Another Inconvenient Truth

Forums: Politics
Email this Topic • Print this Page

This is hilarious!!!

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 661 • Replies: 5

No top replies

Interesting but I see some problems with it.

Since when is the ground 300 feet below the surface a balmy 67 degrees?

Quote:

Ground temperatures

At depths below four feet, ground temperature stays a constant 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.

Nowhere does it compare energy usage between the two. It uses the "actual" figures from Gore's estate but uses no figures for Bush's house. How much energy did Bush's ranch use last year? The figures for Gore includes his house, the guest house, the pool and anything else that uses energy. Do you really think there was no energy usage for all the people staying at the ranch with computers, phones etc needed to keep in touch with the WH 24 hours a day? Does the secret service really require no energy to spend time at the ranch?

0 Replies

parados,

it's been a decade or more since i studied geology, so my memory here's quite hazy, but i do remember that ground temperatures increase with depth. however, as to how much it rises at a depth of 300 feet, i haven't a clue. Embarrassed

baddog1,

it's commendable that the president has an energy efficient house. but in terms of man's effect on the climate, his house or Gore's house of itself doesn't make much difference. if Bush had been talking about his house & exhorting Americans to follow his example & conserve energy, that's one thing, but until recently, the administration didn't even acknowledge that global warming was occurring, so if his house is so environmentally sound, i can only assume it's mainly for non-ecological reasons, perhaps simply to reduce monthly bills.

0 Replies

yitwail wrote:

parados,

it's been a decade or more since i studied geology, so my memory here's quite hazy, but i do remember that ground temperatures increase with depth. however, as to how much it rises at a depth of 300 feet, i haven't a clue.

baddog1,

it's commendable that the president has an energy efficient house. but in terms of man's effect on the climate, his house or Gore's house of itself doesn't make much difference. if Bush had been talking about his house & exhorting Americans to follow his example & conserve energy, that's one thing, but until recently, the administration didn't even acknowledge that global warming was occurring, so if his house is so environmentally sound, i can only assume it's mainly for non-ecological reasons, perhaps simply to reduce monthly bills.

Not sure that either's "effect on the climate" was the real purpose or claim of the article. Nor was the purpose about Bush's reasons for building an environmentally-sound home. Interesting thoughts though.

I sill find the fact that Gore's house is environmentally unfriendly and all the hoopla over his docu-movie as a hilarious spin! Typical political glass-house syndrome! Very Happy

0 Replies

parados wrote:

Interesting but I see some problems with it.

Since when is the ground 300 feet below the surface a balmy 67 degrees?

Quote:
Ground temperatures

At depths below four feet, ground temperature stays a constant 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.

I'm not sure where you got that quote but it isn't entirely accurate. It would be an accurate statement for St. Louis or Portland, OR but the mean average earth temp varies by location. In Dallas it would be 71 degrees.

""At soil depths greater than 30 feet below the surface, the soil temperature is relatively constant, and corresponds roughly to the water temperature measured in groundwater wells 30 to 50 feet deep. This is referred to as the "mean earth temperature." Figure 2 shows the mean earth temperature contours across the United States. In Virginia, the mean earth temperature ranges from 52ºF in the northern Shenandoah Valley and Winchester area to 62ºF in coastal Tidewater."

http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/A1.htm

http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/US-ground-temps.gif

Nonetheless, the premise of the original poosting that started this thread is meaningless at best.

0 Replies

baddog1 wrote:

I sill find the fact that Gore's house is environmentally unfriendly and all the hoopla over his docu-movie as a hilarious spin! Typical political glass-house syndrome!

can't disagree with that, but it shouldn't detract from the movie's message--Gore didn't invent the data he cites, and if nothing else, he inspired the filmmakers to make the film.

0 Replies

Another Inconvenient Truth

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know