There were many great things about how Live Earth was put together. Unlike Live 8, Live Earth was truly a global event by including every continent, rather than shunning out Africa as Live 8 had done – the very continent they were trying to bring awareness about. In addition, the venues tried their best to use recyclable items and encourage their patrons to do so. And if the Live Earth event organizers were right, the event reached 2 billion people or about a third of the world’s population. And if you had the time and money to go to one of the concerts or own a television to watch it, chances are, you needed to hear the message. But was the message heard?
Al Gore may have known better than to help spearhead this project. After all, he got it right from the beginning: protecting our environment is an “inconvenient truth.” People do not like to be inconvenienced, even if it means protecting the environment.
It is inconvenient to care because to care means to people will have to change the convenient and comfortable lifestyles that they are used to. This means less bottled water and more tap water that you should be drinking from a reusable container (even if it means bringing it everywhere you go) and not a paper or Styrofoam cup you’re just going to throw out. It means going to the local farmers more and buying local produce as opposed to the produce that needs to be flow in from across the continent - and remembering to bring a reusable bag or not to ask for one so that you are not taking a non-biodegradable or non-recyclable plastic bag. It means turning down the air conditioning on a hot day & trying to get back w/ just your windows open. It means using as much daylight as possible to be efficient and then keeping your lights off at night. It means not flushing the toilet every time and dealing with the odor so that you can conserve water. Or even worse for many, showering less or with less water.
Those are just the many tip of the iceberg ideas that very few people are willing to partake because of the inconvenience factor. It’s not too hard to reuse the same water bottle for five years and to ask take out restaurants if it’s okay that you use it for your drink rather than taking one of their throw-away cups, yet it is too hard for most people in the world. So if people are unwilling to do this, how willing are they to do the bigger, even more impacting things like living in smaller, older homes rather than taking the resources and land to build a large, new one?
And what about the debate over some of the new ideas to conserve energy are really working? Are people going to actually take the time to think critically about this information or just mindlessly do what they think is the cool thing to do because a celebrity told them to do so? It is arguable whether or not the energy used to recycle things actually creates more waste than if items were just put in a landfill ( “Recycling is Garbage,” John Tierney). Or whether or not solar energy or hybrid cars actually save fuel in the long run, or that the fuel needed to create these things to being with create more waste than these items could ever save? Not to say that any of these ideas is correct, rather people need to see all sides of the story to be able to truly know whether or not their well-intentioned behaviors are actually helping or hurting the environment. The only sure fire way to help so far is to use less and reuse more, which means dramatic lifestyle changes for much of the wasteful, need-to-own-everything-brand-new, "developed" world. Though if they are so developed, the question remains, how so when it comes to environmental protection?
The thing is that despite the good intentions behind Live Earth, the end result probably will not save as much energy as the event needed to put it together. Musical artists are still going to live in their overly extravagant houses that use up a ridiculous amount of energy. They will continue to go on tour in their private jets & large buses that could easily accommodate more people going their same direction. And they are still going to put on these large scale concerts w/ laser lights and sell lots of food items sold in non-reusable containers and artist paraphernalia that doesn’t need to be made in the first place, but will one day end up in a dump somewhere.
Moreover, the people who saw the show will also soon forget about the message behind it and just be thankful for the opportunity of a free concert to see their favorite acts. Plus, if their musical idols aren’t going to practice what they preach, what incentive will fans have?
The truth of the matter is that it is only when people are really to change their lifestyles to live a little more inconveniently for the convenience of the future will the world truly be a Live Earth.
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