So today Al Gore won the 2007 nobel peace prize: "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

Now why cant we focus on this stuff instead of war and prohibition?

Definitely if we all used alternative clean renewable fuels then not only would the planet be "happier" but then instead of concentrating on war and the price of a barrel oil we could say fuck the middle east smoke a bowl and finally move on with life

My Biology Professor told us the other day that most of the ozone damage comes from methane emmited by CATTLE. instead of stop driving cars how about we just stop eating beef?

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Al Gore is an idiot.... he doesn't have a clue about *real* energy conservation, or *REAL* environmental conservation. Check into his personal energy usage some time.

But, even being an idiot (what i dont believe), he won the Nobel prize...
And the other (assuredly) idiot that was his rival is now the president of the u.s.a...

Yes... this world is doomed...

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"Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference." Don Juan Matus - Tales of Power

This world is totally doomed.

I agree emphatically.

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Prohibition goes beyond reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite through legislation. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles this country was founded upon.
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the energy he uses is CLEAN energy. If it's not coming from burned fossil fuels that emit bad gases who cares how much wattage he uses and how high his energy bill is? I hope his high usage is cuz of a grow op

Gore is truly a genius of our time. His early book "earth in the balance" is prophetic. he predicted in 1992 that people wouldn't take Global warming seriously for another 15 years. That's now and people are actually waking up; it's even becoming trendy. Check that book out sometime, and start with the chapter entitled: "Dysfunctional Civilization." Gore's been saying the same thing since the 60's. I would consider myself smart if I comprehended 1/10th of what he does.

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Don't smoke cannabis to relieve anger, but rather as a reward for working soberly through anger.

Life is too entertaining for higher powers not to be watching closely.

A rule really only needs to be followed by those who do not know why it is a rule.

maybe in Somalia, but in general that is a ridiculous.
Couple issues we need to deal with here. The first is your imperfect grasp of the threats to the earth's atmosphere. While it's true that gas of, biological origin may be a problem, the concern isn't the ozone layer (which is being damaged by chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs) but rather the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming.

Some newspaper reporters aren't quite getting it either in the Washington Post headlined "Feed, Animal Flatulence and Atmosphere." It described the work of one Donald Johnson, an animal-nutrition specialist at Colorado State University, who supposedly has been studying cow flatulence. According to the story, animal flatulence "contributes in a large way to the potentially catastrophic warming of the globe, the 'greenhouse effect.'" Each cow emits 200 to 400 quarts of methane gas per day, or 50 million metric tons per year.

Just one little problem. Cows don't emit 400 quarts of flatulence a day. According to Professor Johnson, they emit 400 quarts' worth of burps, known in polite circles as eructation. The Post, in other words, doesn't know one end of a cow from the other

Details aside, animal methane does present a definite threat to the biota. It's believed 18 percent of the greenhouse effect is caused by methane, putting it second on the list of offending gases behind carbon dioxide. Methane breaks down in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide, ozone, and water, all of which absorb heat. The temperature of the atmosphere rises.
There are several major sources of methane: rice paddies (methane-producing bacteria thrive in the underwater environment), swamps and wetlands, mining and oil drilling, landfills, termites (although there's still some controversy on this one), "biomass burning" (notably in the Amazon rain forest), and animals. Ninety percent of animal methane is produced by ruminants (i.e., cud-chewers). These include sheep, goats, camels, water buffalo, and so on, but most of all cattle, of which the world has an estimated 1.2 billion.

Ruminants eat hay and grass and stuff containing cellulose, which can be digested only by special microbes that live in the ruminants' guts. Unfortunately, about 6 or 7 percent of what they eat winds up as methane.

So it is simply untrue that cattle does more to harm the ozone which as stated anyways that is not the problem now the greenhouse effect is. The hole in the ozone scare was a 80's 90's thing, the green house effect is the new one.

Do you have any links to show he uses clean energy? I never heard anything about that when I was reading about his insane electrical bill. I still haven't seen his movie, but my bill is only $30 a month so I know I'm not causing a problem Now the truck at my work...that's another story...hehe

clean energy? his consumption comes straight from the nashville electrical service, how is it clean? i don't understand

he does buy "carbon offsets" or whatever to balance his "carbon footprint," this stuff is ridiculous, it's hypocritical

well albert can join the ranks of arafat and good 'ol jimmy carter, i think the prize has become somewhat of a joke.

being from TN and a democrat myself- I praise Al Gore and his effort to educate the public on a matter that ha been ignored for decades- congrats AL and Tipper

Amen, clovisman....

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i am all about finding alternatives to help this world, but its sad to say i think this world is to far in a hole. Honestly i will give us 200 years and i believe that world will end

I dont give even 30 years...
I hope to be wrong, but i fear to be right...
Sad but true...

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"Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference." Don Juan Matus - Tales of Power

But if he really believed what he preaches, why doesn't he live up to it and conserve energy himself? To me, he seems like another limousine liberal. It's easy to point out what is wrong with our world, but it takes a great person to live a life as to how they preach. I don't believe Gore is really living as he preaches. Unless, of course, he really is using clean energy to power his house, but so far nobody has provided links to back up that claim and I've never heard of that so until I read about how his power sucking house is using clean energy, I really don't care much for Gore personally. However, that's not to say I don't at least respect him for pushing the world to realize global warming.

Nashville Electric Service

This is a link that I found concerning the type of Gore's energy in TN.

While most power companies probably burn coal or whatever, many are using alternatives. I'm in seattle, and we don't burn coal for power. Our power comes from hydroelectric generators and windmills mostly. Many power companies are giving the option of cleaner energy, despite its higher cost. Guys like Gore can and do buy more expensive energy and then to outsiders like us it seems like the high electric bill makes him a hypocrit (sp?).

It all stems from the innate desire we all have to see global warming as a falsehood. If it's false, then the world is safe, if we can make gore look like a hypocrit, then we feel good that maybe he's wrong.

I hope this tendency will be curbed soon. If people just want to live out their days in oblivion, always finding something they can use to reinforce their comfortable ignorant security, they will. They'll always find some rationale to excuse themselves from feeling the burden of this scary reality. I'd rather participate in what is obviously a real cause. I'd feel too guilty about future generations if i did nothing.

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Don't smoke cannabis to relieve anger, but rather as a reward for working soberly through anger.

Life is too entertaining for higher powers not to be watching closely.

A rule really only needs to be followed by those who do not know why it is a rule.

PS no matter how hard someone like gore tries to be as complete a part of the solution as possible, there will be imperfections. There always will be until there is comprehensive, strategic change from the white house down to the grassroots. He tells in his early book "earth in the balance" how hypocritical he felt in going to a deliver a speech on the dangers of CFC's while blasting the a/c in his car on the way there. Our whole network of civilization has made it pretty hard to be an eco-friendly nonconformist. Until there is a radical overhaul penetrating all facets of energy consumption, please don't spend time finding fault in one of the prominent advocates. That's time you could spend figuring out how you will be part of the solution, small as it may be.

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Don't smoke cannabis to relieve anger, but rather as a reward for working soberly through anger.

Life is too entertaining for higher powers not to be watching closely.

A rule really only needs to be followed by those who do not know why it is a rule.

Very good point all of it but especially the bold

Prepping us to worship Gaia. Everything old becomes new again.....

So in otherwords, don't question authority. Don't find other possible motives behind "global warming." Did you know that Global Warming is not a scientific fact? Perhaps it's real, but then again, there is no proof of its existence... just very good rhetoric to persuade you into thinking it's real.

Personally I am not sure if it exists or not. It's questionable.

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I still have my questions as well but obviously any idiot knows that the amount of carbon we are releasing and the fact that we are dependent on non renewable energy that for one will be gone one day is in itself reason to adopt these practices.
Know what he is saying is don't waste time and energy finding faults in someone if you really need to question global warming then research the fact of global warming and build your case off facts and come back with a case for your viewpoint not the imperfections of a man who spends more time in one week trying to research, protect and educate the world on global warming because global warming or not fossil fuels will run out and they are one of if not the dirtiest forms of energy and I don't see how anyone claim that that is not damaging to our planet is beyond me espescially with problems like smog and acid rain at all time highs and the bigger society gets and the "smaller" we make the world through travel the worse it will get and now is the time to start so that future form of transportation will be cleaner and more efficient. Plus newer forms of fuels will be cheaper once introduce on a large scale.

But believe it or not you can't believe it isn't damaging to the planet for things to continue the way they are going.

I made my comments under the assumption that all involved in this thread have been sufficiently exposed to the evidence that supports humankind's influence on the status of the ecosystem. I for one have exhausted all natural explanations I can for GW besides that humans have caused it, and any other hypothesis other than human influence seems, to me, to stretch reason to a critical degree.

Of course it's questionable. It still is questionable to many scientists, especially since the ones who are convinced can't explain precisely what will occur as a result of g.w. It's far too complex and lurid to spell it out exactly. They were even surprised at the rate at which the ice caps are melting each season (ten times faster).

Sometimes the "authority" is the authority for good reason.

You can spend the rest of your days wondering about it, and never come to any reasonable conclusion. I believe a better approach is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. People insure their houses not knowing for sure if they'll need it, why don't we act that way about the earth?

This whole theory of global warming was given modest consideration and and scrutiny dating back to the 60's. I'd love it if we didn't perpetuate the inaction into our current "period of consequences." I can grow a tree out of my head and if you thought it was just an eccentric hairstyle, I couldn't do anything to change your mind.

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Don't smoke cannabis to relieve anger, but rather as a reward for working soberly through anger.

Life is too entertaining for higher powers not to be watching closely.

A rule really only needs to be followed by those who do not know why it is a rule.