Al Gore: World's First "Carbon" Billionaire?

Climate change may be serious stuff for many of us, but for Al Gore, it's seriously profitable. He's about to become the world's first "carbon" billionaire:

Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy as Mr Gore. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.

Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming sceptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.

Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, has claimed that Mr Gore stood to benefit personally from the energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.

Mr Gore had said that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.

Link


So, a guy who's mission in life is to bring awareness of global warming has made a BILLION dollars from global warming. . . Hmmm. follow the money and you will nearly always find the reason behind the hype.
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wow. so we go from

"Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming sceptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first "carbon billionaire,"

To carbon billionaire as fact?

Gore was born into money. He's also been working on this for 30 yrs. Now that he's going to see return on his investment he has ulterior motives?

Stay off the politics neatorama.
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The article doesn't say that Gore is becoming a billionaire, or say that he will make anything like that. It says that businesses that his venture capital group have invested in may make billions over coming years and that the venture capital company's $72 million dollar investment may be returned several fold.

Last I checked, Gore was a private citizen and if he's willing to risk his money as a venture capitalist, he's entitled to profit from well placed investments. Just as those office holders who promoted "drill baby drill" are free to go back to work for the oil industry that they love so much.

I'm tired of seeing political posts on Neatorama. Stick to what you do best.
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>> "Thank you for these posts, neatorama. I find them neat, and it's nice to see politics up here without one side being pushed over the other."

Sarcasm?

Anyways, global warming is fake. Right?
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this is so not a big deal. why wouldn't someone invest his money in something he's known for speaking in favor of? where the hell else is he supposed to do it?
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@7 BJN: The problem is, these private investments are to companies that are going to receive massive infusions of government cash. Presumably, Gore still has quite a bit of pull with them. The problem is using political influence to funnel government money into one's own pocket.
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This is the exact same argument made about Cheney and Halliburton - except Cheney had already pledged over all his Halliburton investments to the University of Wyoming.

There's a clear conflict of interest here when a politician uses his public position to advocate for policies that benefit his private investments. Journalists have been sent to jail for less.
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Technically, wouldn't he be the worlds' first "green" billionaire?
You could argue that the first "carbon" billionaires would've been people from the coal / oil industries.
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If Gore had put all his money into Big Oil and then went on his green movement kick, would we then say he is a hypocrite for giving money to the opposition? It seems to me it makes perfect sense for him to support the movement he supports with money. The fact that he's seeing a return on his investments seems to me to only mean that he's had a degree of success in what he's been trying to do.
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