism just doesn't ring true to some people.
I don't mind being preached to by people who know their stuff, like the vast majority of scientists and global warming experts (and Al Gore, bringing together their knowledge for a variety of audiences). We can all do a bit better, without bringing down the world economy or whatever it is else that deniers fear. There is absolutely no harm, and a lot of urgency, in trying to live a greener life - doing what little we can, bit-by-bit - and encouraging our governments to promote this too.