Green travel ideas from two environmentally conscious travelers

Allegations made against former Vice President Al Gore about sexual misconduct with massage therapists in hotels now seem to be impacting the course of the climate debate in the US and the world.

Last month, it was reported that a Portland massage therapist named Molly Hagerty had filed a complaint against Al Gore alleging misconduct at a hotel in Portland in 2006.

The same tabloid that broke the news last month is now alleging that the same kind of incident occured in at least two more hotels - one in Beverly Hills in 2007 and one in Tokyo in 2008.

Al Gore, via a spokesperson, has outright rejected all the allegations. But it has taken a toll on his personal life and put Gore’s advocacy for the planet on the backburner. He and his wife Tipper announced, just before the matter became public, that they were separating.

On Thursday, the US Senate abandoned efforts to pass the Climate Bill. Last year in June, when the US House of Representatives passed the bill by a narrow 219-212 margin, it was because Al Gore sat down with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and convinced him the votes were there. The White House then pitched in to help persuade swing votes.

One year on, with the BP mess forcing Congress to at least show they’re doing something about the energy crisis, the Climate Bill started gaining some momentum. But Al Gore was nowhere in the picture this time. Without his help, Democrats caved in and said the Senate didn’t have the votes.

The failure to pass the climate bill now sets off a domino effect, with the next card being COP16, to be held in Cancun, Mexico from 29 Nov-10 Dec 2010. When governments deadlocked at COP15 in Copenhagen last year, it was Al Gore who suggested that the big decisions be pushed back to COP16. 

Decisions that need to be made by the US include whether to agree to bigger cuts in emission levels (not possible unless the climate bill passes) and how much to contribute towards the $100b carbon-reducing tech fund.

Without Al Gore at the forefront, the US won’t be making the necessary concessions or contributions in Mexico, leaving China and India and other developing countries free to blame the US and let the agreement fall apart.

Some day in the not-so-distant future, a massage therapist named Molly Hagerty might end up in the history books as the one who set off the domino effect that ended up killing the planet.

Photo - Kjetil Bjørnsrud

Related posts:-
Al Gore Environmental News Conference Post-Nobel Peace Prize in Palo Alto

The New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year for 2006 was “carbon-neutral,” which gives you some sense of the fad that is carbon offsets. With the success of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, there is a rising wave of guilt about the carbon dioxide that we each produce in the course of our daily lives, and carbon offsets gave us a way to erase that CO₂ along with the guilt. “Carbon-neutral” is just a cooler, sexier, trendier way of communicating the same “guilt-free” consumer mentality that American culture is known for – e.g. “fat-free,” “low-cal,” etc.Well, the truth is, carbon offsets like those that TerraPass sells are a lot more complicated than all that. The principle behind an offset is that to compensate for your own carbon dioxide emissions, you buy a share in a project that is actively reducing carbon emissions somewhere in the world – including renewable energy projects, reforestation schemes, bio fuel production, and anything else that might be a carbon sink or prevent carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. We recognize the value of these carbon offsets while also acknowledging their limitations:

Carbon Offset Pros:

• In cases where emissions are inevitable, offsets provide a way to do something to remediate the effects.
• Offsets are a source of investment for renewable energy and other projects to mitigate climate change, therefore filling the void that some governments have left by not stepping in to regulate and/or limit carbon dioxide emissions.
• In many cases, offsets are a catalyst for change in the developing world, where renewable energy projects funded by the developed world could be the basis of a sustainable growth and development curve going forward.

Carbon Offset Cons:

• Buying offsets makes people feel that it’s okay to pollute if they simply compensate for their actions by buying credits.
• Offsets are unlikely to be as effective and permanent in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as we are in emitting the carbon dioxide to begin with.
• The industry is almost completely unregulated and therefore largely not held accountable for the emissions promises it makes.

Our Bottom Line: Although we support the idea of purchasing offsets from a reputable company to mitigate inevitable carbon emissions, we think that the term “carbon-neutral” is misleading, because it lends too much credit to the effectiveness of the nascent carbon offset industry. It also takes attention away from non-global warming related environmental issues and what we can do individually to reduce our impact and need for offsets. Carbon offsets should be used in combination with the other environmentally responsible travel practices like selecting an environmentally-friendly hotel or choosing an environmentally-friendly destination, not as an indulgence that can be bought to pardon all of our environmental sins.

If you have not yet heard, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today!

Well, he happened to be in the SF Bay area at the time and a few Kangos got special access to his press conference today:

True to his cause he arrived in a sedan powered by bio diesel. The Conference was held at the Alliance for Climate Protection offices in Palo Alto.

First his wife Tipper Gore spoke saying that Al would be coming into the room 2 minutes to give a brief statement and also that he would not be answering questions; when he arrived he was greeted by 100+ news-people.

Then the former vice president thanked the Nobel Prize committee for selecting him the (shared) winner and he stated that he would donate the prize to green efforts; he also said that he was going to go to Europe to accept the prize in person.

Then he spoke briefly about the continuing effects of global warming on the polar ice caps: “polar scientists are now warning that at current rates the polar ice caps will be completely gone within only 27 years” (or language very similar, our Kango blogger was relying only on his memory)

Then Gore spoke passionately delivering a call in the form of an African proverb.

Gore said: “There is an old African proverb, If you want to go fast; go alone, if you want to go far; go together, we need to act both quickly and together to put an end to the climate crisis” (Again this quote is from memory)

With that, he concluded the press conference and thanked everyone for coming.

As he walked out of the room he was met with shouts from the press “Mr. Vice President Do you plan to run for president after winning this award?… Mr Vice President!”

With that; he left the room and he went to a private meeting with members of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Gore’s Message is a one that is loud and clear: we need to act as one in the same direction if we want to go far and protect our planet.

This message starts with making simple green choices; while these changes can be very simple:

• Selecting an environmentally friendly hotel
• Flying greener
• And walking the walk

…but can collectively make a huge difference.

Gore: keep up the good work, we need you.