Live Earth is ambitious by any standard: eight concerts featuring the biggest names in music, playing for a 24-hour period across the globe, all for the cause of global warming. But like its template -- 2006's Live 8, the global concert devoted to poverty in Africa -- the mission of Live Earth is somewhat amorphous. Its aim is to "trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
" Whatever Live Earth's accomplishment today, it will be difficult to measure. Former Vice President Al Gore, who partnered with Kevin Wall in founding Live Earth, believes the world needs to rise up as one giant vox populi to influence "a new political reality." "The tipping point in the political system will come when the majority of the people are armed with enough knowledge about the crisis and its solutions that they make this cause their own," Gore said in an interview with the Associated Press.
"Then, you will see the entire political system shift dramatically." Kevin Wall, an Emmy-winning concert producer who produced Live 8 and founded Live Earth, hopes Live Earth will change attitudes about global warming and jettison a larger movement. "This concert is not the solution," Wall says.
"This concert is providing, hopefully, that global tipping point to start to get us into empowering people, get them into the tent." Live Earth will send proceeds to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit organization chaired by Gore (tickets for the U.S.
Wall was originally inspired to put on Live Earth after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth," the Academy Award-winning documentary on Gore's global warming slide show. "The question I kept asking myself is, 'What can I do?' " Wall says.
Concerts are scheduled for Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; London; Johannesburg, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Tokyo; Sydney, Australia; and Hamburg, Germany.
A band of scientists will also perform in Antarctica. More than 150 artists will perform, including Madonna, the Police, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alicia Keys. Sixty short films and 30 public service announcements have been produced, which will be broadcast between performances.
Live Earth on TV today-midnight Sunday on digital cable Channel 775-Sundance. Live Earth is ambitious by any standard: eight concerts featuring the biggest names in music, playing for a 24-hour period across the globe, all for the cause of global warming.
News RSS