Text 14085, 188 rader
Skriven 2010-10-03 22:12:00 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ROSS SAUER
Ärende: Jame O'Keefe does it agai
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On 09-29-10, ROSS SAUER said to ALL:


RS>Isn't that little twerp a hoot and a half, with his penchant for self-
RS>destruction?


RS>His latest little stunt with a CNN reporter has destroyed him.



Here's something else for you to chew on, you little dweeb:



LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF
YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.


HOUSE # 1:


A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural
gas.


Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all
heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more
energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average
bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per
month.


In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil
fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for
an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern
"snow belt," either. It's in the South.


HOUSE # 2:


Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national
university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current
home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000
square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the
American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal
heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into
the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in
winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as
oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required
for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is
collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern.


Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground
purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water
then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs
native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural
landscape.


HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of
Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and
filmmaker) Al Gore.


HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford,
Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private
residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.


So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story
you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New
York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's
truly "an inconvenient truth."


Origins:   This e-mail comparison between the homes of President George
W. Bush and former vice-president Al Gore began circulating on the Internet
in March 2007 (shortly after the latter's film on the global warming
issue, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award as Best Documentary).
Short and sweet, there's a fair bit of truth to the e-mail: Al Gore's
Nashville mansion is something of the energy-gobbler the e-mail depicts,
while President Bush's Crawford ranch is more the model of responsible
resource use the juxtaposition portrays it to be.



According to the Associated Press, the Gore's 10,000 square foot Belle
Meade residence consumes electricity at a rate of about 12 times the
average for a typical house in Nashville (191,000 kwh versus 15,600
kwh).


While there are mitigating factors (further discussed in our article
about the Gore household's energy use), this is still a surprising number,
given that the residence is approximately four times the size of the average
new American home.


The Prairie Chapel Ranch ranch home owned by George W. Bush in Crawford,
Texas, was designed by Austin architect David Heymann, an associate dean
for undergraduate programs at the University of Texas School of
Architecture. As the Chicago Tribune described the house in a 2001
article:


The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.
Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water
through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a
constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools
it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this "eco-friendly" dwelling
use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling
systems utilize.


A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from
roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground
purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from
the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom
home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the
structure into the surrounding ecosystem.


Other news articles published in 2001-02 provided expanded descriptions
of the ranch house:


"By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small," says David
Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home.



Constructed from a local limestone, the house has eight rooms in a long,
narrow design to take advantage of views and breezes. A porch  stretches
across the back and both ends of the house, widening at one end into a
covered patio off the living room.


The tin roof of the house extends beyond the porch. When it rains, it's
possible to sit on the patio and watch the water pour down without
getting wet. Under a gravel border around the house, a concrete gutter
channels the water into a 25,000-gallon cistern for irrigation. In hot
weather, a terrace directly above the cistern is a little cooler than the
surrounding area.



Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks
underground; one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which
is so-called "gray water," and one tank for "black water" from the kitchen
sink and toilets. The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the
rainwater. It is used to irrigate flower gardens, newly planted trees
and a larger flower and herb garden behind the two-bedroom guesthouse. Water
for the house comes from a well.


The Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses
about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and air-
conditioning systems consume. Several holes were drilled 300 feet deep, where
the temperature is a constant 67 degrees. Pipes connected to a heat pump
inside the house circulate water into the ground, then back up and
through the house, heating it in winter and cooling it in summer. The water
for the outdoor pool is heated with the same system, which proved so
efficient that initial plans to install solar energy panels were cancelled.

The features are environment-friendly, but the reason for them was practical;
to save money and to save water, which is scarce in this dry, hot part of
Texas.


(NOTE: The floor plans shown at the web site westernwhitehouse.org are
not accurate reproductions of the size and layout Bush's Prairie Chapel
Ranch house. They are elements of a parody.)



Last updated:   28 March 2007






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