Live Earth: Useful As A Green Bracelet

This is a reprint from Australia's The Age. I would normally come up with my own witty title for my post, but the article's title is just too perfect. In the wake of (RED) apparently hemorrhaging marketing cash, Live Earth is sure to be the next blunder. Previously I wrote about the monetary and carbon costs of stadium concerts. While concerts are such an integral part of the economy, using them as a venue to spread "global warming awareness" is totally absurd. You seriously have to be retarded to think that there's a single person on the planet that can afford a $99 concert ticket that is not already "informed" about global warming. We are so far beyond an awareness-spreading phase it's absurd. Money needs to go entirely to change. The reality is, change does not occur at the behest of do-gooders. Only governments in conjunction with multi-national corporations can induce global change. This is not a first. When it was discovered in 1976 that the ozone layer was being depleted by CFC aerosols, it took governments and corporations to make necessary changes and it took ten years. Enough rambling. Here's the article:

Live Earth: useful as a green bracelet
May 20, 2007

First, we rocked to feed the world. Then we rocked to raise money to rebuild after the tsunami. Two years ago, the pop stars massed to rock against debt recovery in the Third World. At least, I think that's what Live 8 aimed to do. Not that it made any difference.

And now we're asked to put our hands in the air like we really care about the environment at Live Earth, a multinational phantasmagoric series of stadium concerts on July 7, with the grand aim of "raising awareness of global warming".

Our $99 concert tickets, which I am sure will be printed on recycled paper, do not go towards any concrete measures to halt global warming, or to repair any damage done to the Earth. The proceeds don't go directly to purchasing solar batteries for anyone or subsidising public transport anywhere. The event just goes to raising awareness. And right now?

That's not only a waste of time but a gross indulgence. It's just a green rubber bracelet to string on your arm next to the white rubber band that will magically make poverty history, and the yellow one that cures cancer.

Keep reading at theage.com.au