The Great Climate Party

A live concert in 7 continents in 24 hours on 7.7.07. Woohoo!!

Its all over network television and promoted by none other than Mr Global Warming himself Al Gore. What a guy, staying the course in his unpopular mission, weathering the criticisms from the powerful lobby against change, even surviving the critics about the electricity he uses at home.

Above pictures from spinner.com. And don’t ask me about the flying pig.

Anyway here’s a roundup of what I think the concert has achieved.

1. Message of a planet in crisis. Yup the stars would have undoubtedly delivered scripted messages in between their songs. To the throbbing crowd, I’m sure something would register in minds that aren’t too stoned or drunk to listen. If you had already accepted global warming as a problem when you came to the party, it can only strengthen your conviction. If you didn’t have a stand, I doubt if seeing a bunch of ppl prancing on stage would have made a difference

2. Call to action. I can’t tell if its there. I guess there’s a big difference between me telling you you’re sick and you actually wanting to do something about it. Some might take this as a final hour party so lets go with a bang. So whether action will follow is something we’ll have to see.

3. Worldwide publicity. Definitely, both Al Gore and the global warming agenda are winners as they ride on every major broadcaster’s airwaves plus MSN. In fact this is a brilliant branding coup for Gore. It builds tremendous mindshare and heartshare in a crowd of 20- and 30-somethings, the rebellious generation X that’s probably the toughest to penetrate. And its not just in America but worldwide. That’s a stored value that can yield him great dividends and not necessarily in the area of climate change alone.

I think the organizers have been reasonably careful in setting expectations. The fact is, no one’s gonna turn their lives around and be carbon friendly after a night of loud music but what they could carry home presumably is a difference in the attitude towards the problem. Everything begins with a thought so I think burning that thought in the mind, even at the subconscious level, would be an achievement in itself.

There was one thing that bothered me a little though. After a quick scan through Live Earth’s website I could not detect a statement about the carbon friendliness of these concerts.

Just imagine: in planning and executing this global event, how much materials and energy did they consume to get the equipment manufactured, flown about, powered up and so on. And what about the whole entourage, their air and surface transport, accomodation etc. And what about those of the concert goers? Would it come to a thousand tons of carbon? A million? These are pollutants that the planet could’ve avoided if the concert hadn’t been held.

I had expected to see a statement of carbon neutrality saying, “We will plant a million trees to neutralize the million tons of CO2 we expect to produce with these concerts” or something like that but I haven’t seen it. Have you?

I think such a statement would be as powerful as the concert itself. But knowing Gore however, especially after the critique on his own lifestyle, he will undoubtedly be prepared with such a statement.

Anyway it was a memorable event for me. Now all Gore has to do is score successes that are as big as his concerts.