Al Gore texts me about his finances

Al Gore seems to have a target on his back. The former vice president is the symbol of “global warming alarmism” to those who want to block the U.S. from taking effective action on climate change.

Whether it’s Bill O’Reilly or the Heartland Institute or a backbench Republican congresswoman or a blog run by a guy who cut his teeth by swift-boating John Kerry, Gore is the bogeyman. They want answers, I tell you! Yeah, we know — he’s a private citizen. But what has he got to hide?

OK, then. I sent him some questions — mostly questions that the right-wing journal Human Events said somebody ought to ask him. I think he was about as candid as one could expect from a private citizen. What do you think?

(For a fuller discussion bogeyman/hero status, check out this week’s Media Mayhem column, by yours truly, on the Mother Nature Network.)

Ken Edelstein: You are a partner in the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins and a co-founder of the United Kingdom-based investment firm of Generation Investment Management, each of which stands to gain financially from greenhouse gas regulation. Please describe any other financial interests that you have in any other businesses that stand to profit from greenhouse gas regulation.
Al Gore: As a supporter of “sustainable capitalism” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584367114799137.html) I have made long-term investments in “sustainable” companies in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, the vast majority of which are not directly involved with efforts to solve the climate crisis. I have also invested in some companies that have attempted and will continue to help solve the climate crisis.

Ken Edelstein: In October 2008, the New York Times Magazine featured a cover story on how Kleiner Perkins had invested $1 billion in 40 companies that would profit from new environmental and energy laws and regulations. What will be your share of any profits from these ventures? Read more

A newspaper finally covers Heartland deniers’ meet

Finally, a mainstream reporter has covered last week’s Heartland Institute climate change skeptics’ conference, but his article doesn’t make the group sound particularly believable.

Scott Harper of the Virginian-Pilot, of Norfolk, Va., in a piece that was published Saturday, focused on the emotion-laden tone of the meeting, which was ostensibly held to display examples of dispassionate science. Read more

Bill O’Reilly bark at Al Gore worse than his bite

Fox News heavily plugged an O’Reilly Factor segment on eco-celebrity Al Gore last night, but the report ended up sounded more like a faint reverberations in the conservative media’s echo chamber.

The report recycled the very same information that was peddled last month by O’Reilly’s guest host, Laura Ingraham. But this time correspondent Megyn Kelly credited Investor’s Business Daily for the information.

It turns out that IBD article didn’t provide any new information, however. Kelly apparently was referring to an un-sourced April 29 declaration on the business newspaper’s famously right-wing editorial page, which said:

When Gore left office in January 2001, he was said to have a net worth in the neighborhood of $2 million. A mere eight years later, estimates are that he is now worth about $100 million. It seems it’s easy being green, at least for some.

The thin sourcing of old news didn’t prevent O’Reilly and Fox from endlessly hyping the planned attack on O’Reilly’s climate change Enemy No. 1. Read more