Monday, July 30, 2007

Live Earth: Harmful...or Beneficial?

Some of you may recall that there was a series of concerts that took place in early July to benefit the environment, even though it wouldn't surprise me if you are scratching your head saying...what concerts? Anyways, Al Gore and a bunch of celebrities/music artists decided that it would be a nice idea to hold a series of concerts in different places around the world to "spread awareness" about the environment/global warming. The article gives some more specifics on the events that took place. Anyways, I have been sitting on my opinion of these concerts for a long time. While I understand their intentions, I question whether or not the benefits outweighed the negative outcomes. Now, the negatives of all of these shows would be the amount of fuel the artists wasted with their tour buses and planes, the electricity the concert was fueled on, the security, the money spent on fancy bottled water and random foods demanded(have you ever seen what some of those artists demand in their dressing rooms?) the artists drink and eat, the fact that they are wagging their fingers at me for taking a ten minute shower even though they drive a Hummer or Escalade which causes a certain feeling of nausea in my stomach.....but Al Gore swears up and down, as do many other green thinkers, that the "awareness" that was spread will outweigh these costs. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but just because you tell someone something, it doesn't necessarily mean they are going to act upon that information. I can tell you we have class at 10 AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and you are aware of it, but you decide that staying in your room playing video games is worth more than your class. Another claim was that the concert "wasn't meant to just make changes for the general public, but to inform the lawmakers and activate their awareness". I just feel like this whole save the environment campaign would have worked better with a small, grassroots movement style. Concerts with thousands of people are VERY impersonal. Plus, if it is your favorite band, singer, or actress, you don't give a blast what they are saying--you're into the music! Adrenaline is pumping, you're waving your hands in the air, jumping like a puppet on a string...you aren't REALLY listening with full concentration (it is nearly impossible to with all the other people screaming around you anyways). I think by traveling the country/world (by bike or something more environmentally sound-maybe three bands could have fit into a plush tour bus instead of one) playing acoustic shows, doing volunteer work with communities, or holding autograph sessions and speaking about the environment, would have suited this kind of message a lot better than these concerts.

What do you think of the Live Earth Concerts? Did the costs outweight the benefits, or vice versa?

2 comments:

Heather Paige said...

I think Jenna makes a very good point here. As my favorite artist says in a song "is there anyone who really recalls every breaking rank at for something someone yelled real loud one time?" Just because the point of the concert was to put awareness out there about global warming doesn't mean that it will cause people to change their behaviour. Personal costs and benefits have to be played into a person's decision to change their un-green habits. Many free-riders also come from these situations because they believe that if so many more people now are supposedly living a greener lifestyle, that the free-rider can benefit from the better environment without sacrificing their comforts.

Tian said...

I think it is a good point that people who spread awareness about the environment/global warming should start with themselves. However, I think it is hard to evaluate this Live Earth Concert by cost-benefits theory because the benefits are hard to value. We can definitely calculate the costs, adding up all the money spent on tour buses, air tickets, electricity, food, water and so on. On the other hand, the benefit is intangible. It is hard to value how much it will benefit the society after a Live Earth Concert. Maybe next time before you throw away an empty bottle, you will think about recycling because of this series of Live Earth Concert.