Bloggers Mine Irony of Gore School's Contamination

(Sept. 8) -- Conservative bloggers are abuzz over what they see as a delicious irony: A Los Angeles school named for environmentalist Al Gore was apparently built on contaminated soil.

The Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences is jointly named after the former vice president and Rachel Carson, the late writer credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The facility, which cost more than $75 million, will open Monday with about 675 students.

But an environmental coalition has raised concerns over students' and teachers' long-term safety there because of concerns about soil contamination from underground tanks at a nearby gas station.

For right-wing bloggers, many of whom consider Gore a proponent of false climate-change science, this opportunity was too rich to miss.

"Al has created a fair amount of bad luck for himself, but I believe it has now taken on a life of its own and is seeking him out," blogger Paco wrote on blog Paco Enterprises.

"I fear that someday we will be reading of a windmill tower in the Al Gore Memorial Wind-Turbine Field slicing up the last California condor, or Al Gore Geothermal Station #9 exploding and parboiling a herd of cows."

For blogger Doug Powers at MichelleMalkin.com, the contamination of a school bearing the Gore name was more than a joke -- it just made sense.

"I'd say that putting Al Gore's name on a contaminated school is just about the most intellectually honest thing to come from any educational institution in the history of the United States," Powers wrote.

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Al Gore, declined to comment.

The clean-up operation at the school is costing an estimated $4 million, according to The Los Angeles Times. Workers have dug out so much dirt from the school that you could fit a four-story building in each of the two holes they left behind. Now they have to insert a barrier that will stretch down 45 feet from the surface in order to prevent future contamination.

There is an operational oil well on the other side of the street, but authorities say this poses no threat.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the site is safe," John Sterritt, the school system's chief safety officer, told The Times.

Some of the bloggers took the opportunity to denounce the character of both Gore and Carson.

For Powers, Gore is a "hyper-hypocrite" for his work highlighting the dangers of climate change.

Carson, who died in 1964, comes under attack for her campaign to eliminate the pesticide DDT. For commentators such as Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters.org, "the blood of millions" is on Carson's hands, since DDT was used in the fight against malaria.

"It's quite fitting a school be named after these two radical environmentalists that could end up harming the very students that attend it," Sheppard wrote.

Another blogger couldn't resist taking a swipe at Gore for a perceived bit of hypocrisy. The climate change activist is "probably too busy burning fuel in his private jet to even notice the school in the first place," blogger Mark Raby wrote on TG Daily.

Gore himself has little to do with the school -- he was not involved in the naming process, though he was to be invited to the ribbon-cutting ceremony.