Global Warming In the News

Aim of concerts isn't money, but to change the way people live.

By Josh Drobnyk | Call Washington Bureau

In a world of instant gratification, Live Earth could perhaps best be described as a branding effort. Unlike most benefit concerts, where raising cash is the barometer of success, today's nine-concert event has a more amorphous goal: changing people's attitudes about global warming.

Instead of spurring you to grab your checkbook, event organizers are hoping you'll reach for energy-efficient light bulbs the next time you're at the hardware store. And then tell your neighbor -- and your lawmakers -- to do the same.

The last four decades have witnessed the rise of the mega-benefit concert, each with a somewhat measurable standard of success. In 1971, George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh raised millions for refugees there. Live Aid raised $200 million-plus for famine relief in Africa in 1985. And 20 years later, leaders of the eight most industrialized countries agreed to cancel debt obligations of 18 of the poorest countries after the Live 8 concert lobbied for the move.

The impact of today's event will be much more difficult to gauge.

''The Live Earth concerts represent an unprecedented opportunity to ask for the world's attention long enough to deliver an SOS, and then to begin delivering information about the solutions to every single person,'' former Vice President Al Gore, who co-founded the concerts, said at a news conference last week.

More than 150 performers, including Madonna, The Police and the Black Eyed Peas, will take the stage on seven continents with that message in mind. Concerts are scheduled in East Rutherford, N.J.; Washington, D.C.; Hamburg, Germany; Johannesburg, South Africa; London; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; and Sydney, Australia. A band of scientists will perform in front of a tiny crowd at a research station in Antarctica to round out the event.

The concerts won't be completely void of measurements of success. Proceeds -- tickets cost $83 to $348 -- will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection. And organizers are hoping to drive viewers online to http://www.live-earth.com to check their ''carbon footprint.'' They're also asking people who attend the concerts and the many other events being staged around the world to sign a seven-point pledge promising to take personal action toward reducing global warming.

''The only way for us to create…a critical mass of awareness and pressure …is by asking people all over the world to be a part of this movement,'' Gore said.

The lack of a more defined goal, though, has its detractors. Bob Geldof, who organized the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts, criticized Live Earth in an interview with a Dutch newspaper as ''just an enormous pop concert for the umpteenth time'' that is without a ''final goal.''

''Everybody's known about the [greenhouse effect] problem for years,'' Geldof said. He added: ''I would only organize this if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations.''

And organizers have been put on the defensive over the energy required to stage such a massive event. A news release sent out last week highlighted a new waste system at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford that will give concert-goers more opportunities to recycle and is designed to reduce materials sent to landfills. Power at the venues is to be provided from renewable energy sources and ground travel by hybrid vehicles, Gore said.

''This is going to be the greenest event of its kind, ever,'' Gore said, according to The Associated Press. ''The carbon offsets and the innovative practices that are being used to make this a green event, I think will set the standard for years to come.''

How well it all works toward encouraging more energy-efficient living and pressuring world leaders to take action to curb global warming, though, is still anyone's guess.

''Our hope is that just like with Al Gore's movie, just like with the Time cover story on global warming, this will be another event that will further raise the profile of the global warming issue and compels our citizens and our elected officials to take action,'' said Nathan Willcox, energy and clean air advocate for the environmental advocacy organization PennEnvironment. ''We are definitely hopeful that these concerts will help make a difference.''