A Lot Of Hot Air

At work today, the usual water cooler Dunkin' Donuts conversation turned to the Live Earth series of concerts held on all 7 continents on Saturday. There wasn't much I could contribute, because I didn't see more than about 5 minutes of it. The reunited Genesis was on stage at Wembley in London, and that was 5 minutes more than I needed to see.

Anyway, I've become very skeptical over the years about these big music events. Live Aid, Farm Aid, Live 8-they all seem to be promoted with the best of intentions. How could anyone be against them? Well, the Arctic Monkeys chose not to participate in Live Earth because of the "hypocrisy" of musicians, their entourages, the production staff, and of course, the audience, using valuable resources to attend these shows. I still remember the amazing swag the performers got in exchange for appearing at Live 8 in Philly 2 years ago.

I also don't like having environmental consciousness shoved down my throat. I've been deeply concerned about threats to the natural world, and human health, since I saw Iron Eyes Cody cry in that TV PSA decades ago. I recycle, I am careful about the goods and services I consume, and I drive a pretty fuel-efficient car. While I, like many scientists, have doubts about global warming climate change, I know it's important to use the planet's resources in an efficient way; I'm a good capitalist. But these are complex issues, not easily reduced to fist-shaking against "the corporations" or the Bush administration, or simple admonishments to change light bulbs. I really wonder how many concertgoers will go right back to the same old lifestyles.

Word on the street is that the TV ratings for this show were pretty low on NBC here in the USA, as well as elsewhere.