All Right People!!! Edwards is going green!!!

[shraby]

Don't want to hear anymore about it.

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/27/18346/3020>

[rpgamerd00d]

1. So after all the crap on this board, its been a non-issue the entire time...

...figures.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Imagine if all the parties became blurred?as far as definitions,

[lostnotforgotten]

3. It Takes Millions To Go Green - So The Problem Is Not Yet Resolved

eom

[meow mix]

4. new lightbulbs, woot!

i wonder how much the electric w/airco is... 3000 a month?

[Quixote1818]

5. How is cutting down 48,000 trees going green? nt

[rpgamerd00d]

6. Trees are renewable resources, last time I checked.

Unless you think man should use artificial materials which degrade and pollute the environment a better solution?

[Quixote1818]

10. Thats why I am for clear cutting in the Pacific Northwest

because trees can renew themselves in 75 years when we are all dead.

If they were Really green they would live in a 5,000 sf green house instead of a 30,000 sf house and making it green just so Daily KOS would say they are green when they really aren't.

Even if it's green it's still going to take one hell of a lot of energy to heat and cool a 30,000 sf house. Thats not being green, it's pretending to be green.

It's not a big deal to me but I don't buy this BS for one second! The "We are so green" crap is a total smokescreen to cover up their big house and the fact they cut down 50,000 trees.

[rpgamerd00d]

14. Yeah, but who gives a fuck?

Its completely irrelevant how much it costs to heat/cool or how many trees it uses.
Trees are renewable, and that's that.
Case closed.

[Quixote1818]

17. It's relevant because the more energy you use heating and colling

your house the more CO2 that is put into the atmosphere. Thats part of what Gore's book and movie are about. Everyone cutting down on the amount of energy they use in their homes and cars to slow CO2 emissions.

http://www.powerscorecard.org/reduce_energy.cfm


Twenty Things You Can Do to Conserve Energy

Conserving energy, by taking actions like insulating/weatherstripping your home and purchasing Energy Star certified (high efficiency) appliances, is usually the smartest, most economical and most potent environmental action you can take. Cleaner, greener energy supplies may provide the cleanest supplies of needed electricity, but minimizing the energy we need is still the first step to take before selecting the cleanest, greenest supplies.

Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants.

You do not have to do without to achieve these savings. There is now an energy efficient alternative for almost every kind of appliance or light fixture. That means that consumers have a real choice and the power to change their energy use on a revolutionary scale.

The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!

[Adelante]

41. I guess you've found a candidate who agrees with you, then

Killing trees - good :crazy:

[originalpckelly]

7. As long as there are 48,000 trees to replace them...

I see no problem.

[meow mix]

9. old growth forest dwindles... tree farms do not

we destroy our forests and then claim it is renewable... what has been the outcome so far? you call that renewing? just wondering =)
with entire states trees dying and burning in this day and age, call it renewable still?

[libnnc]

32. the only old growth forests are in far western NC

Edwards' home is far, far east.

[roguevalley]

22. 48,000 dead trees is an atrocity. if you want to see how bad it is,

fly over Oregon.

[Porcupine]

34. It actually looks like overgrown pine thicket.

In the West that would be a second growth forest in desperate need of thinning if anyone expected to survive a fire. I don't know enough about east coast forest biology but it looks awfully thick with small diameter trunks.

In that kind of density 48,000 trees is not such a loss.

[Quixote1818]

36. It may be third or forth growth forest

In MA near near Lexington and Concord I know that is third or forth growth forest. There are only a few tiny pockets of old growth forest left in the Eastern US.

[The Count]

8. So is Bush the Smarter and the Dumber one too. And your point is?

if you don't want to hear about it, don't start threads. personally, I am more concerned about this:"At a time when most Democrats in the United States are calling for less military involvement abroad," notes the Jersusalem Post, "Edwards, of South Carolina, told the Seventh Annual Herzliya Conference on Monday that his country must do everything that it can to stop Iran from possessing nuclear weapons."

When John Edwards, who poses as a peace candidate, declares that we will go to war with Iran before we'll let them break Israel's nuclear monopoly in the Middle East, that should tell us something about how the power of the Lobby has distorted our foreign policy and deformed the American political process. In paying homage to Herzliya, Edwards and his fellow candidates are betraying and subverting American interests.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10399

[shraby]

12. I don't recall saying anything about

Edward's political views. Not.one.word.

[The Count]

15. Then why discuss him? is this a fan club or something? I thought the POTUS

ran was making him the subject of DU threads. Therefore, his positions on wars are to me more important then the House - which is trivial.

[MrSlayer]

11. Good. Now let's concentrate on the important matters.

Like getting him to back off his ridiculous sabre rattling at Iran.

[The Count]

16. Nah, it seems real estate is easier to debate...sigh...my head spins.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

19. Any slam will do...

When agendas duel.

[Adelante]

42. I dunno, Count

Edwards seems to have some real estate karma going.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. delete

[Zorra]

18. Outstanding. Hopefully, President Edwards will turn the WH green also.

[benny05]

20. That would a good idea where they could n't

[Hippo_Tron]

51. Jimmy Carter did that

He put solar panels on the White House roof. Raygun, of course, had them removed.

[Hekate]

21. I rated this up because I thought it might settle the fight, but no one wants to quit

This is the stupidest waste of time I have EVER witnessed at DU in the four and a half years I have been here.

Good gods, Edwards-haters, just admit you are green with envy and give it up.

:argh:

Hekate

[Harper_is_Bush]

23. "as the incandescent light bulbs the electrician installed in our fixtures burn out....."

" we are replacing them with fluorescent bulbs."

that's a terrible messege.

Why wouldn't they replace them immediately?

[Harper_is_Bush]

25. Although I don't agree with the first line, kudos for her blurb on bulbs...

And as the incandescent light bulbs the electrician installed in our fixtures burn out, we are replacing them with fluorescent bulbs. If you are thinking that we are living now in harsh light, with buzzing sounds and constant flickers, you are thinking of your grandmother's fluorescent bulbs. There are a wide range of shapes and fittings available now; there are even dimmable fluorescents, and honestly I cannot tell without checking which of our bulbs are still incandescent and which are now - and will continue to be -- fluorescent. Switching is a little bit of a bite, because the bulbs are more expensive (although Costco and eBay have some good prices), but replacing a single 60 watt incandescent with a 15 watt fluorescent you use just six hours a day could see an energy savings of more than $40 over the 4 year (4 year!) life of the bulb. And it is not just energy. A single fluorescent bulb "can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its lifetime" according to the Energy-Star website. That same site has these incredible statistics: "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars." One bulb.

very well written

[noamnety]

26. probably the same reason they don't have a geothermal system

"Actually we are "geothermal-ready." The system was built in a manner to allow us to integrate geothermal. And, although we thought we would be talking about it in four or five years, we are already talking about installing it. For those who don't know, geothermal uses the more constant temperature of the earth to keep your house warmer in winter than the air outside and cooler in summer than the air outside. It is tremendously more efficient, but unfortunately it is still fairly expensive on the front end."

snort.

I assume the Edwards are saving up for the geothermal system and will get one when they can afford it.

[Harper_is_Bush]

27. Such sarcasm! I love it! Seriously though....

...do you think this blog entry has something to do with the attention the house has gotten on DU? This isn't really in the news is it?

If it is, it shows a real lack of political savvy, imo. Our two critisms demonstrate part of the reason why.

[Porcupine]

29. Um, install landscaping, then tear it up for geothermal?

I don't think so. They just didn't bother to pay attention till it was too late.

As fas as the bullshit on flourescent bulbs: The Edwards don't change their own lightbulbs. If John and Ms. Edwards have touched a lightbulb in years I'll eat my shorts. The cost effective way to do a lighting conversion is have a lighting designer come in and refit or replace fixtures as needed.

The lighting in many wealthy homes is not convertable to flourescent due to the fact that it is "designer" lighting. I doubt if 1/5th of her lighting could be fit with flourescents at all.

[Harper_is_Bush]

39. You are wrong in your general statement, and your specific one

You say "The cost effective way to do a lighting conversion is have a lighting designer come in and refit or replace fixtures as needed. "
Presumably when you say "lighting conversion" you're speaking of incandescent to fluorescent. If so, in general, the most cost-effective way is to change the bulb, not to hire a "lighting designer" to come in and refit/replace fixtures.
We have a very modest house, and there are four "designer" fixtures using a different size socket than the typical. Of those, 3 were a candle-lite style and I was able to replace the 40 watt bulbs with 9 watt ones. The last one fixture I cannot find fluorescent, yet. All other fixtures in the house were easily accomodated.

Specifically to the Edwards house, I think you're claim that 1/5 of her lighting could not be replaced is likely nonsense. You need to get yerself to some different stores looking at what types of CFL's are available these days.

Demand has obviously grown, and the market is responding with more choices and better quality.

[laundry_queen]

44. Now that is funny.

We are "geothermal-ready" as well. We made sure of it when we built our (1400 sq ft for 6 people) house. Unlike the Edwards', we do have to save up for it, although it is only about 3-4 years away for us. In the meantime, we have an efficient natural gas furnace. Guess what? WE ARE NOT GREEN. Not until we actually HAVE geothermal. It is not so ridiculously expensive that someone building a huge house couldn't afford a system up front. What a bizarre statement "expensive on the front end". How can I possibly take that one seriously from someone who is wealthy and building a 10,000 sq ft house?

[Harper_is_Bush]

24. Interesting this came out today. Pandering directly to DU?

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

[noamnety]

28. I look at it this way.

If they do get a geothermal system now instead of waiting 5 years as a result of people on DU demanding some responsibility out of them, DU accomplished something good for the environment. More than we do on most days, I'll wager. If the fuss causes other candidates to rethink their house plans, it will be even better.

One of the better things we could do here is create a culture where the insanely rich politicians figure out they can't get away with claiming to be an environmentalist while squandering resources when they can clearly afford to be entirely off the grid, unlike most of us. It's not good enough to say it's alright for Edwards to do it, because Kerry and Kennedy do to. We need to shift the debate, so every last one of our candidates knows he'll be called out for hypocrisy when they claim to care about global warming and their actions show otherwise, when they claim to care about the class divide and their actions show otherwise, when they claim to oppose exterminism by people who don't want the poor in their neighborhoods, and their actions show otherwise.

[Porcupine]

30. Let's hold EVERYONES toes to the fire!!!! Yes!!!

fine by me.

[Harper_is_Bush]

37. Certainly, it's important to do so.

It will happen in a campaign, so better to air it out front.

[Adelante]

43. That's the ticket right there

Every single candidate should be held to the same scrutiny. It is not smearing or bashing. It's getting the country where it needs to go.

[Zorra]

49. Ding-ding! Weee've got a winner!

You gets it.
:toast:

[Quixote1818]

33. It's probably more in response to Drudge and all the right wing blogs

that picked up the story.

[Quixote1818]

35. I bet they are freaking out by all the fuss this has created

With about 20% of DU being turned off by the house and it's environmental impacts, that equates to 20% of Democrats who will see this as an issue. Just enough for some Dem who doesn't have a huge house to make an add in a close election. This house could actually cost Edwards the nomination if things are close. There are probably PAID Edwards people posting on DU right now trying to shut down the debate on this. Not to mention this story is all over Drudge and the right wing blogs.

You can bet your house they contacted Daily KOS to try to nip this in the bud. No question about it! You are probably right on about that.

[chimpymustgo]

50. I hope EE didn't read this embarrassing BULLSHIT that has pervaded DU.

The mods should have locked this crap. It really made SOME people here look petty, jealous, and STUPID.

[KoKo]

31. They will save ALOT going GREEN in their almost 30,000 sq. ft. estate...

and they may get Energy Credits, too! Good for them!...

[Harper_is_Bush]

38. it's not a 30,000 sq.ft. estate.

it's a 30,000 sq ft. HOUSE.
And they're only going to replace their light bulbs with CFL's after they burn out. :wtf:

.

[BurtWorm]

40. He can afford to go green? Rich bastard!

:patriot:

[depakid]

45. Amazing

I think both he and Elizabeth are irony impaired.

[Quixote1818]

46. LOL!

OMFG,that is so dead on! Great way to put it!

[depakid]

47. What else can you say?

It's beyond words at this point.

[unc70]

48. Beyond words? Apparently not. More irony anyone?

One thing this issue is not, is beyond words -- lots of them.


Time UNC vs Maryland womens BB.