Happy Earth Day

Seriously. Happy Earth Day. It used to be called Arbor Day and you'd go out and plant a tree and get all naturey. Earth Day came into vogue in 1970 and has become a day to recognize that governments and evil industrial tycoons are trying to rape the earth for their own gains. All right, that may be a bit of an overstatement.

Interestingly enough though, I came across this interview with Al Gore in the The Sun. Strangely the interview was conducted by the Consumer Affairs Correspondent, which seems to be either an insult to Mr Gore, a sign that his star power is fading, or Consumer Affairs doesn't mean the same thing in the UK as it does here. Based on the fluffiness of the interview though I don't think option 3 is the one. But that's not why the interview was interesting.

First is his acknowledgment that the regular everyday population have much bigger things to worry about. Sure they're concerned about the environment, but they have other concerns that take higher priority like food, shelter, safety, et al. Apparently Uncle Al has run nose first into the wall marked Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Of course, he throws out more scare tactics (the polar ice caps will be gone in 5 years - then where will you get ice for your scotch???) and blames the US for not taking the lead in destroying economies to potentially save the earth...uh, if we're right.

Next he shucks and jives at questions about his Hollywood jet-setting friends being really bad at the whole carbon footprint thing. Which of course he wouldn't go out on the limb and say they should cut that crap out - they are, after all rich and can he really likes being a Hollywood guy.

In contrast, he sluffs off the only real hard question in the interview. That question is related to the fact that with the credit crises and economic woes that the average person is more interested in saving their own financial butt. To which he says that we should still spend extra money being green because it's a long term investment that will pay off over time.

So it's ok for his hollywood friends to take private jets all over the world, live in big mansions with huge energy needs and a giant carbon footprint - but we peons should sacrifice to save the planet?

He then moves on to the Blame America First mantra with this line:

" The US has failed to live up to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions."

So I went out to Wikipedia and checked out what they had on the Kyoto Protocol. It's interesting. I will paraphrase.......

In July 1997, before it was finalized, the US Senate voted NOT to be a signatory without additional stipulations such as including provisions for developing and already industrialized nations. (In fact, China is not obligated to reduce or maintain any kind of Co2 levels, they just have to report on what they're tossing into the sky. And being such an open society I can't imagine they'd fudge the numbers a bit. China is about to pass the US as the largest carbon emitter in the world.)

So, the US Senate said not to sign it. And Al Gore (then VP) signed it anyway. Mr Gore at the time said the US should not ratify it until such time as those conditions set forth by the Senate were included. From what I've read, those provisions still haven't been met.

The Clinton Administration (of which Al was second in command) never submitted the protocol to the Senate to be ratified. His own administration did nothing with it.

The Bush Administration is of the same opinion as the Clinton Admin and has not (will not) submit to the protocol.

But Big Al has no problem blaming Mr Bush.

In fact, Mr Gore believes that bigger and more government is what is needed to force society to go green. Yes, thats what we need. Because Government has a long history of solving problems successfully.

I'm just happy he didn't win in 2000.

So, Happy Earth Day/Arbor Day. Enjoy the bounty that is Mother Earth and don't let the politicians ruin your fun.