IPW

The Pipe Man Cometh

Hey all, not too much to report today other than I saw this man standing on E. 26th street between 6th and Broadway today. He was quite a character, and yes his apron was purple.

Other than that I will save my rant about CNN's coverage of Al Gore's personal energy consumption (presented under the headline "Developing Story") until later. Well, maybe I will just rant a little right now. Basically they did a little snoopin' after Gore's big Oscar night and if turns out that his house uses a lot of electricity and gas. O! Can it be? The Environmental Hero is a hypocrite? For shame, let's all rest easy and go back to chugging around in SUVs cause Al Gore doesn't live in a tree-hut using squirrel powered generators to charge his electric bicycle. I'm not sure Gore ever used himself as an example of virtue when citing America's energy consumption numbers (5% of the world's population, 26% of its energy usage) He just said America uses a lot, and he is an American. Declaring environmentalists hypocrites is the easiest and oldest way for anti-environement people to assuage their guilt. It is too difficult to be 100% green, and therefore we should do nothing at all, in fact we should buy bigger cars with lower gas mileage cause what's the point anyway? The fact is that if everyone did a 10th of what Gore has done for the environment we wouldn't be looking at oceanfront properties in Kansas in ten years. Is he perfect? The answer isn't no, the answer is why should he be? If he thinks he's working towards the most energy efficient lifestyle for him, then I applaud him and wish people would start doing the same. If everyone changed their lifestyles even a bit, switched the whole house to florescent bulbs for instance, America might actually have a leg to stand on when we start lecturing India and China about faulty environmental practices. Anyway, thanks CNN for getting me worked up, but wait, doesn't the media have a liberal bias?

Oh and I might add that the Christian Right, who for some reason* tend to fall into the anti-environment category, might want to review their hypocrite policy lest they exclude 99% of their number from their church.

*Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Posted by ian at February 27, 2007 11:59 AM