I’ve had LiveEarth — Al Gore’s climate crisis concert extravaganza — on in the background while blogging tonight. I’ve learned a few things:
- Madonna plays a decent rhythm guitar.
- Recycled tires and oil drums can be used to good effect as a stage background.
- Kelly Clarkson has some pipes. (I had no clue she won American Idol. Maybe AI voters are smarter than I give them credit for.)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers are, indeed, hot.
- The Beasty Boys can still belt out Sabotage.
- Drink enough gin and even Bon Jovi sounds pretty good.
- Lenny Kravitz = Jimi Hendrix wannabe.
- Bobby Kenedy would be great heading up EPA, but I already knew that.
I’m sorry I missed the Spinal Tap set featuring a performance of Stonehedge.
It’s easy to dismiss efforts such as these as all hype. But I don’t. I see the names of kids (mostly kids, I guess) scrolling across the screen who at least took the time to visit the LiveEarth website and took the LiveEarth pledge, and I’m encouraged. And I recall a similar concert more than 20 years ago, just about this time of year.
On July 13. 1985, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure’s LiveAid concert reached 1.5 billion people worldwide to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.
I was a wired gardener back then, too. I remember weeding and listening along with the rest of the world on my cassette player/FM radio strapped to my belt, and realizing (while Phil Collins was singing “I can feel it coming in the air tonight … “) that the world had changed.
Is there still hunger in Ethiopia? You bet. But while I’m no fan of unfettered globalization, I’m glad that word travels faster and farther than it did just a generation ago. We’ve still got some work to do to make sure that that word is truth. But I, for one, am hopeful.
Look for Al to declare in October or November.
Updated/bonus track: So they could get a venue on every continent, LiveEarth included a pre-recorded performance by Nunatak — a garage band of British researchers in Antarctica. (Do they have garages in Antarctica?) They’re not bad, really — especially when you consider how cold their hands must be.
How did you see this? TV, on line? You’re making me feel very out of it. I just barely knew Kelly Clarkson was someone connected to Idol.
My dream team is Gore-Obama, but I’m afraid the process won’t allow for his entry, no matter how much the public may want him. It’s SO much about the bucks, so many of which are already committed.
And honestly, I can barely stand seeing Gore because I’m STILL so sickened by the 2000 election. I can’t stop thinking – if only Sandra Day O’Connor had done the right thing. If only Ralph Nader hadn’t had his ego trip.
Then I imagine where action on global warming would be if we were 6+ years into the Gore presidency. Oh, I can make myself miserable all right.
did Fred and Jade like the concert ?
You know, I just don’t think Al is going to run. I really don’t. And I agree with Susan’s comment, it would be interesting to see where we would be related to environmental issues if Gore had gotten the 2000 election – right now, we’ve gone so far backwards it’s frightening. But lately things seem to be rebounding and I agree that stuff like Live Earth works. I don’t dismiss it, and it is a positive thing – I agree with you wholeheartedly. I didn’t watch it – but I was, rather appropriately, floating in the Atlantic that day. Loved the Nanatuk video! My lab was talking about starting their own band recently and I think I just ignored the conversation – of course they didn’t mind, I just provide the case anyway (sometimes I feel like my fulltime job is to support kids to go to college!).