You know, this is getting fun! - Granite Grok

You know, this is getting fun!

Al Gore wants us all to make due with less energy (as opposed to what he does, see here).  Call it "wearing the hairshirt for us – McMansion with a huge energy and a Gulfstream to boot.

I thought it was a political ploy to 1) get back in the limelight, and 2) run as a Green.

Seems that there might be an ulterior motive at play – all those carbon offsets he says that he is buying?  Seems he is paying to a company….that he owns.  What a sweet deal – paying yourself in order to look good!

Yeah, a bit cynical…but if I was one of the hardcore environmentalists, I’d be a tad concerned.

Now, I have no problem with someone making a buck.  Heck, I have no problem with someone making a LOT of bucks –  a REAL lot of bucks.  But making it look like one thing to mask what seems to be a hidden motive?  Not so much.

NewsBusters is on it again:

Media Ignore Al Gore’s Financial Ties to Global Warming

As NewsBusters reported here, here, and here, there are huge dollars to be made from global warming alarmism. However, conceivably no one is better positioned to financially benefit from this scam than Dr. Global Warming himself, former Vice President Al Gore, a fact that the media will surely not share with Americans any time soon.

As reported by Dan Riehl (emphasis mine throughout):

Former Vice President Al Gore has built a Green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including himself, but he set it up so that the average Joe can’t afford to play on Gore’s terms. And the US portion is headed up by a former Gore staffer and fund raiser who previously ran afoul of both the FEC and the DOJ, before Janet Reno jumped in and shut down an investigation during the Clinton years.

[H]ow Gore buys his "carbon offsets," as revealed by The Tennessean raises serious questions. According to the newspaper’s report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management:

Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe…

Gore is chairman of the firm and, presumably, draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he "buys" his "carbon offsets" from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy "carbon offsets" through Generation Investment Management – he buys stocks.

Fascinating. So, as Dr. Global Warming travels the world in his private jet while spending 20 times the average American on energy for his home, all the time telling us its okay because he’s buying carbon offsets, he’s actually purchasing these investments from himself.

Furthermore, and maybe more important, Gore stands to benefit financially in a potentially huge way if more and more people buy into this junk science.

Riehl marvelously concluded:

If Al Gore is successful with this latest scheme, Gore and his cronies are going to be much more $green$ than most of the earth. And the only green in this for you and me is the kind that accompanies envy as Gore trucks around on private jets putting dollars to offset his extravagance into a cash machine generating profits on the backs of the middle class with misrepresented science that doesn’t deserve to be called science at all.

Meanwhile, a complacent media, rather than hounding Gore over his financial conflicts of interest, continue to shill for this conman’s junk science.

When you add it all up, this is a flimflam of epic proportions:

  • First, Gore sets up a company that will invest in other companies that will benefit from global warming alarmism
  • Second, Gore gets some Hollywood types to fund and produce a movie designed to scare the c-c-carbon out of the population
  • Third, Gore travels the world promoting this movie, while pushing the view that a cataclysm is imminent if the world doesn’t immediately act
  • Fourth, an adoring media falls for the con hook, line, and sinker. Rather than debunking the flaws in the theories, the media promote every word of it while advancing the concept that Gore’s views represent those of an overwhelming majority of scientists
  • Fifth, scared governments and citizens across the globe invest in alternative energy programs driving up the shares of companies Gore’s group has already invested in
  • Sixth, Gore and his cronies make billions as they laugh all the way to the bank at the stupidity of their fellow citizens

 

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