Al Gore is no more environmental than big oil, but that doesn’t negate the truth in his movie.  Still…  He’s a lying asshole.

Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a “carbon-neutral lifestyle.” To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. “Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb,” warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. “We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin.”

Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore’s example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a “carbon-neutral lifestyle.” But if Al Gore is the world’s role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film’s distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore’s office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.

No, he should not be considered the poster child for environmentalism.  No, he should not be considered for a future run at the presidency.  No, he should not be taken at his word on much of anything that doesn’t come replete with independent confirmation from multiple sources.

And that’s the saving grace for his movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  Climate scientists around the globe agree that the science is sound for the most part (with only a few inconsequential hiccups).  But aside from his reciting the science of thousands of others, just ignore him as yet another partisan liar and deceitful asshole.  Because that’s what he is.

Oh, and the rest of the Democratic party continues to suffer from the same malady, not to mention the Repugnicans.

Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, “Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence.” The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has “tried to move people to act.” Yet, astoundingly, Gore’s persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.

As politicians go, none of this is surprising.  It is disheartening, however, to see Gore’s blatant yet expected lack of consistency.  He is a perfect example of why environmentalism so often can be disregarded easily: too many of its advocates say one thing while doing something completely different.  He should never hold public office again; that goes without saying.  He should, however, be listened to on the climate change science.

Too bad his hypocrisy on this matter will negate the power of the message.  Thanks a lot, you dipshit.