News from Nashville

Thank you, Barbara, for inviting me to add some snippets about life here in Nashville (Al Gore country). As a Marinite recently relocated here I thought y'all would be interested in the progress of the green movement here in his hometown. Observation: Although Gore is revered as God-like in the SF Bay Area (and Marin particularly), he's not all that popular here. He's still trying to get the town of Belle Meade (Nashville's equivalent to Ross) to give him permission to install solar panels in his 10,000+ sq. ft house. Much to Gore's probable chagrin, Nashville residents love their SUV's. The focus seems to be on buying the largest SUV one can find (Hummers, Suburbans, and those huge Cadillacs are very popular), driving the SUV as frequently as possible (even one block to school), and leaving it running for as long as possible with the A/C on, even up to 45 minutes while waiting in the car line to pick up kids. On the plus side, at least we don't have Cool the Earth taking over our childrens’ education...