To expand on Eric’s brief mention of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts:

Hoo boy.

How can you expect to gather millions of people in various open places around the world, power hundreds of thousands of watts worth of sound and lights, fly artists to and from venues (not to mention pamper them), produce commemorative concert swag, and allow food vendors to sell at each event without doing damage to the planet? Does Gore believe all the attendees will travel by bike and hybrid to the concert grounds? Doesn’t matter how many empty water bottles Bono picks up from the Wembley Stadium floor: No amount of carbon credits, tree planting, or money and awareness raised can offset the serious trampling such a major production will cause.

The Live Earth web site goes into scant details about “world class sustainability experts” setting a “Green Event Standard” but there’s no way their efforts could add up to much. Here are two bullet points:

- Concessionaires will be encouraged to use and directed to suppliers of agricultural / biodegradable plastics (i.e. made from corn). Also, concessionaire waste will be minimized through a comprehensive recycling system organized at the venue.

- Venue offices, walkways, etc will be retrofitted with compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs, where possible.

That’s nice — encourage vendors to use biodegradable plastics. Uh huh. And those CFL lightbulbs ought to really lower the energy bill. Sorry Al, but like your presidential campaign, this project seems noble but poorly conceived.

I’m all for raising environmental awareness, but throwing a massive worldwide concert to save the planet is like fucking for virginity.

Though apparently the Spice Girls have been invited to reunite for the event, so maybe we’re in good hands after all.