Al Gore on Oprah
So did anyone manage to catch the Oprah show yesterday? As mentioned, I don’t normally watch Oprah (certainly nothing against her though), but I taped and then watched the show yesterday! Wow – I’m really glad I did!
Add to that the fact that I watched it with my wife (who I have been slowly trying to ease into the world of ‘green’), and she was utterly captivated. I hate to admit it but we haven’t even seen “An Inconvenient Truth” yet ourselves (but have no fear – Steve saw it in the theatres when it first came out, so us EcoSherpas aren’t completely uncool! And of course we WILL be watching it and owning it ourselves very soon).
That was probably a big reason for the show being as meaningful as it was (ie we were watching the parts from Al Gore’s presentation for the first time). It was also really exciting to think about the millions of people watching the show – I’m sure it will have some positive results (especially in North America)! Obviously we can’t expect the world to change overnight, but I do think mainstream exposure like this can really go a long way.
The segment with Simran Sethi (TreeHugger.com) was pretty interesting, but would have been better if it had been a little longer. That being said, the practical advice she offer for having a ‘green’ christmas was great.
I also REALLY liked the segment with Al Gore at the Lowes showing how a handful of readily-available (and not overly expensive) products can save you money while reducing your CO2 emissions.
1) Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (surprise, surprise) – according to Gore, if everyone in the U.S. traded 5 of their incandescent bulbs for 5 CF bulbs, the amount of CO2 saved would be the equivalent of taking 1,000,000 cars of the road for a year.
2) Solar backyard lighting – no electricity, no CO2 emissions.
3) Programmable Thermostat (I need one of these!)
4) New air filters for heating/cooling system
5) Hot water heater blanket
He also recommended buying EnergyStar products.
Most of this is probably common sense by now for many eco-folks, but again I think the show will really hit home for those who have been sitting on the fence not sure what to do.
On a slightly different note…
Something I’m thinking about doing as a nifty Christmas gift (for various members of my family) is giving them a copy of the DVD with a couple CF bulbs wrapped up with it. I think that could be a great way to get them pointed in the right direction, before I REALLY start pressuring them to ‘go green’ in 2007.
Technorati Tags: al gore, oprah, climate change, global warming, inconvenient truth, co2, greenhouse effect, christmas, dvd, cf bulbs
Written by Bentley on December 6th, 2006 with
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