Who Knew?
Biggest event ever staged. And the concert was big too…
In case you were living without electricity or newspapers in an effort to reduce your carbon footprint, you probably know that the Live Earth concert took place over the weekend. The concert billed by organizers as, “the biggest musical event ever” set records for attendance, Internet coverage and hypocrisy.
Madonna, fresh off being voted Least Green Celebrity in a recent poll, headlined the London concert. Also performing at the Wembley Stadium concert was the hip new group, Duran Duran who, if I’m not mistaken, have a hole in the ozone named after them due to their heavy use of hairspray back in the 80’s.
The series of concerts was designed to raise awareness of global warming. And, it’s a good thing, too. Because before this weekend, you almost never heard anything about the whole “climate change” issue. By that yardstick alone, you’d have to judge the concert as a hugely redundant success.
According to Reuters article, “The Live Earth global pop concerts on Saturday broke a record for an online entertainment show by generating more than 9 million Internet streams.”
The Reuters article went on to explain, “An Internet stream is when a person watches on a computer.”
Maybe the next concert should be to raise awareness of Internet terminology.
Early estimates by critics of the concerts indicated that organizers would need to plant over 100,000 trees to offset the carbon emissions generated by Live Earth. So, be sure to add “having a massive concert series to stop global warming” to the oxymoronic list of “bombing for peace” and “screwing for virginity.”
Still, if the concert served to make just one more person aware of the purported dangers of global warming and what we each can do to stave off the coming Apocalypse, it would have been worth it.
As one concert-goer at a pre-concert tailgating party at the Meadowlands concert venue noted, “I’m drinking a beer for global warming.”
Now, that’s the kind of social activism we can all get behind.
global warming, climate change, Live Earth, Wembley Stadium, Madonna, Duran Duran, beer, Apocalypse, Al Gore, streaming Internet,
July 9th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Okay, so I’m not the only one who sees the glaring irony of this whole Live Earth thing. That’s a relief. I was catching bits and pieces online here and there (generating one of those Internet streams you speak of) and it hit me…
An effort to raise awareness about global warming, ways we can slow it down, energy efficiency, less fuel consumption, etc, etc…. and I can’t even begin to imagine how much fuel was used for the planes, trains and automobiles used to transport all the equipment to all of these cities around the world. Speaking of equipment, how much electricity you think was spent on all those speakers, audio, visual, etc to run all day long??? Not to mention all the money, fuel and energy all those ticket-holders spent to get to their various concert locations…. and they pan through the audience to reveal beer drinking, cigarette smoking, etc.
I would have personally rather seen all those stars get in a big circle, hold hands and say “Ommmm!” simultaneously for 24 hours. Now THAT would be a statement…
July 9th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Maggie,
The positive impact the concert had to raise global warming awareness far outweighs any adverse effects it had on the environment. People like you need to realize that we are all hypocrites when it comes to this issue. If you want to get nitty gritty you and I are hypocrites when we blog from a PC or laptop that is powered by a utility that gets it’s electricity from the biggest polluters out there - the coal burning power plants.
When Madonna said it is time to “start a revolution” it was not about all of us giving up our cars and walking or taking a bus to work. It is about us supporting hybrid and zero emission vehicles, supporting clean technologies like solar and wind, and most importantly, demanding that corporations and the government change their policies and practices which have a direct impact on climate change.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
So … do as I say, not as I do?
And who gets to decide that a PC is okay but an SUV isn’t? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it’s those few enlightened climate change leaders who know what’s best for the rest of us.
Sorry, that’s a little too Orwellian for me. I’ll take my chances on people making their own individual decisions.
July 10th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Chris,
Yes, I realize the good outweighs the bad here, but come on… that Om circle would have been cool.
Indeed, we may all be hypocrites, but we didn’t get to this hypocritical state all on our own. We’ve been programmed to be so. With every advance in technology (and even medicine), we’ve allowed ourselves to become more and more dependent on sources that are controlled by someone else, electricity, oil, coal, etc. We live longer, stronger, faster lives because if we don’t, we’ll never get a piece of that pie…
We can support the cleanest technologies out there, but we’ll be alone. The technology to run automobiles on anything and everything but gas & oil already exists, and has existed since my mother was in high school. But where is it? Why don’t we have access to it?? Because someone else is already making our decisions for us. Now “the others” come along and tell us to do this and support that… so you’ll forgive me if I’m a little skeptical and yes, even critical. Maybe if we had all been a little more critical of large, sweeping movements, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.
July 10th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I think that OM Circle thing would have been really cool.. Om is a powerful word. When a whole yoga class chants it. I get goosebumps. Think what would happen if the whole world did it at the same time.. say I think this makes more sense than this concert.. come on.. This is the concert of the century and that’s why I wanted to go but it has nothing to do with the Environment.
Mark, an excellent post. I always love that humor of yours. Very sharp and witty.
and I like that you have your own approach to green living that seems honest and genuine.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I’m sensing a grass-roots movement for this whole Ommmm circle thing.
Get your tickets now for … Live Tree Pose.
It’s going to be bigger than big!