As Climategate unravels the tangled skein of self-interest that has always been at the center of climate research, let us not forget the exemplary efforts of the high priest of global warming, Nobel Prize winner Al Gore.

Last month, the New York Times finally took note of what it called Gore’s “dual role — advocate and investor.” The Times was particularly gentle with the former vice president, however:

Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, 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. . . .
Mr. Gore says that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.
“Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?” Mr. Gore said. “I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”

Yet it’s been clear all along that it was not money but clout the former vice president brought to the table in signing on as a full partner in Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm that is investing heavily in renewable energy.

For instance, earlier this year, when Gore testified before Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he told the Senators that “All it would take is an array of solar collectors 100 miles on a side [i.e., 10,000 square miles] to supply all the electricity we need.” As it happens, the only company making this claim is Ausra, an Australian solar firm that moved to Mountain View in the last decade in order to attract more funding.

In September 2007, Ausra announced it had secured a round of $40 million in venture capital from a Silicon Valley consortium that included Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Two months later, Kleiner Perkins took on Al Gore as a partner. In describing a scene from the Kleiner Perkins boardroom in its Feb. 12, 2008 edition, Fortune wrote:

After loading his plate with Chinese food from a buffet, Gore is firing detailed questions at the management team of Ausra, a Kleiner-backed company in Palo Alto. . . .
Once Gore is satisfied — an Ausra plant can serve 120,000 homes, and yes, smaller turbines will work fine — he shifts from inquisitor to fixer. He was chatting with California Senator Barbara Boxer “on the way over,” he reports, and he isn’t optimistic that Congress will extend the tax credits Ausra has been relying on. [In fact, it did.] On the upside, he . . . thinks a powwow at General Electric would be beneficial, even though Ausra is a tiny customer.

It’s nice to know the former vice president is doing well by doing good in solving global warming. But he’s got it backwards. He’s not putting his money where his mouth is. He’s putting his mouth where his money is.