Rig of the Week: Al Gore's setup

Attacking Gore just because he's the champion of taxing everyone who uses carbon (see his last congressional testimony) and has made it his mission to use facts to make dubious claims is completely unfair. Think about all the trees he sacrificed just to publish his last book! Now that's devotion to a cause. And those three 30" monitors and accessories all running on his palatial Southern estate is just the tip of a quickly melting iceberg.

He owns a 20-room mansion (PLUS 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Plus a pool (and pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE month alone, his mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in ONE year. Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006 (home of the 30" monitors). In natural gas alone (a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. In electricity, he averaged 22,619 kWh a month--20 times the national average. To be fair, the estate is also his home office for him and Tipper (see aforementioned Time picture).

On the plus side, they do use compact fluorescent bulbs. They also purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero (the greatest ponzi scheme in the history of humankind). So the message here is that if you are rich, wasteful, and know your way around PowerPoint, you can buy your way out of anything. And he expects us to do the same thing.

Hey, we live in a Capitalist society. We all have the right to spend our money on whatever we choose. We all have the right to consume. If the former VP wants to spend his dough on big=ass monitors and use up power and paper, that's his right. We don't live in North Korea or Cuba.

Josh. The box looks like an older ipod box, or possibly even a final cut studio box.

I think its interesting that Al Gore is watching _current tv. (http://currenttv.com/make/training)

To the haters:
A) Paper use is a fact of life... just because hes an enviromentalist doesnt mean hes not going to use toilet paper to wipe his ass. Especialy as a former vice president things have to be done a certain way in politics and when dealing with binding documents. The fact that he has so much paper doesnt mean that he simply discards it and throws it to the wind off of a sky scraper in new york on newyears ither. Given Al's position on enviromentalisim one can come to an informed conclusion that he recycles most or all of that stuff once hes done with it. Besides what would be preferable... increasing his carbon footprint by spending more time consuming energy to power things like OCR scanners, and more computer screens?
B) Being a public figure he needs to get around and that means airplanes... this isnt the 19th century noone in this time and age can be expected to do as much as Al Gore and ride around in cars... or even as some may expect from Al, a horse and buggy. Mabey he could grow wings... but even then he'd need a jetpack to get around in a timely manner.
C) I dont know where all the hate is comming from because he uses 3 displays. I can only presume it stems from jealousy. Given that apple has stated its position on toxcitiy in its products (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/) it makes sense that he is using the apple cinema display. I am not Al Gore (obviously) but i commonly find that one monitor isnt enough for me to keep all my information at hand and topical. For Al gore to have that problem is realistically expected given his position. Some people (ie creative professionals and scientists) need additiona display space (http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/hiperwall/)

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He needs more desk space, that doesn't look very comfortable and a bit more storage space for all that stuff too.

Pasted above one of the monitors is a printout of the very excellent Novamind Mind Map software-- I'm impressed he uses this, to me it shows that he's a geniune Mac user- its not just for show.

There are some comments about using "clean" energy - which is a good idea, but using clean energy is not an excuse to waste it because there are environmental costs to all forms of energy. The point is to use the cleanest form of energy and conserve energy as much as possible.

To all you naysayers: BACK OFF! We're in a time of WAR and that's our PRESIDENT you're badmouthing!

If 911 taught us anything, it's that criticism is unAmerican!

Hypocrisy, however, is all too American. That said, I'd much rather have a leader who crusades for something good and fails to practice what he preaches than a man who crusades to defend America but does so with lies and no care for those his actions kill.

Just my 2,000 yen, of course.

I am with Karim, funny comments. Al is a hypocrite and a slob but at least he knows a good computer. BTW The KWH usage by Al, as reported, was the amount he pulled from the utility company. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

@15

Edsel, would you please cite your source for that number? Even if this were true, Al Gore could accomplish so much more with that amount of energy than say, you, with the same amount.

I can tell you where you can find a frog like the one hanging in Al Gore's office. I'm the Sculptor who made it and sold it to Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Gore a few years ago in Naples Fl. for Al's Birthday. My Name is Scott Causey and my website is ( www.scott.causey.com ) I had heard from Al's friends that my frog had a prominent spot in Al's Nashville home office. Until seeing the photo by Steve Pyke for Time magazine I could hardly believe it was true.