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Will This Weekend's Concertizing Help Cool the Planet?
The plethora of weddings taking place on this coming especially propitious Saturday will be accompanied by music from all seven continents. The Live Earth concerts for a climate crisis will be beamed to 2 billion viewers. Live Earth's master of ceremonies is Al Gore.
Science critic at large Russell Seitz--who last made an appearance in H&R discussing Gore's Venusian meteorology--casts a somewhat gimlet eye on tomorrow's goings-on. To wit:
A little consciousness raising is a dangerous thing. Millions led to fear rising seas by An Inconvenient Truth are beginning to wonder about tomorrow's LiveEarth concerts. Could the coal-fired electrical demand of bands with ten megawatts of stage lighting undo Al Gore's good intentions? Biodiesel is the mantra offered in global response ,but all Green politics is local. It is up to the crowd to offset its own affluent effluence, lest CO2 from sweaty dancing send the fever swamps of the Potomac flooding onto the National Mall like the Lagoon of Venice at high tide.
Whole Seitz post here.
For good or ill, I suspect that Live Earth will have about as much effect on policy as Bono's and Geldof's Live 8 Concerts did. Have a good weekend.
|7.6.07 @ 2:14PM|#
Oh man, I can't wait to see the look on those little Eichmanns' faces when they hear this crunchy groove.
|7.6.07 @ 2:21PM|#
Shitty emo band Fallout Boy are playing Live Earth.
Pretty much sums the whole thing up in a nutshell.
joe|7.6.07 @ 2:30PM|#
Sorry, I stopped reading after the weak-assed insult to the most important concert in the history of mankind.
Guy Montag|7.6.07 @ 2:33PM|#
Carbon Credits! Get your freshly minted Carbon Credits right
here!
I shall be celebrating this eveny by watching the Daytona NEXTEL
Cup (alternative fueled) race tomorrow evening.
|7.6.07 @ 2:37PM|#
All the leftoids are still in disbelief that this concert was
reported (gasp!) by Drudge.
You are
getting information from the Drudge Report? Are you serious? It is
just a link, but you are going there, looking for things to blog
about? I come back to reason.com every once in a while, but seem to
get scared back away by something like this. Drudge is far from
"reason."
|7.6.07 @ 2:44PM|#
Finkelstein: I'm puzzled by your post. I visit all kinds of websites, but I don't think I've clicked on Drudge more than twice or three times in my life. Anyway, if Drudge "scares" you, I suggest you stay away and spend more time at reason.com. Have a good weekend.
TallDave|7.6.07 @ 2:48PM|#
Well, good news for warmenists: Greenland won't melt,
apparently.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070705/sc_nm/glacier_greenland_dc_1;_ylt=AuAFDUHRdIYJ0v5WBvDX8P8E1vAI
Scientists had thought the area was last ice-free about 120,000
years ago during the last interglacial but the study showed
southern Greenland was still covered in ice at that time.
This suggests the southern Greenland ice sheet is more stable than
thought and might not be as big a contributor to sea level rises
caused by rising temperatures, Willerslev said.
This does not change the view that climate change is problematic
but could force scientists to rethink their models looking at the
impact of warming temperatures, he said.
"If we have found evidence that the ice didn't melt away then
people have to take that into account when modeling how ice caps
might react in the future to climate change," he said.
|7.6.07 @ 2:58PM|#
The only thing accomplished by Live 8 was getting Roger, Nick, Rick, and David all on the stage at the same time. I never would have thought that would have happened.
D.A. Ridgely|7.6.07 @ 3:01PM|#
The Live Earth concerts for a climate crisis will be beamed to 2 billion viewers. Live Earth's master of ceremonies is Al Gore.
Could someone please TiVo it for me? I just checked and there's a
conflict with "That 70's Show" and an episode of "Frasier" I really
want to see.
[P.S. to Mr. Bailey: Thanks for the kind words, Ron and yes, btw,
e-mail does work both ways!]
|7.6.07 @ 3:10PM|#
The only thing accomplished by Live 8 was getting Roger,
Nick, Rick, and David all on the stage at the same time. I never
would have thought that would have happened.
And that in and of itself made it all fucking worth it.
|7.6.07 @ 3:25PM|#
The only thing accomplished by Live 8 was getting Roger,
Nick, Rick, and David all on the stage at the same time. I never
would have thought that would have happened.
And they sounded fucking great, too.
|7.6.07 @ 3:26PM|#
If only there was another way to raise awareness about global warming than a huge, energy-consuming concert. Since there's a complete media blackout on the issue, this concert is the first I'd heard of global warming.
|7.6.07 @ 3:27PM|#
Man, the value of Carbon Credits are plummeting. It's Carbon Credit inflation. Al Gore is printing too many CC Certificates. What we really need is a Gold Standard! For every ton of carbon my non-green lifestyle choices spew into the atmosphere, I should get a Liberty Eagle. Think of my children!
|7.6.07 @ 3:40PM|#
Wait, all 7 continents? I'd hate to be assigned to play the Antarctic concert. Especially in July!
|7.6.07 @ 3:45PM|#
Wait- I thought they were going to run the whole thing with
pedal-power generators and solar cells. You mean they're just going
to plug into the grid and divert electricity away from those poor,
panting grannies in Yuma?
You bastards!
Nephilium|7.6.07 @ 4:11PM|#
P Brooks: You don't understand. This concert follows the
philosophy of the Yen Buddhists. If non-green energy is the root of
all evil, then by using that energy for my own uses, I'm saving
your soul while condemning my own. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing
to make to help you. I will use your energy, and then seek my own
absolution.
Nephilium... with apologies to Terry Pratchett... (just replace
energy with money)...
|7.6.07 @ 4:48PM|#
These liberals who think that just because so-called
"scientists" think we're behind global warming means it might be
true are the same ones who think the earth is more than 6,000 years
old. Thank God people here don't fall for that nonsense.
Also, I heard that many people who think we should conserve energy
use energy themselves. Hypocrites!
Mike Laursen|7.6.07 @ 5:01PM|#
What. Nobody has worked in a reference to Al Gore's son getting busted for drugs while speeding in a hybrid vehicle?
|7.6.07 @ 5:09PM|#
Could the coal-fired electrical demand of bands with ten
megawatts of stage lighting undo Al Gore's good
intentions?
Not to mention the mess left behind by all those
environmentally-conscious music fans...
LarryA|7.6.07 @ 7:38PM|#
Millions led to fear rising seas by An Inconvenient
Truth are beginning to wonder about tomorrow's
LiveEarth concerts.
Personally, I was really (pleasantly) surprised there weren't any
"Fourth of July Fireworks-->Global Warming" essays this
week.
Wait, all 7 continents? I'd hate to be assigned to play the
Antarctic concert. Especially in July!
Turns out the Rothera Research Station has a rock band,
Nunatak. Who knew?
You have to watch an ad first.
|7.6.07 @ 9:18PM|#
Just so you know, harrumphing about how the people whose media
campaign is kicking your ass are *gasp* using energy in their
efforts to get the word out doesn't sound like sour grapes.
At all.
So don't worry.
|7.6.07 @ 9:23PM|#
On the other hand, maybe the people whose guts keep telling them
that Al Gore wants to destroy civilization and have us all freeze
in unlit huts will notice that this concert kinda, sorta, uh, makes
them look like hysterical imbeciles.
But I wouldn't count on it. Those are some very dedicated
haters.
Russell|7.6.07 @ 11:26PM|#
Really Joe! What's all this about Al wanting us to freeze in
unlit huts ?
He's signed off on letting CO2 grow by fully a part per million per
year, which would give everyone, even you, a carbon ration of fully
580 grams a day- think of all the heat you can get from a piece of
coal the size of a small turnip ,and how brightly your 100 gram
nightly candle will illuminate your raw vegetables.
|7.7.07 @ 12:07AM|#
I'm going to ask this question again. Why are the liberal Democrats pissed about increased oil prices and call it "price gouging" when skyrocketing oil prices are the surest way to reduce carbon emissions?
oh no|7.7.07 @ 3:46AM|#
It is only logical that to cut the emissions of man in half,
half of mankind must be cut out.
It is also logical that those who truly believe in everlasting
sustainability should be the ones to sacrifice themselves for the
sake of mother earth. If you are Green, go kill yourself now, to
save the world. As the population begins to increase, once again
wise ones will realize the danger, and again, they are the ones who
will pay the price gladly. I now see the light in the phrase, "Why
would anyone bring children into a world like this." Then again, I
might be wrong in all this.
|7.7.07 @ 4:19PM|#
Russell, you're just shilling for Small Turnip.
Is Al Gore handing out coal now? That BASTARD!
|7.7.07 @ 4:24PM|#
Cesar,
Some of it is just plain old pandering to what they think people
want to hear.
Part of it is that rapid and severe increases in energy prices are
part of the problem that liberal Democrats want to solve with a
smarter energy policy, so they want to highlight the problem.
Personally, I don't like the way gas prices go through the roof
when a Bush gets elected and puts an army into the Middle East.
;-)
|7.7.07 @ 4:26PM|#
It is only logical that to cut the killing of whales in half, half of mankind must be cut out.
LarryA|7.7.07 @ 4:44PM|#
I'm going to ask this question again. Why are the liberal
Democrats pissed about increased oil prices and call it "price
gouging" when skyrocketing oil prices are the surest way to reduce
carbon emissions?
Energy company profits are bad. Profits might be spent on producing
more oil or using what we have more efficiently or building
alternative nuclear plants. Energy companies shouldn't make those
decisions, a Democrat-run government should. Prices should be
raised by taxes liberal Democrats can redistribute to their
constituents.
|7.7.07 @ 5:39PM|#
Could the coal-fired electrical demand of bands with ten
megawatts of stage lighting undo Al Gore's good intentions?
Not to mention the mess left behind by all those
environmentally-conscious music fans...
All these factors are taken into consideration and planned
for...
http://www.ecorazzi.com/?p=1566
Of course there is nothing to offset the aesthetic pollution caused
by concentrating that much mediocre talent all into one
event.
My god what a crap line up.
|7.7.07 @ 5:42PM|#
Wait, all 7 continents? I'd hate to be assigned to play the
Antarctic concert. Especially in July!
http://www.ecorazzi.com/?p=3180
Russell|7.7.07 @ 7:28PM|#
Joe- thank you for reminding us that substituting renewable
whale oil to save endangered mineral species like anthracite from
extinction is as fundamental a principle of Really Deep Ecology as
cutting your whale in half and eating it too.
I wish you had told us sooner, as unmuffled diesel generators
burning Wrong Whale trans-fat would raise the tone of any Live
Earth production.
Mark Bahner|7.8.07 @ 12:09AM|#
"On the other hand, maybe the people whose guts keep telling
them that Al Gore wants to destroy civilization and have us all
freeze in unlit huts..."
Not ALL of us. *His* mansion is apparently well-lit. I read he even
has--or at least HAD, until it was publicized--NATURAL GAS lights
for his pool! Talk about monumental hypocrisy!
|7.8.07 @ 1:56AM|#
Even if you are a person who takes everything Gore says about global warming as the Gospel Truth, it seems like this concert is a silly idea. What is it supposed to accomplish? To draw attention to the issue? I hear about the issue 100 times a day, who is going to be alerted by this?
|7.8.07 @ 1:06PM|#
Well, Dave, for one thing, it draws the wingnuts out of the
woodwork so their misleading attacks can be refuted.
You know, like Neu Mejican did up there.
|7.8.07 @ 1:54PM|#
Global Warming is a vast left-wing conspiracy to advance its agenda of global hegemony (seeing how the whole "democracy/freedom/capitalism" thing is petering out...)
Russell|7.8.07 @ 1:58PM|#
Whoa, Joe:
Neu Mejican said he'd "hate to be assigned to play the Antarctic
concert. Especially in July"
Though two billion viewers were led to believe they were watching
Live Earth live, Nunatak was shown playing its penguin chorus gig
in broad daylight.
The Southern Lights have seen strange sights , but the sun went
below the Rothera station horizon last month ,and is out for the
winter count.
|7.8.07 @ 3:18PM|#
Good job blowing the lid off of the conspiracy by Big Penguin,
Russell! The price of liberty is indeed eternal vigilance.
That is the most egregious piece of political dishonesty since my
lawsuit against the Neverending Story.
Russell|7.8.07 @ 6:13PM|#
Full Disclosure :
Big Penguin once asked me to write a book.
Big Coal owes Al a lot of fish for the hundred thousand tons or so
( ~500 gigawatt hours per billion TV's @ 6,150
kilojoules/kilowatt-hour @ 38% plant efficiency) it took to power
all those un-offset boob tubes.
|7.8.07 @ 8:32PM|#
Russell,
Don't know the details of the gig's location, but I believe they
scouted for locations away from the Rothera station itself...maybe
even someplace where there was a little sun like Bellinghuasen or
Palmer or other points north.
More on the Nunatak gig.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/indepth/nunatak/index.php
|7.8.07 @ 8:49PM|#
This Q&A says they were at Rothera.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/featured/nunatak/q_and_a.php
Also says it is twilight all day long now...watching the video
again looks like twilight plus lighting rig.
Prior to the gig press reports indicate that Nunatak would be
filmed a few days before the gig since there is no satellite hook
up at Rothera. Extreme tape delay.
The deception runs deep.
|7.8.07 @ 8:52PM|#
Sun peaks up above the horizon for a bit towards the
end...
Noon at a point just north of the Antarctic circle?
|7.8.07 @ 9:29PM|#
All the hypocritical posturing would be forgivable if musically it wasn't one big-time Suck-O-Rama (for those who didn't see or hear it, imagine a Woodstock where Sha-Na-Na was the musical highlight)...
Russell|7.8.07 @ 11:03PM|#
Neu Mex :
Nature,which also ran a picture of the band casting daylight
shadows ,has Nunatak fessing up thus :
"To do it live we would need a very fast satellite link," says Matt
Balmer, an electronics engineer and Nunatak's guitarist and
songwriter. So the performance will be recorded 'as live' "
Rothera is indeed several degrees inside the circle,and the last
ship left in April. Still I think we should allow Nunatak poetic
license, and cut them some slack for atmospheric refraction - as in
the penguin sunset shot on Adamant
Russell|7.8.07 @ 11:11PM|#
Unless of course the Rothera penguin sunset shot _is_ high noon , in which case Big Klieg Light owes Al another fish
|7.9.07 @ 1:45AM|#
Russell,
Rothera is indeed several degrees inside the circle
Best I can tell it is about 1 degree inside (Latitude 67°34' S,
Longitude 68°08' W).
Antarctic circle = 66° 33′ 39″
So they are something like 70 miles south of the line. Atmospheric
refraction can move the sunrise line about 25 miles (is it more
down there?).
July 18th is the next sunrise at Rothera...only two weeks
away.
Now elevation should also mean something.
Jim Treacher|7.9.07 @ 5:38PM|#
Agreed, people shouldn't criticize Gore for the way he lectures people about their energy usage while using incredibly huge amounts of energy himself. Because... well, they just shouldn't, that's all.
|7.10.07 @ 12:01AM|#
Totally agree, Jimbo. All we gotta do is find an unsympathetic poster child for any cause we disagree with and *boom* that cause is automatically worthless. That's how I sleep at night while not giving a shit about anything. How do you do it?
Jim Treacher|7.10.07 @ 3:21AM|#
I make broad assertions and ask leading questions, that usually does the trick.
Mark Bahner|7.15.07 @ 8:37AM|#
"Totally agree, Jimbo. All we gotta do is find an unsympathetic
poster child for any cause we disagree with and *boom* that cause
is automatically worthless."
Well, when someone (e.g., Al Gore) tells me that the cause he is
advocating is a big moral issue, and then I find out that he
himself apparently massively violates the cause he is advocating,
why shouldn't that discredit the idea that his cause is a big moral
issue?
"That's how I sleep at night while not giving a shit about
anything."
How I sleep at night is by giving a damn about things that are
important. It's pretty clear to me that global warming isn't one of
them. And Al Gore's behavior seems to be just more evidence of
that.
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