Live Earth Entertains, But is That It?

Al Gore’s brainchild, a global concert held to highlight global warming, came off rather nicely over the week-end. The gig started in Sydney and Tokyo, and ran through Shanghai, Johannesburg, Hamburg, London, Rio, New York and Washington, DC. About 100 acts performed, and no one has seen it all (thanks to YouTube, though, someone will have by August). This journal is all for musical events that try to bring people the bigger picture, but the question needs to be asked, just what did Live Earth accomplish?

American comedian Chris Rock joked about it, but he hit the nail on the head. According to the New Musical Express, he quipped, “I think this will do for global warming what Live 8 did for ending world hunger.” Other sources have the quote citing Live Aid, the anti-hunger gig done in the 1980s. In either case, the question remains, is the concert an event unto itself, or is there something grander and more enduring that is coming out of it?

Much was said in the broadcast about “what you can do to stop global warming.” Use paper bags instead of plastic when shopping, drive less, don’t over air-condition the house, and so on. Did anyone really need to be told that? Perhaps some of the younger viewers might, but if they haven’t heard it from Mom and Dad, they aren’t going to do it because Jon Bon Jovi said so (instead, they’ll ask who the old geezer on stage is).

There is a sense that the man in the street does acknowledge that global warming is a problem, and Al Gore has let the celebrities show they care. Yet, the real trouble comes from booming economies in previously poor countries like China and India. Environmental protection bumps up against economic advancement in much of the world. It’s one thing to tell people to turn down the a/c in the house, it’s another to tell them to do without the house.

One person can have an impact, but global warming is a global problem. As Abe Lincoln said, government exists so people can do together what they can’t do individually. The governments of the world have done a pretty good job in keeping Antarctica free of trash for 50 years, and the hole in the ozone is shrinking because governments around the world acted to ban CFCs. The solution to global warming is action by governments around the world, and the good wishes of concert goers will only become meaningful if they take that goodwill to pressure their governments to act. Billy Bragg aptly sang years ago, “you are judge by your actions and not by your pretensions.” And maybe next time, American TV will show the Sydney and Tokyo gigs when they start. After all, if nothing is going to come of it other than music, a little broadening of horizons can’t hurt.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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