Live Earth

[+Dave 2,322]

I mean seriously do these people really think mega concerts around the world do anything? How many of these have we seen over the years? Has anything changed?

[MigBuster 2,884]

It gets publicity for the bands and another knighthood for Bono and Bob Geldorf usually - Ive no idea where the money really goes to or how it will improve the natural Earth.

I don't think the emissions caused by all the people traveling there and the masses of Electricity used could have done much good - I cant even leave my TV on stand by anymore - yet these tw@s can use what they like to sing a few ancient songs and lame covers.

 

The BBC showed the UK concert live from Wembley stadium for most of the day yesterday - which almost guarantees it will be lame. Well in the 5 mins I watched it for it didn't disappoint - on to the stage comes Genesis - and off goes the TV - so it reduced my carbon footprint a bit anyway!.

 

There was a rumor on f-16.net that flying time for air forces is likely to be cut and Pilots use flight simulators more - well that is a positive step to curb emissions if ever I saw it - cos you would have to put a gun to my head for me to give up my car for more than a day!

[eraser_tr 29]

As George Carlin said "f*** the Earth. The Earth is fine. It's our ability to live on it that's in question"

 

The awareness and motivating people is the what it was supposed to do. Publicity for environmentalism.

 

So far I've managed to go the entire month of June without driving or filling up my car. Doubt it helped the environment much, but it did help my wallet. What I can't stand about the whole matter is that doing things more environmentally friendly is decried for "hurting the economy" while other nations do it and have a better economy than us.

 

I saw an article on a pure electric car that outperforms Porsches and Ferraris on the track. I'd drive that immediately if I could afford it.

[+whiteknight06604 934]

what a bunch of dumbasses

[Revvin 1]

You know I get fed up of all these rich 'stars' telling me how to live. I try to do my bit, I recycle, use energy efficient lamps where possible, use the car less but these 'stars' are only interested in the publicity of these events, a lot of them only doing it because they have an album arriving soon. How many of those 'stars' flew to those venues around the world to lecture us on global warming? How much of a carbon footprint did all the lighting and sound equipment create? According to one paper Madonna has shares in several high polluting companies, maybe she should sell them and perhaps buy another bloody baby and shut the hell up!

[Hawk MMS 0]

You know I get fed up of all these rich 'stars' telling me how to live. I try to do my bit, I recycle, use energy efficient lamps where possible, use the car less but these 'stars' are only interested in the publicity of these events, a lot of them only doing it because they have an album arriving soon. How many of those 'stars' flew to those venues around the world to lecture us on global warming? How much of a carbon footprint did all the lighting and sound equipment create? According to one paper Madonna has shares in several high polluting companies, maybe she should sell them and perhaps buy another bloody baby and shut the hell up!

 

 

I was just saying the same thing to my wife. And here I was starting to think I was the weird one.

[+Dave 2,322]

Good point, how much energy was wasted just for these mega concerts?

[firehawkordy 34]

Don't care about any concert series fronted by Al Bore,errr, Gore. I remember a news story about an Earth Day concert in NY's Central park, after it was over the city had to come in and clean up mountains of trash left by the "Lovers of Mother Earth", not to mention the damage to the trees and grass in the park itself. The concerts are only to make people feel good about themselves and do nothing to help.

 

It reminds me of the Roman Empire, give the people bread and circuses and they will stay content.

Edited July 11, 2007 by firehawkordy

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

Good point, how much energy was wasted just for these mega concerts?

 

Well that's the thing, they were supposed to be using biodiesel generators, solar panels, etc to make it as carbon neutral as possible, but the inherent evil is that events this large on their own are pretty grotty, on a global scale...? The only thing worse than leaving one bad ecological footprint is leaving about 12. And when ever you go to an event like this, come dawn, you see nothing but a sea of plastic bottles on the ground. (thank christ we have the 5c deposit

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm kinda for this event, but I think there are gonna be some big problems with it. I think the aim to make people more aware of it succeeded, but the concerts had people preaching to the converted or polarising people against the event with the "Who are you to tell me what to do" no matter how passive the encouraging. Still I think the bigger turnoff is the fact that most energy efficient or environmentally friendly variants of existing products are expensive simply because they don't yet have the economies of scale behind them like existing products do.

 

But I'm with Eraser_tr

 

"What I can't stand about the whole matter is that doing things more environmentally friendly is decried for "hurting the economy" while other nations do it and have a better economy than us."

[JediMaster 451]

Once again the celebs do something that make them feel good about themselves. This has nothing to do with the rest of us.

[+whiteknight06604 934]

looks like it was a flop.Ratings were pretty low.Re-runs beat it in lots of markets.

[tank03 1]

Well that's the thing, they were supposed to be using biodiesel generators, solar panels, etc to make it as carbon neutral as possible, but the inherent evil is that events this large on their own are pretty grotty, on a global scale...? The only thing worse than leaving one bad ecological footprint is leaving about 12. And when ever you go to an event like this, come dawn, you see nothing but a sea of plastic bottles on the ground. (thank christ we have the 5c deposit

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm kinda for this event, but I think there are gonna be some big problems with it. I think the aim to make people more aware of it succeeded, but the concerts had people preaching to the converted or polarising people against the event with the "Who are you to tell me what to do" no matter how passive the encouraging. Still I think the bigger turnoff is the fact that most energy efficient or environmentally friendly variants of existing products are expensive simply because they don't yet have the economies of scale behind them like existing products do.

 

But I'm with Eraser_tr

 

"What I can't stand about the whole matter is that doing things more environmentally friendly is decried for "hurting the economy" while other nations do it and have a better economy than us."

 

I agree with everything SayWhat?! had to say above.

 

I do take issue with some of the celebrity bashing I've read in this topic though. Granted, some celebrities are shallow and only in it for the PR, but others are quite genuine in their interest to the cause. I don't hold it against them the fact that they are famous. Because they have acheived success in their chosen industry isn't necessarily a reason to condemn them. Besides, the public is responsible for generating a great deal of the so-called "hype" and celebrity status that surrounds these people, so don't blame them, blame the public.

 

I was read a very interesting article about the environment and it did mention that many celebrities actively supported a variety of causes. One particular famous actor said (I'm paraphrasing here), "I'm rich. I have all kinds of free time and I don't have to worry about making money. Because of that I'm in a perfect position to get involved and help out. We can't expect the average joe, who has to work everyday, to have either the time or resources to get out there and actively participate. Since I'm in the position that I am, I feel it's my responsibility to get out there and do my part."

 

The guy had a point; he could have sat home counting his money and getting trashed (which is what I would probably do), but instead, he donates time and money and gets involved.

 

Just because we may not like the world of celebrity in general, I don't think it's fair to make blanket statements about all of them. Some of them truly care and are doing what they can to make a difference. The fact that they may be rich and famous shouldn't diminsh their contributions.

[Revvin 1]

Well that's the thing, they were supposed to be using biodiesel generators, solar panels, etc to make it as carbon neutral as possible, but the inherent evil is that events this large on their own are pretty grotty, on a global scale...? The only thing worse than leaving one bad ecological footprint is leaving about 12. And when ever you go to an event like this, come dawn, you see nothing but a sea of plastic bottles on the ground. (thank christ we have the 5c deposit

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm kinda for this event, but I think there are gonna be some big problems with it. I think the aim to make people more aware of it succeeded, but the concerts had people preaching to the converted or polarising people against the event with the "Who are you to tell me what to do" no matter how passive the encouraging. Still I think the bigger turnoff is the fact that most energy efficient or environmentally friendly variants of existing products are expensive simply because they don't yet have the economies of scale behind them like existing products do.

 

But I'm with Eraser_tr

 

"What I can't stand about the whole matter is that doing things more environmentally friendly is decried for "hurting the economy" while other nations do it and have a better economy than us."

 

Yeah I'd read about them using low energy lighting but they still used a hell of a lot of the stuff, also one of the UK bands the Kaiser Cheifs travelled by train to the concert and avoided flying though I'm not sure just how much better that is. But as you pointed out the plastic bottles its another thing not considered and thats how fans actually got to these concerts, I assume there were rows of bicycles outside these stadiums

 

While some celebs may believe in the cause - after all we all have causes we truly believe in I think a lot of these stars are just rent-a-cause types in it for the publicity, I'm sure if the article is true Madonna will now sell the shares she has in those high polluting companies? Its the same with these fund raising events, you get the likes of Geldof and Bono shouting about people giving money but how much do these stars actually give and when comparing that ammount with their overall wealth I wonder how it compares to the man on the street who can only give a few dollars but does'nt earn much more but its the stars who get the knighthoods and sell more records. Just as one article portrayed Madonna as a being hypocritial with her shares there was another story after the last Live Aid where Bono moved one of his music recording companies offshore to avoid paying huge tax bills to his native country making a lot of people out of work.

[+Dave 2,322]

I agree with everything SayWhat?! had to say above.

 

I do take issue with some of the celebrity bashing I've read in this topic though. Granted, some celebrities are shallow and only in it for the PR, but others are quite genuine in their interest to the cause. I don't hold it against them the fact that they are famous. Because they have acheived success in their chosen industry isn't necessarily a reason to condemn them. Besides, the public is responsible for generating a great deal of the so-called "hype" and celebrity status that surrounds these people, so don't blame them, blame the public.

 

I was read a very interesting article about the environment and it did mention that many celebrities actively supported a variety of causes. One particular famous actor said (I'm paraphrasing here), "I'm rich. I have all kinds of free time and I don't have to worry about making money. Because of that I'm in a perfect position to get involved and help out. We can't expect the average joe, who has to work everyday, to have either the time or resources to get out there and actively participate. Since I'm in the position that I am, I feel it's my responsibility to get out there and do my part."

 

The guy had a point; he could have sat home counting his money and getting trashed (which is what I would probably do), but instead, he donates time and money and gets involved.

 

Just because we may not like the world of celebrity in general, I don't think it's fair to make blanket statements about all of them. Some of them truly care and are doing what they can to make a difference. The fact that they may be rich and famous shouldn't diminsh their contributions.

What contributions? They act and sing for a living....those are "professions" that do not have any impact on our society in a sense where society will be lost without them. We need teachers, we need a military, we need fireman and police, we don't need celebrities. They think because they ARE rich it gives them a right to have a say. No it doesn't, I think the only person there that was serious about it was Al Gore. The rest will say they are "green" then go back to their celeb lifestyles. We do not need a mega concert to make us aware of the problems, the freakin' media does that already.

[tank03 1]

What contributions? They act and sing for a living....those are "professions" that do not have any impact on our society in a sense where society will be lost without them. We need teachers, we need a military, we need fireman and police, we don't need celebrities. They think because they ARE rich it gives them a right to have a say. No it doesn't, I think the only person there that was serious about it was Al Gore. The rest will say they are "green" then go back to their celeb lifestyles. We do not need a mega concert to make us aware of the problems, the freakin' media does that already.

 

"They think because they ARE rich it gives them a right to have a say."

 

-They have a right to say because they are citizens, it has nothing to do with how much money they have. They exist on this planet just as you do, and they have every right to try and help fix what they percieve as problems and to speak about those problems. Being rich just gives them greater opportunity to speak up.

 

"The rest will say they are "green" then go back to their celeb lifestyles"

 

- There are a number of celebrities that were present at the concert who actually practise what they preach. Just because you don't think they are serious doesn't make it so. A number of them have a long and well established track records of supporting environmental causes monetarily as well as in practice. As to the celeb lifestyle, I'd love to be rich and not have to work everyday and spend my time floating around the pool with beautiful women and drinking Guinness until it came out my ears.

 

"We do not need a mega concert to make us aware of the problems, the freakin' media does that already."

 

-Sad as it is, there are some people who have never, and will never, read a newspaper/watch the news/seek out accurate info. My wife's co-worker is a perfect example; she reads People magazine, watches Entertainment Tonight and has no idea what goes on in the rest of the world, but can tell you everything that happened in Hollywoood last week. It may be that with this concert, these people were introduced to the problem of global warming for the first time and presented with info that they may never have come across any other way. The fact that her favorite actor said global warming is a problem may have been enough to have her get involved. Besides, I for one, love a good concert

 

"They act and sing for a living....those are "professions" that do not have any impact on our society in a sense where society will be lost without them. We need teachers, we need a military, we need fireman and police, we don't need celebrities."

 

- I completely agree about teachers, military, etc. but I also greatly value the entertainment. Each part of a society contributes to the whole. Individually, we may not value or partake of the fruits of their profession, but I imagine all of the cameramen, writers, prop guys, studio accountants, guitar makers, the receptionist at the movie projector factory, etc. all place value on what these actors and singers do; their livelihood depends on it. I for one, love going to the movies and concerts and have a very extensive music collection. I love going to see my favorite NFL team. Yes, I think they are all overpayed, but I rather they be overpayed than not have those diversions at all. Besides, it's the public that creates celebrities. If you want to chastise anyone go after the people that support the industry and pay the money that allows these poeple to live the "celeb" lifestyle.

 

Incidentally, we often speak of police and fire fighters when we talk of community heros. I'd also like to include the trash collector. We give him very little thought, but where would we be without him? Probably chin high in trash, garbage, and disease. I've never had the fire department to my house (thankfully) but I do get my trash collected twice a week and I'd hat e to think what life wouold be like if I didn't.

 

I'm not trying to incite an argument and I respect everyone's opinions, but the vehemence of some of the comments would lead one to believe that these celebrities got together and started to mass slaughter babies or something. Whether their interest is genuine or not, they are just trying to do something good.

 

I've seen Bono brought up a couple of times. Yes, he's rich. Yes, he's a celebrity. Yes, he live a pretty good life and owns homes across the globe. Yes, he may make you cringe. But, he has also made a real and quantifiable difference. He's contributed millions personally, and he's encouraged others to do the same. He's lobbied on behalf of millions of people and his efforts have made real changes in the quality of life of these people. That's a fact, not an opinion. You may not like him but it's undeniable that he's given back more than he's taken. He's certainly done more to make the world a better place than I have.

 

I just think it's unfair to chastise these people for attempting to do good.

[eraser_tr 29]

Very well said.

 

But a sad reality is that many celebrities don't really care, its just doing what's trendy at the time. There are those who do care and help consistently, but I'd injure myself laughing if I heard paris hilton suddenly became an activist for something(probably something ironic like animal cruelty, while wearing a fur coat at the press conference )

[tank03 1]

Very well said.

 

But a sad reality is that many celebrities don't really care, its just doing what's trendy at the time. There are those who do care and help consistently, but I'd injure myself laughing if I heard paris hilton suddenly became an activist for something(probably something ironic like animal cruelty, while wearing a fur coat at the press conference )

 

I'm willing to bet Paris thinks activist is some time of european actor.

[MigBuster 2,884]

Well I know the point of the concerts were to raise awareness of the current situation - which it may have done to some people - though I suspect most would have thought it was just another concert. I myself know the situation so another boring concert didn't appeal to me obviously - and I dont see biofuels being the answer due to the amount of crop land needed for the common types.

 

Another slight problem at the moment is developing industrial nation like China and India whose emissions increase every day. Self appointed experts over here tell us that even if the entire UK ditched Cars/planes and went on bikes every where the effect would be canceled out by these other nations within a few years - great!

 

If global warming is a real threat then you can kiss the Earth goodbye - I cant see us pulling out of this one! - though we'll see.

 

Im sure some celebs do care about environmental issues now the bandwagon has come round - the question is were these people like Genesis and Madonna raising these issues in the 70's and 80's?

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

Im sure some celebs do care about environmental issues now the bandwagon has come round - the question is were these people like Genesis and Madonna raising these issues in the 70's and 80's?

 

Come on, we all remember the crap the "Save the Whales" types copped back then, plus, to add to their uphill battle, there wasn't the saturation in the media then like there is today. A lot of it was based on the "No Nuclear" stance they were lumped together and considered to be "tree hugging hippies" and left to do whatever it is they do while we face more pressing issues... like flag burning and other mostly pointless topics .

(TANGENTThe one tangible truth of flag burning is this: Ignore the cloth, ignore the symbol, ignore the expression of freedom or rebellion; You burn something someone loves, you better be prepared to get your ass whooped'!)

 

There's a big smoke screen being thrown up by 'interested parties' in terms of the "Myth" of global warming, there are already conclusive studies proving that there is a definite link between the causes and the effects of industrial pollution and the nay sayers aren't producing cogent arguments in return (Just have a look at amateurish attempt by The Great Global Warming Swindle for example), they're just arguing for their stance in louder voice. But this is all just BS. The real issue should be how we're dealing with the threat, not who's right or less right

 

During the cold war, the West didn't simply fail to prepare to the potential threat of a Soviet nuclear strike by suggesting "it's a myth" or "it doesn't exist". There was a lot to lose should one prove wrong. And look at how western economies around the world adapted to the situation. It wasn't the end of the world, many countries overcame the situation and adapted to it.

 

It can be done, the trick lies somewhere in being able to keep existing (or close to existing) levels of productivity without disrupting employment and other pillars of respective economies and also in allowing emerging/booming nations like Brazil, China and India to continue their growth unimpeded (or again, close enough to it) or without instilling the feeling as though they're being punished by being obliged to use much greener methods when most, if not all western nations reached their respective positions without the same limitations. Everyone needs to chip in, but like with any undertaking, it requires just a step to begin, even baby steps.

It's much better than simply agreeing to disagree and doing nothing at all or announcing voluntary, non-enforceable initiatives to infinitely smaller targets that achieve the image of appearing to something without having done a thing. Something, the likes of which Sir Humphrey Appleby would have been proud.

 

 

...or I could just say "screw it" and blame you Northern Hemisphere heathens for polluting my world! Just kidding!

[+Typhoid 231]

"and the nay sayers aren't producing cogent arguments in return" saying that doesn't make it so. I provided another link to a site to take this very political argument to. As I said up there, I am sure Nightwatch over there will be glad to kick your $#$#!@% and provide you with some ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC refererences to provide you with the other side of that debate.

 

see ya there.

[Caveman 1]

I have one question here what about all the evidance that globle warming is a cycle??? and not effected by man-kind as much as people like AL Gore would have us belive??

[eraser_tr 29]

oh it certainly happens naturally, thats unavoidable. But you'd be a fool to believe we can pump out all the smog and chemicals we want into the air and not screw things up as well.

 

The idea is to strike a balance between economic growth and keeping the environment in check.

[Caveman 1]

thats the hard part

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

thats the hard part

 

That and avoiding the bickering...

[JediMaster 451]

Avoiding it? Some people seem to revel in it, I don't think there's any avoiding it.