Live Earth Concerts?

[A Gunslinger]

Anyone watching today?

I saw Snow Patrol, Black Eyed Peas, Genesis so far. Not bad work.

There is appesrently going to be a "big suprise" tonight in New York.... gee what could it be? My bet? Springsteen.

Looking very forward to Roger Waters!

Anyone else watching today?

[danlo]

Didn't Roger Daltrey say something in the paper today to the effect that, "...what the world doesn't need right now is another rock concert." Whoever prophesized in the Tank that Gore would run for Prez with the Green Party, may just have something there...

[drew]

I don't really agree with the premise of Hundreds of Performers flying in their private jets while dozen upon dozens of trucks haul all of the gear, while hundreds of thousands of fans drive to a venue, to watch a concert that's using millions of megawatts of electricity, as a way of promoting a gree Earth.

What the hell is with rock concerts trying to do anything other than letting people enjoy music.

Like those Tibetin Freedom concerts...Is the Government of China really going to abdicate controll of Tibet, just becasue the Beastie Boys are putting on a concert?
How many people are going to be watching these concerts on there big screen TV's; listening through their surround sound systems, that use more electricity than their fridges? are these people helping the cause?

Concerts should be for listening to music...posibly fund raising...not as public service anouncments.

[A Gunslinger]

I don't really agree with the premise of Hundreds of Performers flying in their private jets while dozen upon dozens of trucks haul all of the gear, while hundreds of thousands of fans drive to a venue, to watch a concert that's using millions of megawatts of electricity, as a way of promoting a gree Earth.

What the hell is with rock concerts trying to do anything other than letting people enjoy music.

Like those Tibetin Freedom concerts...Is the Government of China really going to abdicate controll of Tibet, just becasue the Beastie Boys are putting on a concert?
How many people are going to be watching these concerts on there big screen TV's; listening through their surround sound systems, that use more electricity than their fridges? are these people helping the cause?

Concerts should be for listening to music...posibly fund raising...not as public service anouncments.

Your criticism is partly fiar, Drew. But the whole point of the event is for people to become MORE AWARE of their own "carbon footprint"; to indeed find ways to mitigate one's own impact. Perhaps while watching on one's big screen TV, they'll become inspired to go to www.liveearth.org and learn how to be better, no? Why not go there yourself and see what YOU can do? I have, and am doing some of the "7 point challenge", and will do more, I suppose. As for the event itself... this event IS going to be "carbon neutral" according to the event organizers.

Heres a story:

Live Earth goes green

Posted Mon Jul 2, 2007 10:20am AEST
Updated Mon Jul 2, 2007 10:21am AEST
Concerts: Al Gore has organised Live Earth (file photo).

Concerts: Al Gore has organised Live Earth (file photo). (At The Movies)

It would play right into the hands of critics if the seven Live Earth concerts to be staged worldwide on July 7 were to come off in an unfriendly environmental way.

And it is probably fair that no concerts in history will be more closely monitored for how well they manage power and waste.

Live Earth producers want the world to watch what they do.

"We want to make the concerts themselves part of the solution," Live Earth's Yusef Robb said.

"What we're working very hard to do is something that has never been done before: establish a new green event standard that Live Earth will not only follow, but hopefully future live events will follow as well."

The concerts will be built "from the ground up to be as green as possible," Robb said.

"If there is a choice between a dirty lightbulb or a greener lightbulb to light the stage, we're working to find the technology that can generate the least amount of carbon. If there's a choice between two cups at a concessions stand, we want to identify the best one that not only makes a beer taste good, but can also be recycled and didn't use a lot of carbon to produce in the first place."

Obviously there will be some carbon that Live Earth will not be able to "design out" of the process, Robb says.

"That's the reality of life in the 21st century. So we'll offset any remaining emissions."

The green team

Enter environmental adviser John Rego.

Working primarily with corporate "greening" consultant Brand Neutral, as well as independent non-profits the Climate Group and consultants Seven Star and Meeting Strategies Worldwide, Rego oversees the Live Earth Global Green Team.

"One of the key objectives of our work is to gather best practices and create a 'greener' recipe for the industry going forward," Rego said.

"The three main topics we focus on are energy, waste and transport, which are your three main carbon emitters worldwide, but also in a live event."

The diversity of the venues in which Live Earth will be staged is not only a challenge but a benefit, Rego says.

"There's not one model that can be used across all of them," he said.

"We have stadiums that are 30-plus years old and stadiums that are brand new and just renovated, so obviously different challenges exist there."

In Rio, a million people are expected on Copacabana Beach for a free concert.

The Shanghai show is an open event in the middle of a city. In South Africa, the venue is a green field about 60 kilometres outside Johannesburg.

The Sydney show is being held at Aussie Stadium. Fifty thousand people are expected to attend.

Rego wants concert producers worldwide to gain confidence that their generators, for example, can run well on biodiesel.

"It's also about figuring out how your generator setup should be designed - the process of setting up the energy sources so the minimum amount of fuel and emissions will actually be used," he said.

The other key component is waste management.

"If we're composting at the venues, which we're planning on doing in Johannesburg and Rio, it is making sure the cups and plastics we have can be composted," Rego said.

"It's about looking at the entire life cycle of how all this material works through an actual event."

Benchmarks

Rego says one Live Earth show has already secured 100 per cent green power.

Another venue will raise the temperature slightly to reduce the use of air conditioning.

"We don't want to [name] the venue because it will probably never be noticed by the audience," Rego said. "And that is the point."

Live Earth is going to significant lengths to actually quantify how green it will be, ie its carbon calculation.

It is also gearing up for its carbon audit.

"We are looking at setting up boundaries and going through the processes and methodology of how we're going to calculate this stuff so we have a clear understanding of what our carbon footprint is going to be," Rego said.

"All of this will be in our final report after the event and shown transparently, setting benchmarks again for the industry saying, 'This is how green we were, can you be greener?'"

It all comes back to the Live Earth mission.

"We're doing this to inspire and motivate action, and in essence my goal is to inspire action from the industry," Rego said.

"This legacy, and making sure that it is followed by tens of thousands of live events that occur every year - that impact outweighs any sort of impact we could have on the day of the event."

If you don't think that the opponents of the effort (?!) are going to look for reasons to bitch..youve got something else coming. The aorganizers are ware and are doing all they can ot avoid criticism.

All in all it is a good, altruistic effort and should be lauded.

[Lord Mhoram]

Live Earth is admirable, I think. The larger point of it is to raise awareness of global warming efforts and to raise money. A set of concerts on every continent on the planet is a pretty effective way to do both.

[drew]

I didn't wat to come off sounding like some anti-everything kind of person.

I try to stay as green as I can (I'm not going to go into too many details bragging about how enviromentally concious I am)-I use very little electricity; and I burn the least amount of fuel in my vehicles (Difficult in my line of work, but not impossible)

...but well...it's like this.
Everybody (or most people) know that the Earth is facing Enviromental tragities.
Some people want to do stuff about it...some people don't.

I don't think seeing a concert will change the nay-sayers minds.
Most people will be watching the concerts, for just that...to watch the concert.

If it was a fund raiser...I wouldn't have any kind of problem (Like the televised concerts after 9/11 and the Tsunami). But it's supposed to make people change their minds...I'm not going to check out a website, and change my way of life just because someone in a a band (even if it's a band I really enjoy) tells me to do so...we've all had ample opportunity to look into what we can do...what I'm trying to say is that the concerts are redundant; Preaching to the Choir for lack of a better term.

I'm sure the concerts are as Green as they can be; and concerts happen anyways.
So no, I don't think these shows are going to do any (more) damamge than would be done without them....I just don't think they'll do any, or very much good.

[Menolly]

I would watch if I had either cable television or high speed access. Without either, I'm shut out.

[jelerak]

I just happened to tune in just now and caught the performance by 'Taking Back Sunday'.

One of the worst live bands that I think that I have ever seen or heard.

Awful...just awful.

[jelerak]

On a much better note (pardon the pun)...

I just caught Alicia Keys along with Keith Urban doing the Stones 'Gimme Shelter'...

Damn, I sure didn't know that she could sing like that!!!

[Lorelei]

My favorite so far has been Spinal Tap doing Big Bottom with all the bass players from all the bands playing London.

My lowlight so far was AFI covering Ziggy Stardust...blech!!

[Cail]

The lip-synched Pussycat Dolls (the older, sluttier Spice Girls) were awful, AFI looked and sounded terrible, the Foo Fighters were awesome.

[danlo]

DMB is blowing the audience away with Don't Drink the Water...and Too Much...

[Holsety]

...but well...it's like this.
Everybody (or most people) know that the Earth is facing Enviromental tragities.
Some people want to do stuff about it...some people don't.

I think there's also another line of division; some people feel like they can do something, some people feel like they can't. The point (maybe) of something like this is to make people who feel apathetic or defeated when it comes to environmental problems is to convince them that stuff can be done.

It's not even the information so much as it is the simple fact that the person sees "oh look, there are a bunch of other people who are going to try to manage their carbon footprint (or w/e) better."

It's a little like voting. I really doubt most people think their individual vote is going to make a difference. Because large numbers of people DO make a difference, though, we vote anyway, because it's "our duty" as well as our right, as a member of a larger community, to make sure that there's enough people voting for elections to actually mean something. No, one person probably isn't going to fix much unless they get very, very involved, but a sort of general movement which convinces more people to do things just a bit better does help.

Actually, I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole thing too.

[Cail]

Some of the bands were great, some were crap.

But what I really objected to were all the short films that were designed to impart fear. I felt they were over the top and unnecessary.

[Marv]

I don't really agree with the premise of Hundreds of Performers flying in their private jets while dozen upon dozens of trucks haul all of the gear, while hundreds of thousands of fans drive to a venue, to watch a concert that's using millions of megawatts of electricity, as a way of promoting a gree Earth.

What the hell is with rock concerts trying to do anything other than letting people enjoy music.

Like those Tibetin Freedom concerts...Is the Government of China really going to abdicate controll of Tibet, just becasue the Beastie Boys are putting on a concert?
How many people are going to be watching these concerts on there big screen TV's; listening through their surround sound systems, that use more electricity than their fridges? are these people helping the cause?

Concerts should be for listening to music...posibly fund raising...not as public service anouncments.

I don't need a load of 'rock stars' to tell me to f'n recycle!!

[Damelon]

I don't really agree with the premise of Hundreds of Performers flying in their private jets while dozen upon dozens of trucks haul all of the gear, while hundreds of thousands of fans drive to a venue, to watch a concert that's using millions of megawatts of electricity, as a way of promoting a gree Earth.

Sums up my attitude pretty well. I think there's something more than a little wasteful about performers jetting around the world for the purpose of lecturing the masses about depleting the environment. To think that a day of rock concerts will add up to a collective lightbulb going off about the need for conservation is rather patronizing, IMO.

Face it conservation involves literally billions of small decisions that add up to make a measurable difference.

On a slightly different track, I read a mildly tongue-in-cheek article this week that stated that Al Gore III probably did more for the environment this week than his father by dispelling a myth about the poor performance of green cars.

After all, who thought a green car like a Prius could do 100 mph?!

[Menolly]

Think globally, act locally...

That's all it takes on the individuals part.

[A Gunslinger]

All in all it was entertaining. I loved Waters...the police were better than I thought.

Melissa Etheredge was so preachy she made Robin Williams look like Spock.

I thought that the organizers (though not ALL the performers) did a fairly good job of not makie climate a political issue, but one of morality and science, which was refreshing.

Gore himslef stuck to the issues, which relieved me.

[sgt.null]

I thought the Police sounded horrible, especially with Kayne West butchering Message In A Bottle. the perfect pop song reduced to a steaming pile of crap.

[Avatar]

Good post Drew. Largely agree with you and Damelon. Sure, awareness is great. Anybody not aware of the climate threats? They probably won't be watching the concerts either then.

--A