Hypocrisy

Apparently there has been an e-mail circulating and some media buzz generating about former U.S. Vice Presidents apparent hypocrisy in energy consumption. In regards to the circulated e-mail- having had a computer for well over 10 years, I have inherited a fair amount of skepticism about anything an e-mail says. If I believed everything I have read over the years I could have saved a little girls life by simply passing an e-mail on to 10 people, helped the Nigerian government legally filter money into Canada and Bill Gates, in celebration of the recent merger with AOL (which any idiot could have found out never happened), will give me $24 for every time I forward his E-mail. Not to mention there is also information that the U.S. government purposely attacked themselves in the 911 attacks- and the third building was collapsed because of an insurance policy. Those were some of my favorite e-mails over the years.
Now, media companies are more exposed to legal attacks if they spread mis-information, so I do put more weight on things that appear on TV ( I don't know about North American tv- but the wife had heard something over here).
The truth is that I don't really care if he is a hypocrite. I think that a lot of people end up appearing to be one at one time or another- the truth is that the changes he is asking of us aren't easy to undertake. What he is doing is spreading awareness to people who probably haven't thought too much about the situation which, in my books, is commendable.
This website analyses the e-mail that is circulating and offers an un-biased assessment. Turns out he is a bit of an energy consumer- but he is offsetting his energy usage...
It is an interesting solution actually. People are really set and riveted into their daily routines and it is tough to break some of them, or people don't want to sacrifice comfort of life to improve their potential length of life. I am interested in this problem, but I am definitely guilty of over consuming at times. So spending money on the right industries or physically doing something yourself creates a good balancing point, and is a good start. I think the problem right now too, though, is that these carbon offsetting companies need to be closely monitored to ensure that they are delivering what they promise. The sad truth is that for every good cause and good idea there are bad people trying to capitalize on these situation.