Al Gore: ex-VP, environmentalist, gadget freak
By Ryan Block 
posted May 22nd 2007 7:06PM
posted May 22nd 2007 7:06PM
From here it looks like the dude's all hooked up with a triple-head 30-inch Cinema Display rig (daaaamn!), what appears to be a Sharp HDTV on the wall (we're gonna guess that's a LC-32D7U), Humanscale Freedom ergo-chair, and an iPod (didn't the President, who owns one, help develop 'em?), whose box sits up in his shelf. Not to get all political and stuff, but surely this office, messy though it may be, is a step up from Bush's humbler means of input, no?
P.S. -Yeah, fine, we're creepy gadget stalkers, what of it?
Nice monitor setup there! Very impressed. Now I hope he's not just pretending to understand computers, and after the photo was shot, he picks up the mouse and tries talking into it or something.
Looking at this photo, another question comes to mind. How much extra greenhouse gasses are generated to produce enough power for those three displays, plus the LCD on the wall?
Well sure, you do know he invented the Internet don't you?
This picture has been on the Drudge Report for days now. It's very surprising that Mr. Gore uses all that environmentally unfreindly stuff (ie. paper, Apple displays, TV's, and of course the environmentally unfriendly power that comes from, OMG, FOSSIL FUELS!). Anyways, if anyone happens to run by Drudge Report and look at its general layout and compare that to the image on the second monitor, you may see that the image bears some resemblance to that of Drudge.
The stuff on the monitor looks fake, the text doesn't line up with the angle of the monitor. If you look at the text/images on the leftmost monitor the text seems to be going UP into the right side of the screen instead of going parallel... a little photoshopping in the mag? FAKE!!! haha
All I see is DEAD TREES!!
Joking aside, I thought WE where the ones wasting energy. :P
C'mon Al, lrn2Expose
Thats funny, doesnt apple do a really poor job at being eco-friendly? So why would al gore be 'omg, apple products! lets save the planet....' ???
Big oil companies make money from global warming by C02 myth, despite their false attempts to attack it, because they're then allowed to increase the price of their product to, in the mind of the public, push people to use less.
Al Gore is nothing but a hypocrite who pushed for the bombing of Kosovo with depleted uranium munitions. Depleted uranium is highly radioactive and causes mutations in newborn children. Furthermore, it swirls into the atmosphere and spreads throughout the world.
How else do you expect the government to covertly accelerate the evolution of humans? People sure as hell doen't like them doing anything with stemcells.
That has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever read. Seriously. You're purporting that "Big Oil" is behind the push for cleaner climate standards because, in your words, people using less actually DRIVE UP prices? Do you know ANYTHING about economics? Supply and demand? Basic math? I'm guessing not. Go back to 8th grade, genius.
And for those of you saying that Al Gore's a hypocrite for using all that technology: #1, he's a busy, important guy, who probably actually makes use of it for business purposes and not for gaming like the rest of you losers, and #2, where in the world does it say that he just leaves it on when he walks out of the room? Work requires energy. All Al Gore has done is raise awareness of the climate change issue, and he does his best to make sure that the work and lifestyle he leads is in accordance with that. Nobody's perfect. Christ.
Moron
The funny thing about science (and scientist, Doctors, et. al) is that they are not always right. 500 years ago the best of the best thought the Sun revolved around the earth, 300 years ago they concluded the world was flat, just 70 years ago cigarettes were good for you, so far be it that the scientific/medical community to make a mistake. Just cause "every scientific journal" says that humans are causing global warming... surely it must be true. Just dont tell Copernicus or Magellan.
Errrm... that the earth is a sphere was already known to scientist long _before_ the alleged birth of Christ. It's true that the average medieval guy did not know it, but every scientist did.
Get your facts straight.
Are the gadgets RoHS compliant?
At least his desk is messy. When someone work desk is messy it means that he is actually doing some work and not pretend to be busy unlike some person who last name is a type of plant(wink wink).
Great computer set up. It makes mine own look small. I have one 23" apple cinema display and a 23" dell monitor hook up to a Power Mac G5.
Al Gore is an Apple Board Director, duh...
I don't think the image is fake, xtian. That text doesn't seem to go up, it's just the paragraphs that seem diagonal because of the fact that the last sentences end mid-column. It's not photoshopped, as far as I can see on this low-res picture.
And about the Apple screens: he's in the board of directors of Apple, so you'd expect him to use that stuff. And no, neither those screens, nor all the paper scattered around, are very eco-friendly.
And before you say I deny global warming, I don't. I am just saying that the evidence points to it being related to solar activity; the polar ice caps on Mars are melting, too! I guess the Martians drive too many humvees!
What evidence. You're an idiot who thinks he's an expert because Matt Drudge or Rush Limbaugh told you some made-up fact based on nonsense. Try reading for a change. Start here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26065-2004Dec25.html
ALL science journals attribute human CO2 waste as the MAJOR cause of global warming. Not some. Not most. All of them.
Does anyone know about the mind-map software he's using?
That looks like a JBL Creature speaker hanging out in front of the middle display.
yep, its white JBL Creature II speakers
This documentary has been shown to be junk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle
The producer Martin Durkin, has produced other dubious documentaries.
If Al is an environmentalist, why all those trees... urr.... paper in his office?
Shouldn't he go paper-less?
No he shouldn't. Instead, you should go airless. See how long you can breath underwater for.
The man made a movie explaining the dangers of global warming and how it is caused. That does not mean he's some sort of hypocrite if he chooses not to live in the wild. Quite the contrary. He's already done a thousand times more for humankind than some weasly ignoramous like yourself could ever dream of.
In fact if there was a massive paper shortage and only one person was allowed to use paper for the rest of their life, it should be him.
To Somedude - actually Apple are pretty, Greenpeace just ingenuously accused them of not being, probably to attract publicilty.
The LCD panels he uses are way more eco-friendly than CRTs...
Paper in itself is not eco unfriendly - one it comes from a renuable resource, usually from tree farms rather than native forests; two it can be recycled.
" The LCD panels he uses are way more eco-friendly than CRTs...
Paper in itself is not eco unfriendly - one it comes from a renuable resource, usually from tree farms rather than native forests; two it can be recycled. "
And no energy was required to build three LCDs? Part of the "global warming" message is to consume less not just to use EnergyStar rated products. How does living in a big house with 3 huge monitors and a TV on = consume less?
And recycling paper requires energy. Coal, gas, oil, nuclear. You pick which one because I don't know of any solar power recyclers.
It's not about his message, but whether he abides by it.
He doesn't even believe his own genocidal myth -- he's got energy-drinking monitors, and he has his tv on and is not watching it. A survey of his mansion recently showed he uses 20 x the average U.S house.
http://digg.com/politics/Al_Gore_s_mansion_uses_20X_that_of_a_normal_American_household
As I said before, watch this:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2332531355859226455&q=Global+Warming+swindle
You failed to mention Gore's electricity comes from a green energy provider and he has solar panels installed.
What do you expect him to use for monitors, mud molded into the shape of a screen?
Peace, you are a 1 percenter by not believing people are THE major contributors to global warming. That and cow farts!
You guys are forgetting:
1. Apple iSight and the iSight boxon the shelf
2. The 2-tray laser printer under the desk
3. JBL Creature Speakers, though only one speaker is shown
4. What looks like an HP fax machine in the corner
Reposted with context:
>Peace @ May 22nd 2007 7:17PM
>Please, click and watch this: >http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?>docid=2332531355859226455&q=Global+Warming+swindle
This documentary has been shown to be junk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle
The producer Martin Durkin, has produced other dubious documentaries.
Jorge... that's the dumbest thing I've heard all day. My desk looks like two tornado's played twister on it (har har) and I can promise you I haven't done anything useful all week. ;)
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/07aug_southpole.htm
Mars' ice caps melting, too. It's to do with the sun, which is beyond human control.
Bill Says:
"Bill @ May 22nd 2007 7:16PM
Nice monitor setup there! Very impressed. Now I hope he's not just pretending to understand computers, and after the photo was shot, he picks up the mouse and tries talking into it or something.
Looking at this photo, another question comes to mind. How much extra greenhouse gasses are generated to produce enough power for those three displays, plus the LCD on the wall?"
I think he is most definitely pretending to understand computers. He invented the internet, remember? [/sarcasm] And i think that for these reasons:
1. That would be the reason for buying an Apple, would it not? Apples are, after all, designed on the principle that the people who buy them most likely don't know how to turn on a computer, let alone use one.
2. Al Gore is, like, a billion years old. He can't use a computer.
3. He blames humans for causing global warming. That right there makes him too ignorant to actually know how to use a computer.
4. He needs to stop being rich. No, that's not a reason, I just figured I should point that out. Anyone rich enough to afford 3 30-inch displays needs to stop at life.
Anyway, he is one of the many reasons i don't buy Apple products. I could go into the others, like shoddy quality and proprietary everything, but i won't.
Where's the flood of anti-Aple BS? Only two pages of verbal vomit? Fanboys choking on their recyclables, maybe?
Gore, the "savior" tiddles Mac keys. Ewwww. Better the Earth should turn to a cinder, right?
The funny thing is, those three LCD panels probably use the same amount of electricity as Bush's little old CRT.
BTW, you're all trolls.
Talk about contributing to global warming. He has three monitors and a lcd tv that is on, but he isn't watching it. Mr. Gore, practice what you preach.
The push is to increase the price of fossil fuels. The oil companies make more money from their sales. There is no push for 'clean', renuable energy. It's smoke and mirrors. Greg Palast, a BBC reporter, got his hands on Shell's internal documents that showed they orchestrated the 'peak oil' myth as a means to justify increased prices. Trust me, I'd like nothing better than to be totally self-sustainable, but they're not giving us alternatives. The third world will literally lose millions of lifes due to constraints set against them by organisations to keep CO2 levels down, when the evidence showing that CO2 contributes to climate change is doubted by numerous -- non goverment or big oil funded -- scientists.
The Telegraph (prestigous British newspaper)
title: The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame
link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml
From http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/glob-warm.html
"Some uncertainty remains about the role of natural variations in causing climate change. Solar variability certainly plays a minor role, but it looks like only a quarter of the recent variations can be attributed to the Sun. At most. During the initial discovery period of global warming, the magnitude of the influence of increased activity on the Sun was not well determined.
Solar irradiance changes have been measured reliably by satellites for only 30 years. These precise observations show changes of a few tenths of a percent that depend on the level of activity in the 11-year solar cycle. Changes over longer periods must be inferred from other sources. Estimates of earlier variations are important for calibrating the climate models. While a component of recent global warming may have been caused by the increased solar activity of the last solar cycle, that component was very small compared to the effects of additional greenhouse gases. According to a NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). "...the solar increases do not have the ability to cause large global temperature increases...greenhouse gases are indeed playing the dominant role..." The Sun is once again less bright as we approach solar minimum, yet global warming continues."
The Telegraph, presigous!!! LMAO! Are you kidding? You think it's prestigious because of what? They're British? It's not even British.
You're a complete moron. It's an online version of some right-wing wacko newspaper in New Hampshire. Their 15 minutes of fame came from a controversey where the Regan campaign bribed them by paying them to host a debate during the 1980 Republican Primaries.
Real prestigious.
>Sean O @ May 22nd 2007 8:30PM
>The Telegraph, presigous!!! LMAO! Are you kidding? You think it's prestigious because of what? They're British? It's not even British.
>You're a complete moron. It's an online version of some right-wing wacko newspaper in New Hampshire.
No, you're a complete moron. The Telegraph linked was the respected British Daily Telegraph. No association afaik to the New Hampshire Telegraph. Next time, read the links people provide for you before arguing against them - a simple courtesy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml
Really? And how many solar panels will fit on a mansion? Does Apple use a green energy provider?
Why is it the people who tell us we are consuming too much are usually the biggest consumers.
Why does Edwards rally about poverty but has a indoor basketball court in his mansion? Why does John Travolta say we need to do something about global warming but owns his own Boeing 727? What about leading by example?
Al Gore is one man and I am one man but I guarantee he leaves a bigger carbon trail on the planet than I do. Maybe he should buy some of my carbon credits so he can run 3 monitors and a TV at the same time while heating/cooling his super-sized home.
And you failed to mention that this "green" energy provider is buying "Carbon offsets" which mean exactly NOTHING to the environment... its a way for people to feel good abotu themselves.. isnt that cute?
I did a really quick and dirty estimate of how much power these 3 displays and his computer consume (without knowing his video cards, type of mac (g5 vs macpro), but I've come up with between 700 and 800 Watts of electricity (and that's not a peak consumption). Yikes!!!!!!
Hey, that's almost like running a microwave! ... All the time.
Gotta love Al "Do as I say, not as I do" Gore.
Hey everybody -- can we cool it with the politics? This is Engadget, not DailyKos / Instapundit.
Awesome: Instapundit has a Gore desk story up right now. Ha. Still, the point stands.
Humanscale makes the Freedom chair. Steelcase makes the Leap chair.
The chair looks like the Humanscale Freedom chair with headrest.
Not sure that dooms the planet or not. Probably.
While all the tech stuff is ok, would you take a look at that piece of Art on the wall. How cool is it to have a giant tree frog statue stuck to your wall? Sweeeet!!! I wonder where he got that...
yes the frog is amazing but does anyone know who made it and where I can see this artist's work?
No, I am not even American. So stop trying to do some right, left thing. Not all scientists agree. I can think for myself, and the evidence I have seen from both sides points to it being due to solar activity. Volcanoes, algae and such spew multiple times more CO2 than we do with our cars and such. I do believe in global warming, but the evidence points to it being due to solar activity. Bush is a fucking idiot, the Neo Cons are a bunch of war mongering sell-outs, as are the Democrats. News flash: both political parties screw you.
And as for the notion that both political parties are out to screw you, that's also retarded. Only 1 of those parties concocted evidence to thrust us into an unnecessary war; only 1 of those parties consistently denies the science behind climate change; only 1 of those parties appears determined to impose a theological ideology on its constituency. I defy you to name 1 thing the Democrats have done that even come close to matching those feats of political retardery. The whole notion that "all politicians are equally bad" is stupid. Some people, after all, are actually worse than others.
ignorant.
Is that where he 'invented the internet'?
Ignorance all over the place here. Not by me though.
Al Gore never said he "invented" the internet. That's just something right-wing pundits tell you to say.
Gore took credit for CREATING the internet. And he has good reason to. Maybe you morons should educate yourselves. Look up the "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991", aka the GORE Bill.
Nice setup! I'm currently using a dual head (two 22" LCD) on a 7800gtx
What hardware setup would I need to get the three monitor setup? Besides the additional monitor, of course.
Sean O, ad me to MSN at 'enanad10@hotmail.co.uk' to discuss civily, please.
What this picture edits out from the one on Drudge is the use of a paper easel instead of a dry-erase board. So why did you guys edit the photo down?
The original picture is a lot more damning: http://www.robertmclaws.com/archive/2007/05/21/Al-Gore-Tree-Killer.aspx
And we won't even talk about how much energy those displays and the plasma TV eat up. How's that for an inconvenient truth?
I don't think that tree frog is to scale.
And by the way guys, no one ever talks about the fact that our cities are hotter because all the building and paving retain more heat and release it later in the day. That phenomenon can make it *feel* hotter without changing the ambient temperature of the planet... yet. But unless we're going to start imposing limits on human reproduction, that problem is not gonna go away.
I dig the light he has over the keyboard. That must be a little more helpful to the corneas than staring at Firefox for hours on end.
The Democrats have done nothing to get 'us' out of Iraq. They stand there and project that they're our saviours, but they just continue Cheney's insane policy for hegemony in the Middle East.
The collapse of the most recent legislative attempt notwithstanding, at least Democrats have openly agitated for an end to the conflict. That's much more than you can say for the politicos across the aisle. And let's be clear that the failure of this most recent attempt to end the war ended because the Democrats were insisting on benchmarks, something that this President and his enabling party are set dead against. But, whatever. I'm not going to change your mind, and you're not going to change mine. 68% of the Americans who read this, by the way, will probably agree with me anyway, judging by recent polls.
Are you living in a cave? The Democrats keep pushing bills to get out of Iraq. Bush keeps vetoing them.
Ryan, I can understand your frustration with the posts but you can't bring up any political figure and not expect everyone to start commenting on him. Run a story on a Republican or a Democrat and watch the bashing begin. Human nature...
WOW! Al Gore is nothing but a hypocrite. Oh yeah, and he invented the internet. Right.
Wow, I'm actually a bit surprised that Al Gore sits as an Apple Board Director, seeing as the company is very poorly rated by greenpeace when it comes to environmental impact (i.e. toxic chemicals, etc.). I mean, He can't change everything, but one would think, if he were really interested in cleaning up the environment, he would start where he has control and lead by example, no?
Though I do believe he is honestly concerned with the issues he speaks about.
Quote from TIME Magazine:
"Al Gore refreshes Drudge for latest"
If those few points that you bring up make you qualify as a gadget freak or junkie, what are we?
Peace, Mar's ice caps melt every year. And the Martian atmosphere is almost all CO2 all the time.
Looks like one hog of a consumer to me.