Excuse me, Mr. Gore...

Open Letter to Al Gore
July 20, 2008

Dear Mr. Gore:

Again, I find myself excited that you’re promoting dealing with Global Warming by merging thinking on foreign policy, pollution, human behavior and health but I wonder why you seem to insist upon not “walking your talk.”

Since the publication of “Earth in the Balance” in 1992, for example, why haven’t you insulated and otherwise “greened” your Tennessee home? That was, after all, 16 years ago. Even now, after “An Inconvenient Truth” and your Nobel Prize, you still insist upon appearing at your speeches in three gas-guzzling Lincoln Town Cars (as reported in the July 20, 2008 Washington Post).

If your entourage is so large – why? – that you need three cars, why not utilize one fuel cell or electric bus or, better yet, take mass transit?

You lost my vote in 2000, Mr. Gore, when you demanded President Clinton release the Strategic Oil Reserve – America’s sole success in our continual drive for energy independence – when gasoline prices spiked at $1.81 a gallon. I was again ready to support you if you’d have decided on a 2008 presidential run but then, sir, you didn’t mention personal automobiles in your Nobel acceptance speech. Certainly, you know, Mr. Gore, that America produces almost half of the world's automotive CO2 while having only 2.7 percent of the world's oil reserves and 4.5 percent of the planet's population. Certainly, you know that transportation emits the most greenhouse gas in the economy yet produces only 11 percent of GDP. Certainly, you know that industry and commerce have decreased their CO2 emissions relative to gross domestic product by 23 percent since 1990.

With your background, Mr. Gore, you must know that America's 250 million vehicles are our primary greenhouse problem.

Still with your alleged commitment to the environment, you drive a small convoy of gas guzzlers to get around? Why, Mr Gore, do you continue to give so much ammunition to those who don’t believe Global Warming and Peak Oil are real phenomena?

Salz