[Terrapreta] A reward system foreliminatingand/oroffsettingfossil carbon usage

[MFH]

Greg

 

I just have a great dislike of double standards. And I'm certainly not a fan
of George W, but the following is interesting:

 


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."


Origins:   This e-mail comparison between the homes of President George W.
Bush and former vice-president Al Gore began circulating on the Internet in
March 2007 (shortly after the latter's film on the global warming issue, An
Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award as Best Documentary). Short and
sweet, there's a fair bit of truth to the e-mail: Al Gore's Nashville
mansion is something of the energy-gobbler the e-mail depicts, while
President Bush's Crawford ranch is more the model of responsible resource
use the juxtaposition portrays it to 


 

be. 



According to the Associated Press, the Gore's 10,000 square foot Belle Meade
residence consumes electricity at a rate of about 12 times the average for a
typical house in Nashville (191,000 kwh versus 15,600 kwh). While there are
mitigating factors (further discussed in our article about the Gore
household's  <http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp> energy
use), this is still a surprising number, given that the residence is
approximately four times the size of the average new American home. 

The Prairie Chapel Ranch ranch home owned by George W. Bush in Crawford,
Texas, was designed by Austin architect David Heymann, an associate dean for
undergraduate programs at the University of Texas School of Architecture. As
the Chicago Tribune described the house in a 2001 article:

 

The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude. 

Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through
pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant
67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the
summer. Systems such as the one in this "eco-friendly" dwelling use about
25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.


A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof
runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground
purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the
cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom
home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure
into the surrounding ecosystem.

Other news articles published in 2001-02 provided expanded descriptions of
the ranch house:

"By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small," says David
Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. 

Constructed from a local limestone, the house has eight rooms in a long,
narrow design to take advantage of views and breezes. A porch Bush ranch
housestretches across the back and both ends of the house, widening at one
end into a covered patio off the living room. 

The tin roof of the house extends beyond the porch. When it rains, it's
possible to sit on the patio and watch the water pour down without getting
wet. Under a gravel border around the house, a concrete gutter channels the
water into a 25,000-gallon cistern for irrigation. In hot weather, a terrace
directly above the cistern is a little cooler than the surrounding area. 

Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks
underground - one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which is
so-called "gray water," and one tank for "black water" from the kitchen sink
and toilets. The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the
rainwater. It is used to irrigate flower gardens, newly planted trees and a
larger flower and herb garden behind the two-bedroom guesthouse. Water for
the house comes from a well. 

The Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses
about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and air-conditioning
systems consume. Several holes were drilled 300 feet deep, where the
temperature is a constant 67 degrees. Pipes connected to a heat pump inside
the house circulate water into the ground, then back up and through the
house, heating it in winter and cooling it in summer. The water for the
outdoor pool is heated with the same system, which proved so efficient that
initial plans to install solar energy panels were cancelled. 

The features are environment-friendly, but the reason for them was practical
- to save money and to save water, which is scarce in this dry, hot part of
Texas.

(NOTE: The floor plans shown at the web site westernwhitehouse.org
<http://www.westernwhitehouse.org/>  are not accurate reproductions of the
size and layout Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch house. They are elements of a
parody.) 




 

 

  _____  

From: Greg and April [mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, 15 April 2008 2:36 PM
To: MFH; 'Sean K. Barry'; 'Ron Larson'
Cc: 'Terra Preta'
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] A reward system
foreliminatingand/oroffsettingfossil carbon usage

 

Max, 

 

You indeed, put it much better than I did - and with allot more clear
thinking too.    Trying to reconcile Gore's words to his actions always has
been a hard bone for me to swallow.

 

Greg H.

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: MFH <mailto:mfh01 at bigpond.net.au>  

To: 'Sean K. Barry' <mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>  ; 'Ron
<mailto:rongretlarson at comcast.net>  Larson' ; 'Greg and April'
<mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net>  

Cc: 'Terra Preta' <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>  

Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 19:07

Subject: RE: [Terrapreta] A reward system
foreliminatingand/oroffsettingfossil carbon usage

 

Sean

 

Various reports indicate that:

 

a) Gore's family home is 10,000 sq.ft

b) Electricity use in 2006 was 191,000 KWh

c) He owns 2 additional homes

 

191,000 KWh is 523 KWh/day. Even for a 10,000 sq ft home I doubt if the roof
area would be large enough to be able to install the required PV panels to
generate this. Irrespective, even if all his power was produced from PV
panels, 523 KWh/day is verging on the obscene.

 

In addition what about his fossil fuel use in vehicles and aircraft. And
perhaps his water use, and his waste disposal. Maybe he has on-site
treatment plants for his sewage waste, and worm farms for his organic
household waste but I've never heard that.

 

I live comfortably and without any draconian restrictions on an average of 8
KW of electricity/day, and less than 80 litres of water. I really don't know
enough about Al Gore's lifestyle to label him a hypocrite, but I'd like to
see more evidence that he's acting according to what he's preaching.

 

Max H

 

 

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