[dwe3000]

True, but I would appreciate a little integrity/honesty. He flies all over the world, multiple times in a short time span, and then makes his money "complaining" that we are using fossil fuels, when he could have just as easily been there via a teleconference. I don't mind people that walk the talk, but Al Gore avoids that.

[sethrin]

This is called "tu quoque"[0] or appeal to hypocrisy.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

[humanrebar]

In this case, the pitch is for sacrifice and discipline. It undermines his argument if he's somehow exempt from the plan.

As in, if even a rich, educated, and passionate Al Gore cannot actually reduce his carbon footprint, is it even doable for India and China?

[Retra]

Al Gore can't personally build a skyscraper, but India and China seem to have no trouble doing that. In fact, you could probably list billions of things that individuals cannot effectively do that large organizations can do.

And even if he reduces his carbon footprint to nothing, all the does is shut him up and temporarily reduce carbon emissions insignificantly. It does nothing to curb industrial processes where the bulk of carbon emissions occur.

And you'll note that hypocrisy is not actually a logic fallacy. A war general has just as much reason to be listened to when he campaigns for peace as a pacifist; because peace stands on its own merit.

EDIT: This isn't even hypocrisy, though. Al Gore isn't asking each individual to fix their own carbon footprint. He's asking institutions to do so. And institutions can do things individuals cannot (due to networking and economic effects), as evidenced by that being the whole reason institutions are formed.

[PhantomGremlin]

He flies all over the world

There are a lot of "Gulfstream liberals" that fly around the world in private jets while telling the 99% how they should live.

This isn't limited to Al Gore. Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan) quipped this about Davos: "It is where billionaires tell millionaires what the middle class feels."

[Boothroid]

Sadly it does seem to me that there's an large element of ego behind his efforts.