Your Candidates House.

[Porcupine]

Tripping over the left foot of the party.

Recently both Al Gore and John Edwards have run into problems with public criticism of their houses and apparent resource use. Some here on DU have claimed that the criticism has been from freeps more interested in trashing candidates than addressing vital issues. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Recent events have built a political mousetrap. With a foundation on the far left environmental movement. The steel bar of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth and the tension spring of mounting Climate Change events.

Out on the enviro left people have spent the last 40 years building houses, windmills, solar systems, cars, farming methods, medical systems and social systems. For the most part the the Democratic Party ignores us unless a pretty woman decides to sit in a tree for two years to save it. We have put our lives and bodies on the line to preserve the worlds ecology. Risking injury, torture and death to save one tree or one animal at a time. We vote Democratic every election and percieve little return from the party.

Now you need our services. As Al Gore has made clear and Katrina proved the climate is changing at high speed. The people with the most experience in actually changing houses and systems to a lower energy profile are environmentalists. We’re the ones that know how to farm without GMO seeds, petro-chemical fertilizers and herbicides and tractors. We own all of the super-efficient houses and know what systems work and why.

Our first principle is always reduce consumption. In order to make off-grid houses work with the comfort of an on grid house we have had to become masters of efficiency. We reduce the space that we have to heat or we make the space itself into an energy system that heats, cools and lights itself. Reduce, re-use, re-cycle but always reduce.

When the heavies massive, power hungry houses are outed we cannot help but be offended. When they then try to set themselves up as “leaders in ecology” we are outraged. We have been producing low or no energy consumption houses for over thirty years. The methods Al Gore and John Edwards have described as energy saving are way behind the curve. I can find existing projects in N. Carolina on the net that have 1/5 the per capita energy they use. They could have done better.

The enviros felt dumped in the 90’s so when the heavies put their big feet into our territory a trap that has long been set the thing snaps shut on them. The GOP justs has to sit back and watch as the enviro left unleashes their frustration on the candidate du juor. We really don’t want the Dems. to lose. What we want is an authentically green candidate. We want our planet back.

[greendog]

1. k&r

:thumbsup:

[Porcupine]

2. Thanks much.

I frequently get trashed for promoting the environment on DU.

We can do better.

[PhilipShore]

3. I agree with most of your article...

but, the Greens need to be more open to the historical facts -- that led to the Democrats retreating from traditional liberal values. Fear is a powerful tool to fog the mind and make people unreasonable.

When JFK was shot, it was as if liberalism was shot; I was only a baby when he was shot, but that seems to be the reason, and the Republicans exploit that fear because their only values are to have power, a reputation, and security; and those values -- could care less about a true democracy.

And there are a a ton of Reagan Democrats that frankly need to be voted out of office, and replaced with liberal/progressive Democrats -- that is not an overnight process.

Even though I don't agree with everything about Gore; he is by far the most intelligent of Democrats, and has potential to be a ultra liberal, like JFK.

Gore is taking very good steps to becoming a ultra liberal: I think he has recently written a book about how fear has corrupted the process and brainwashed the people, etc.

[Porcupine]

4. I absolutely support what Al Gore has done so far.....

but I must say that many of us fringe folk are way out in front on these issues and want him to come meet us. We have no intention of falling back.

There are tens of thousands of people who attend green house building seminars who just could not afford to do this on their own. Others have done retrofits that have yielded stunning levels of performance out of old houses.

We have the technology but we cannot get a hearing in the media. He can get to the media but is still far behind the leading edge of the possible. We have to take the whole world into that leading edge as soon as possible or we all suffer.