For us tree-huggers who have had some financial success out there, take heed of the latest news that Al Gore’s energy consumption at his large Tennessee home INCREASED in 2007 over 2006, in spite of all the bad press he had earlier received about the very large carbon imprint he and his family were making. It just doesn’t look good. This is a slippery slope for people(like me)who care deeply about the environment and think that Bush and Rush are complete idiots when it comes to their understanding and appreciation of ecology and the impact we are making on Earth, but at the same time own a big house and drive cars that aren’t hybrids. And who had been employed by a company that had to chop down a lot of trees to build new stores, or more recently, who made investments in a real estate company that leveled desert landscape to build commercial retail buildings and parking lots. I may make some charitable contributions to conservation causes, but the conflict still remains. Admittedly, it’s not easy to reconcile. (July 20, 2008 Update: Just watched Al on Meet The Press and Tom Brokaw challenged him on all of this, and he had a spirited defense, with a lot of numbers to back up his claim that he and Tipper were “walking the talk”, so who knows…..)