No more waiting until I’m sitting in front of my laptop, waiting for it to boot up, waiting for the browser to open, waiting to load my blog admin page. Forget the wait associated to this process on my 7yr old desktop. I could probably cook an entire meal in my microwave with the equivalent energy. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but you get the picture.

On the days I use the battery charged with the solar panel to recharge my iPhone, I’ll be so green I’ll earn that extra glass of wine shipped to me from thousands and thousands of miles away.

On the other hand, I don’t really have any excuse not to blog now….

There are two specific points that really say it all:

1. In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.
2. In the wake of becoming the most well-known global warming alarmist, Gore won an Oscar, a Grammy and the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Gore saw his personal wealth increase by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria.

Really, at this point I feel like I don’t even need to add any commentary so I’ll just give you a link and a follow-up quote so you can get the whole scoop and let Big Al’s hypocrisy dazzle you…. (too bad we can’t use some of his and Tipper’s hot air as a renewal resource – we could probably power all of Southern California for a year).

Click here for the article from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

And below is the non-explanation provided by Gore’s spokesperson in response to the TCPR article:

1. The Gores undertook a three plus year renovation that concluded in
November 2007 with the issuance, in November 2007 of Gold LEED (Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design) from the US Green Building Council.

2. As part of this renovation, the Gores have:
-Installed a geothermal system for heating, cooling and hot water
-Installed 33 solar panels
-Completely retrofitted their appliances, windows, ductwork, insulation, and
lighting.

3. Since the renovations were complete, the Gores have saved 40 percent on
their site energy use (which is a combination of electricity and natural gas
bills–the two major sources of global warming gases).

4. The Gores also purchase their electricity, through their utility, from
the Green PowerSwitch program–which means that their electricity come from
solar, wind and methane gas.

So, in summary, the Gores have: made their home more energy efficient, the
produce electricity from renewable power (solar, geothermal) and they
purchase renewable power. No one is perfect, but they are doing their part.

Finally, the Gores are also donating a substantial amount of their personal
time to educate the public about the climate crisis as well as donating the
proceeds of their work to charity. They have donated the proceeds of the
Nobel Peace Prize, “An Inconvenient Truth” (the book and film), and Mrs.
Gore’s photography to the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate
Project.

I found a couple of really interesting products in the tradeshow’s vendor fair yesterday that I’d love to have. Items that are actually working TODAY and that can be purchased TODAY. That’s right. Solar-powered, consumer-ready products that you can actually use – no vaporware that “might” be ready in early 2011, not the things that just sit on top of your roof that you only remember when you get your power bill or loan statement, and certainly not stuff that might potentially cause bodily harm if some portion of it inadvertently gets punctured or torn open.

First, I found a notebook style zip-up case that hides two durable solar panels that can be used to juice up pretty much any of our take-along toys: laptops, cell phones, pda’s, DS/PSPs, mp3 players, cameras, camcorders, gps devices. Just think. Now you can go on that 4 week camping/sailing trip, and still have juice for your gps without lugging along extra batteries! Or, even, bring that DS to play Brain Age so your grey stuff doesn’t turn to mush after a month away from Google News and The Daily Show. You might even bring along that laptop, but only if you promise to use it for downloading pics/movies, and NOT for work! Best of all, this magic source of power is very affordable. 15W for $149!! Check it out at Innergy Power.

Second item that will likely find its way into our household is a solar power assisted bicycle. PERFECT for helping you get up that killer hill that is really the only obstacle between you and your plans to bike to work a couple of times a week…. Well, so this one isn’t quite available at your neighborhood bike store, but we were assured that it could be cobbled together by a competent bike enthusiast who had the right equipment. Check out Seth Masia’s write-up of the bike : University of Florida Solar Trike.