Sunday, June 3, 2007

Global Warming, Al Gore and Eleanor Clift

Watching the Mclaughlin Group this morning I realized I like Eleanor Clift more when she's relaxed. (Saaay. What happened to Tony?)
When she's strident it's hard to stay focused on what she's saying.

Today she got off a couple good lines. Regarding a possible Bloomberg entry into the presidential race she said:
"...A billion dollars would make a difference"

Commenting on the Democrats she mentioned "Al Gore hovering over the field"

This is a vision I've had (and where I tie the post thus far to Climate Change) for a month or more.

It first came to me when I realized the EIA would be reporting later this month that the United States emitted almost exactly 6000 million metric tonnes of CO2 in 2006, which is handily divisible by the 300 million population.

That economy-wide 20 tonnes per person figure is, of course, not anyone's individual CO2 footprint (Quick. Compute the carbon mass. How many grams of carbon in one mole of CO2? You, smartass, you in the back: forget about the isotopes. If you're too precise, you're precisely wrong. The answer is_____.).
Because 20 tonnes of CO2 is as foreign to most people as an octonion (not eight onions), I tried to put it in terms normal people could visualize.

Then I saw this picture of Grammy nominated presenter, Webby and Oscar winner, Senator, Vice-President, former future president, Al Gore.

It occurred me, if people could visualize CO2 as X number of ex-V.P.'s floating over them, they might have a better grasp of just how much carbon dioxide we pump out.
(after the terror subsided, of course)

I'd guess that Al's weight top-ticked at over 300 pounds but giving him credit for his stated commitment to shed some, I set 300 pounds as equal to one gore (note small g).

Thus it's simple arithmetic to see that each American's share of our national CO2 output could be represented by 147 gores floating over every one of us.

Taking this a step further, a kilogore (one thousand gores) is equal to the CO2 apportionment of 6.8 Americans. This is also a Kilogore, but it's Theola (and a misspelling) . Singing "The Love of My Man". So every time you see seven Americans, picture 1029 former vice-presidents floating above them. Singing. The love of my man.

If you're bored, weigh the universe in gore units. I'd guess it's under a yotta (1,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000), which makes me sad. Although I like the "yottagore" I wanted to introduce the prefix "lotta" as in lottagore. We'll leave peta-gore to Tipper. (The Love of My Man).
By the way Lotta Coal isn't, unfortunately for this blog, a coal miner. THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE!!! NO ONE ASSOCIATED WITH CLIMATEER INVESTING HAS OR EVER WILL HAVE A POSITION IN A COMPANY THAT SAYS "financing....which is comprised of USD $8 million in initial funding and USD $181 million in warrants..." YIKES.

Tomorrow I'll wrap up both "Eco-Hypocrisy" and "Oxfam, Global Warming and Money", the former will get off Hollywood's back and slam DuPont, Duke Power and others.

This turned into an internal monologue. Sorry. Question for you, Eleanor: "Do you think ADD subtracts...?"