In fact, though not surprisingly, he doesn't. The mansion that Al Gore owns in Nashville used more than twice the electricity last August than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to FOXnews.com. And yet, Al Gore wants us to cut down on our energy emissions without making a single dent in his own. Interesting. In my economics class, we refer to this phenomenon as the free-rider problem. Unfortunately, what is inconvenient about this economic truth is that Gore is free riding on the problem he so desperately wants to solve. If the state of the atmosphere and Earth were really that important to Gore, maybe he wouldn't spend more than $500 a month heating his pool house.

The threat of global warming has become our culture's equivalent to being vaporized by a nuclear bomb. During the 1960s, the Lyndon B. Johnson campaign launched a commercial featuring a little girl picking the petals of a daisy in the field. When she reaches the number nine, a man's voice can be heard in the background counting down. The camera zooms in on the little girl's face and suddenly an explosion is heard, accompanied by a mushroom cloud. The end of the ad prompts viewers to vote for Johnson.

This ad was deemed a scare tactic and only ran once. The "threat" of global warming has prompted similar commercials. In one particularly disturbing ad, a man is standing on a set of railroad tracks with a train coming up behind him. As he is standing there, he says, "Some say the effects of global warming are 30 years away. Thirty years? That won't affect me." He then steps off the tracks, out of the path of the train, but standing behind him is a little girl. The camera zooms in on her face, and the screen goes to black with the words, "There's still time."

What people don't realize is that our contribution to the devastating greenhouse gases is small, approximately 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent. Greenhouse gases are not the main contributor to global warming. Undeniably, as humans we think highly of ourselves and our abilities, but trying to give ourselves all the credit for the warming of the earth is a new level of hubris.

The fact is that Earth oscillates between heating and cooling itself. During the 1970s, headlines warned Earth was going to plunge into another ice age because during that period, the atmosphere was cooling. The cause of this cooling was man-made atmospheric pollution blocking out the sun.

Ironically, scientists attribute the cause for global warming to man-made atmospheric pollution causing the greenhouse effect. Which is it? Because it can't be both.

For the scientists, it's much easier to get funding for research when you could be bringing humanity back from the brink of Armageddon. It also helps when people are used to being spoon-fed their facts without having to think for themselves.

Perhaps Gore should do some research before crusading to solve a problem that really can't be solved through our limited abilities. Global warming is not a sign of the apocalypse, and riding to the Oscars in a Toyota Prius will not make you a superhero.

Jessica Byrom is an MSU international relations sophomore and State News columnist. Reach her at byromjes@msu.edu.