Saturday, July 07, 2007

Live Earth is now dead

It's over. Some 74,500 tons of green-house gases were emitted/created/produced to put on the show, but hey, at least a few million Westerners (give or take a few million, probably take) got to rock out, feel good about feeling good about doing nothing, and help raise awareness.

Now tell me, if I were to burn down a grocery store to raise awareness about over consumption or destructive farming techniques, what would the reaction be? I earnestly hope people would deem me a madman without any second thought, seeing as I created a big mess just to protest a big mess. And what if the big mess I was protesting wasn't even proven to be a big mess at all? What then?

If those who attended any of the Live Earth concerts set any standard, no one would care. They'd just be happy that I invited a few modern day pop stars to help make the mess. Private jet? No problem - she's raising awareness, don't cha know. In our age of enlightenment, raising awareness is practically a cause for secular sainthood. It doesn't matter that a person's lifestyle contradicts their message, just as long as they make sure they insert a few catch-phrases to their songs and smile to the media, they're totally above criticism.

Perhaps the best quote of all, which sums up the entire problem of Live Earth and the slacktivism of global warming came from a British punter named Jayme Fine, "People leaving their lights on at home when nobody's there is going to eat up electricity. If we all just remember to shut those off, it's OK for us to have an event like this."

Idiot.

3 comments:

Jayme Fine said...

My name is Jayme Fine...I am the one quoted. I am actually from Austin TX, USA. I drive a Honda Civic which gets amazing gas milage and do my part to recycle and not waste precious resources. I plant flowers and do community service. I happened to be on my vacation in London and decided to go to the Live Earth concert. I have a Master's degree from the University of Texas and I am anything but an idiot. I am also a girl! I was mis-quoted not only by you, but by the AFP. My point was that we all waste so much energy by leaving our lights on when we leave rooms or leave the house, that if we could all remember to shut them off...we would save more than enough energy to fuel a concert like this for an enjoyable event. This event was for a good cause and no where near as wasteful as the idiot who leaves the lights on when nobody is home!
Please do your research before you call someone you do not know an idiot!

Jayme Fine said...

My name is Jayme Fine...I am the one quoted. I am actually from Austin TX, USA. I drive a Honda Civic which gets amazing gas milage and do my part to recycle and not waste precious resources. I plant flowers and do community service. I happened to be on my vacation in London and decided to go to the Live Earth concert. I have a Master's degree from the University of Texas and I am anything but an idiot. I am also a girl! I was mis-quoted not only by you, but by the AFP. My point was that we all waste so much energy by leaving our lights on when we leave rooms or leave the house, that if we could all remember to shut them off...we would save more than enough energy to fuel a concert like this for an enjoyable event. This event was for a good cause and no where near as wasteful as the idiot who leaves the lights on when nobody is home!
Please do your research before you call someone you do not know an idiot!

Colm said...

Jayme Fine!

Thanks for posting. I'm actually amazed you tracked down this post - how did you come across it?

As for my comment, I happily retract it and apologize for offense. Blogs, even ones of dubious quality like my own, are renown/notorious for snarkiness, rudeness, and all in all, a general lack of research.

But allow me to elaborate a little further. I totally agree that one who leaves on their lights while not at home is the idiot. But it's important to remember that the most energy inefficient lights only use maybe 10 cents of electricity a month. The true energy guzzilers are our fridges, ovens, computers, microwaves and pretty much anything left plugged into a wall while not in use. I would say that if everyone turned off their fridge (or bought more energy efficient ones), their oven, unplugged ALL the appliances - computers, ipods and such - and then even removed their baseboard heaters, then we could have morally and environmentally justifiable Live Earth concerts every other year.

So let's be honest with ourselves. Concerts are not going to raise awareness; they're going to raise garbage levels. The sheer hypocrisy of media globastars trotting around the world in private jets to tell the rest of the world to 'save energy' must have at least had your conscience in a bind. If it didn't, I would honestly take a few minutes, if not years, to wonder whether or not your conscience is working at all.