Sep

8

Gore flight

September 8, 2007 | 2 Comments | Joshua Gans

Apparently, Al Gore took a flight on a private jet and there is some sort of outrage. I have written before that so long as Gore actually offsets carbon emissions there is surely no harm in this. Megan McArdle isn’t so sure.

But another way of looking at it is that if Al Gore cares about the environment, and is willing to pay, say $500 to take the equivalent of a private-jet-trip’s worth of carbon out of the air, then he ought to do so regardless of whether he has flown. He ought to buy all of the carbon offsets he feels necessary or affordable–and then reduce carbon still further by taking a commercial flight, or a train. Since Al Gore seems to feel that we should all do everything possible to reduce our carbon footprint, this is not unreasonable. Taxation is the solution to problems where you cannot secure the voluntary restraint of others; it is odd to try the same stunt on yourself.

It seems to me to perfectly reasonable for someone to preach a policy and not volunarily act as if the policy is place. Indeed, Gore doesn’t have to buy offsets or stay off jets if he doesn’t want to; although he asks others to do so voluntarily so that would be a bit much. Why do people find it so hard to deal with the behaviour of people in the public eye?


Comments

2 Responses to “Gore flight”

  1. Eric on September 10th, 2007 12:52 pm

    As soon as we have appropriate emissions tax or equivalent, everyone will be able to consider themselves “carbon neutral”.

    We are urged to consider the environmental implications of what we do, but so far there isn’t the dollar incentive. If there were no speeding fines, but just advertising campaigns encouraging us to drive at appropriate speeds, there would be plenty of motorists driving at 150.

  2. Bacchus on September 10th, 2007 1:47 pm

    It just proves that the Neocons just don’t get it. Al Gore doesn’t say we can’t do these things – he does say you should offset your emissions in as many ways as is possible so that your footprint is neutral. His message is as much about taking full responsibility of your actions as it is about reducing carbon emissions.

    Is there a reason Al flew on a private jet. How many people were in it, where was it going, was the trip offset, was there a commercial flight available to the destination required at the time? None of these questions were answered in the Hannity’s America report (surprise, surprise!).

    The first step is to get everyone thinking about being carbon neutral, then look at ways to reduce it and transforming the economy so that it stops tramping the life out of the only planet we have.

    That is Al Gores message: do with fore-thought, not don’t at all.