As a generally cynical person who earns a good living by looking for dark linings in clouds, for glasses that are only half-empty and for the bad in people rather than anything good, I’m usually most happy reading other critical or cynical voices tear into dishonest politicians, under-performing athletes, misguided celebrities and phony causes — if not doing the bashing myself.
Yet even in my jaded eyes, the cynicism in the media over Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts seems to have gone too far. The myriad of critics seem to have overlooked the fact that the idea was to raise awareness of climate change. And the concerts hit the right notes on that score.
Who knows if 2 billion people really watched? More than a million did watch the concert on television in Germany, even though only 30,000 made it to the rain-dampened Hamburg stadium for the nine-hour concert marathon there. Those were superb ratings numbers for the N-24 and ProSie
ben networks that broadcast the concert.
Most were young and many probably had not thought much about greenhouse gases before — or thought they could do anything about climate change. It was a great concert and definitely opened eyes. Even rapper Snoop Dogg, one of the nine acts, said he ended up learning about global warming and hoped his fans start paying attention as well. He was chauffeured to the stadium in a small two-seat car that gets 70 miles per gallon.
Some critics complained the concerts used up a lot of electricity while others said that pop stars, infamous for their limos and Learjets, were poor role models for promoting green living. Bob Geldof, the man behind Live Aid and Live 8, also added his two cents, saying the world already was aware of global warming. The Who’s Roger Daltrey said the “last thing the planet needs is a rock concert.”
Might they have missed the point? The concerts were the start of a 3- to 5-year campaign to get people thinking about climate change and encourage them to live greener lives. And as any honest cynic should be able to admit, they fit the bill.
