Comparison Shopping

Kim du Toit had an interesting piece comparing the living arrangements of two major American political figures:

• The first lives in a large mansion with a pool house and guest house all heated by natural gas. This house uses more power in a month than a typical household uses in a year. And it does all this even though it is located in part of the temperate region of the US.


• The second lives in a comfortable 4000 square foot, 4 bedroom house in the southwest. It is heated and cooled using geothermal energy by recycling ground water through a heat exchanger. Since the climate is arid, all waste and rain water is filtered and collected in a central cistern for landscaping irrigation. The landscaping is done with native plants that use very little water in the first place.

Who owns what?

The first mansion is owned by Al Gore. He offsets his conspicuous consumption by purchasing carbon credits from himself. The second house is owned by George W. Bush.