Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
Earth in the Balance, like other Gore output, is a popularization based on his reading and discussion with climate scientists. It was never subject to peer review and does contain a few inaccuracies. Gore can be credited, however, with delivering an important "wake up" message to many people. I have some friends who are/were neighbors of his ( the guy used to run a chemical plant for Ethyl Corp.) - they are elderly and staunch Republicans BTW. They say he is a very sincere man.
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Really? That might be the story in Orygun. Here's the Tennessee take on it.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17728
Indeed, 24 years ago in his first run for Congress, Gore won an overwhelming 94 percent of the vote. His dominance was such that he ran unopposed for his next two House terms. And when he ran for his second term in the Senate a decade ago, Gore became the first statewide candidate in Tennessee's history to take all 95 counties.
So why did Gore lose Tennessee on Nov. 7 -- the first time a presidential candidate has failed to win his own state since George McGovern lost his native South Dakota in 1972?
Valentine initially broke a story on Gore's ties to alleged criminal figures in Wilson County, Tenn., next door to Gore's home county. Shortly after that, WorldNetDaily ran a series of investigative reports detailing Gore's involvement in and interference with criminal investigations linked to his uncle, retired judge Whit LaFon and top campaign fundraisers like Clark Jones, of Savannah, Tenn. According to Valentine, it was stories like those that spelled Gore's defeat.
Or maybe it's this:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=4304
Although Al Gore frequently hammers George W. Bush about Houston's air pollution being the worst in the nation, Gore neglects to mention that in a recent study the Environmental Protection Agency found Tennessee's water pollution to be the second-worst in the nation. And Gore especially avoids mentioning that he is directly responsible for some of that water pollution.
In fact, starkly contrasting with his passionate speeches or warnings in his best-selling book, "Earth in the Balance," about ozone depletion and other urgent environmental topics, Gore has a long-standing reputation for polluting the environment in Tennessee.
Gore's environmental depredations began in 1973 after he bought a farm near Carthage, Tenn., loaded with zinc from his father, Albert Gore Sr., who had acquired it from Armand Hammer, an oil tycoon, art forger, stock swindler and longtime friend of several Soviet dictators. Gore Sr. had been on Hammer's payroll from 1950 to 1970 while the elder Gore was also a senator from Tennessee. After his defeat in 1970, he became senior vice president of Hammer's Occidental Petroleum Co., and headed its subsidiary, Island Creek Coal Co.
Al Gore Jr. leased the mineral rights back to an Occidental-affiliated company at $20,000 a year, which was much higher than the going rate. Gore now owns about $1.1 million in land near Carthage.
Over the years, toxic waste products ended up in a "tailings pond," from which water flows into the adjacent Caney Fork River, of which Gore frequently waxes eloquently about its pristine waters, and then subsequently into the larger Cumberland River. Recent tests revealed that zinc levels in the pond exceed EPA and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation mandated levels. Last May, state officials issued a notice of violation, ordering Pasminco Zinc Co., which currently operates Gore's zinc concessions, to clean up the mess. To date, Pasminco Zinc Co. has not cleaned up the reported violation and the state has taken no further action to pursue the matter.
In 1996, during the same time Gore was running for reelection as vice president, claiming to be an environmentalist, the zinc mining operation on his property twice failed tests designed to protect water quality in the Caney Fork. The Wall Street Journal recently commissioned two independent laboratories to test the water in the Caney Fork, both of which concluded there were large quantities of barium, iron and zinc in the water, as well as smaller quantities of arsenic, chromium and lead.
Brian McGuire, executive director of Tennessee Citizens Action, an environmental group, told The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, "Clearly, when you spread those types of chemicals around on a farm or on the land, you're going to get a lot of runoff. So it's going to get into the water. We're poisoning ourselves."
Tennessee residents say Gore becomes testy when they attempted to question him about this pollution.
"He (Gore) gets real angry," Tom Gniewek, a retired chemical engineer from Camden, Tenn., told The Wall Street Journal. "Instead of answering the question, he attacked my motives and accused people like me of vandalizing the earth."
We can argue about the carbon footprint foolishness, but would anybody like to uphold for Al putting lead and chromium into the water?