Do as I Say and Not as I Do

I had a few different ideas for the title of this post. One of them was "Talking out the left side of your mouth" and another was "Standing for Nothing" but the first one sounded more like a slam on the former prime minister Jean Chretien and the second I just might use for another post.

Former vice-president Al Gore is known for his Oscar worthy film "The Inconvenient Truth." And today he is also going to be remembered for Live Earth. I am not knocking the message. I believe that we need to change our attitudes towards the environment and can't continue on the way we are going. There isn't a limitless supply of the resources and there are consequences to our actions.

However, I find it interesting that this message is coming from someone who has a 10,000 square foot home, including electric gates and an indoor swimming pool. His utility bill is $30,000 US a year. That is more money than I made last year. Hmmm.... funny how he criticizes others for their use of electricity and for their ecological footprint and yet he spent $30,000 in utility bills. Isn't it funny? I mentioned in my last post the carbon offsetting. So I guess Al Gore is paying penance for his actions by doing what, planting a few trees? Somehow I can't see him getting on his hands and knees and planting those trees so instead he'll buy his way out of it. Inconvenient truth or inconvenient hypocrite?

Recently I have seen a number of commercials with David Suzuki touting the use of energy efficient appliances and changing the lightbulbs in your home. Again, the message is good. Suzuki has also been on a cross country tour promoting his environmental message. He was using a diesel bus... not exactly environmentally friendly. On top of that the bus would hold about 30 people and at most there were 8 people in it. So why not get a bio-diesel van? Maybe it was because then he couldn't put as much advertising on the side.... Instead he'd rather add to the CO2 emissions.

But that's not all.... Back in February Suzuki went on air and said, "’Im not getting any money from my foundation. I’m getting my money, the foundation gets its money, from ordinary people. We don’t take government money, corporations have not been interested in funding us. We get it from ordinary Canadians across the country. 40,000 thousand of them and we get some foundations in both Canada and the United States. So that’s my agenda. We speak on behalf of the people that fund us." Hmm... no corporations eh? Then why is it that the 2005-2006 annual report for the David Suzuki Foundation list something like 52 corporations including Bell Canada, RBC, IBM, Microsoft, Toyota and Canon. The David Suzuki Foundation also received donations from EnCana Corporation, a world leader in natural gas production and oil sands development, ATCO Gas, Alberta’s principle distributor of natural gas, and a number of pension funds including the OPG (Ontario Power Generation) Employees’ and Pensioners’ Charity Trust. OPG is one of the largest suppliers of electricity in the world operating 5 fossil fuel-burning generation plants and 3 nuclear plants. So I guess that begs the question, whose agenda is he really pushing for? Can he be believed with the backing of some of these companies?

According to the government of Canada web site, "Canada’s New Government’s environmental agenda will be bolstered by the creation of a new Cabinet Committee on the environment and energy security. The Committee will pursue practical, results-oriented solutions to decrease Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, reduce pollution and improve the health and well-being of Canadians." Hmm... sounds nice. However, back in 2002 Harper said that the Kyoto Accord was a "socialist scheme" and felt it was designed to suck money out of rich companies. Thanks to Harper Canada will be the first country that ratified the Kyoto Accord to formally abandon its commitment to the international agreement. Harper may appear to be taking an environmental stand but it's a mask.... It's all for show.

I firmly believe that it starts at home. Don't just talk the talk but walk the walk as well. If they want to be believed they need to practice what they preach. I don't want hypocrisy. I want authenticity.