Originally published on the CGS blog on May 13, 2007.
When I first read the headline “Geldof Criticizes Gore’s Live Earth” I was shocked and a bit disappointed. Bob Geldof isn’t just the former front man of The Boomtown Rats but also a committed humanitarian that organized both the Live Aid and Live 8 global benefit concerts. For those of you who might be unfamiliar or a bit too young to remember The Rats’ 1979 classic hit “I Don’t Like Mondays,” a musical response to a California school shooting, or the 1985 Live Aid internationally-televised concert series aimed at alleviating the devastating affects of famine in Ethiopia, Bob Geldof was Bono before Bono. He was the well-coiffed personification of cool with a conscience. If you don’t believe me, take a look for your self…
As an eight-year-old growing up in Merrillville, Indiana, these televised images of Bob Geldof basking in the Wembley crowd’s frenzy after delivering the haunting line “That the lesson today is how to die” and Bono marching around the stage and imploring “No more!” were quite literally life-altering. It inspired a life of asking questions, demanding answers and seeking solutions. So to have Geldof questioning something as obviously important as the Live Earth series seemed unimaginable.
But after reading Geldof’s comments and perusing the Live Earth web site, I found myself in general agreement with his sentiment and consternation, if not his concern over the series title. (Come on, Bob, you weren’t the first to use the term “Live” to describe a rock concert.) Although I think we all hope that these concerts will be a “success,” Gore and the other event organizers have not at this point laid out what success means in real terms beyond “engaging people on a mass scale” or highlighting little other than the fact that proceeds will be going to a “multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis.” According to the site:
Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis. Live Earth will bring together more than 150 of the world’s top musicians for 24-hours of music from 7 concerts across all 7 continents. Live Earth will bring together an audience of more than 2 billion at the concerts and through television, radio, film, and the Internet. That audience, and the proceeds from the event, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by Vice President Al Gore. Kevin Wall, Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, is producing Live Earth.
In my view as an advocate, there’s no clear “ask” in the above statement unless one believes there is still a public debate about the global threat of climate change. But recent international polling (and here) finds widespread agreement in the international community that climate change is a serious and pressing global problem that must be solved sooner rather than later. What we need now isn’t more diagnostic debate, but more local and global solutions. Enter Gadfly Geldof. The always-skeptical, always-idealistic, yet highly pragmatic Irish rocker is quoted as saying:
But why is (Gore) actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody’s known about that problem for years. We are all (expletive) conscious of global warming….I would only organize (Live Earth) if I could go on the stage and announce concrete environmental measure from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations….They haven’t got those guarantees, so that’s just an enormous pop concert or the umpteenth time that, say, Madonna or Coldplay get up on stage.
My fairly uninformed guess is that Al Gore and the Live Earth organizers will eventually name the foundation, develop the “ask,” host one heck of a concert series and inspire millions to change the world in their own backyards, whether the backyard is Lhasa or Los Angeles, Minneapolis or Mumbai. Otherwise, the inconvenient truth will be that Gore and company missed a big opportunity to make an even bigger impact on our lives, our environment, and our future. Thanks again for the reminder, Bob. Sorry I doubted you…
