Monday, March 31, 2008

Happy Birthday, Mr President

Happy 60th birthday to Al Gore!

7 comments:

Mauigirl said...

If only he were the president...

Sue J said...

*big sigh*

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

As much as I respect the former vice-president and think that he would have clearly been a better president than Bush, I do have this certain issue with the fellow. In all the speeches I've heard Mr. Gore make on the environment, I've never heard him mention the highly negative consequences of factory-farming/the livestock industry. According to the U.N. agricultural report, this particular segment of our economy emits 18% of all greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide), second only to power plants (21%) and more than all forms of transport combined (13.5%). It would have been nice if he the chutzpah to call this industry out and tell the American people that one of the best things THEY as individuals could do to fight global-warming would be to cut back on the ribs and burgers a tad. I don't know, maybe I'm being too picky here but this is a very important issue to me.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

All good. Now, if we could only get Al Gore to show some real spine and at least occasionally mention the negative consequences of the livestock industry. And give up some ribs himself, for Christ!

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Sorry, that last posting was supposed to land elsewhere. Overkill, huh?

Sue J said...

Well, it does bear repeating!

I actually agree with you on that, Will TNP Hart. Here in Maryland, we have an extremely serious situation with a powerful poultry industry that is destroying the Chesapeake Bay with runoff from their farms. And it receives very little attention from the media, or the public.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I've heard that the pig-industry in North Carolina is pretty grody, too. I mean, you can't even roll your car windows down, I've heard. As to why politicians don't talk about it, I think it has to do with the fact that it forces us to look at tough medicine and possbly make some uncomfortable sacrifices. Politicians, when they do that (Walter Mondale, Paul Tsongas), have a tendency to lose....and so they don't do it. Thanks for listening.