I spent rather more of my Saturday afternoon than was perhaps strictly healthy watching Live Earth.
Of course, it’s easy to be cynical. It would be the easiest thing in the world to point out the hypocrisy of a bunch of rock stars flying into London in their private jets to do their bit for the planet. But just because it’s easy to be cynical, I don’t know if I’m going to let that stop me… Al Gore might tell me in my Saturday Indie that “at least one act at the London leg will be arriving by tube”, but then I notice that Razorlight played Live Earth and T in The Park on the same day, while Snow Patrol had to get over to Oxegen. No mention of how they would have got themselves from London to Scotland and Ireland in time for their respective evening sets…
But anyway. Apparently it doesn’t matter if the London leg alone will have churned out something like 3,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, because it’s all about “raising awareness”. Maybe I live in a closeted liberal world, but is there really anyone out there who isn’t aware of global warming? (I mean apart from George Bush, that is).
Well, actually, watching the coverage I started to realise that maybe there is: early on in the day, Edith Bowman talked to some girls in the crowd (who were, inexplicably, most looking forward to Genesis) who talked about “the problem of all the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere”. Hmm. Well, if the atmosphere really was full of carbon monoxide then I think we’d have more to worry about than global warming… And someone keeps trotting out some statistic about 56% of the UK population believing that there is still an ongoing debate in the scientific community about whether global warming is happening and whether it is out fault. Look: there isn’t, it is, and it is, ok?
And here’s the Black Eyed Peas talking to Jonathan Ross: Ross asked them if rappers were going to change their lifestyles and ditch their hummers, which caused Mr Black Eye Pea on the left to admit the he indeed owns a Hummer. But he’s going to “blow it up and get a hybrid”, so that’s all ok… Hmm, even if he isn’t really going to blow it up, if you’ve already got a car is the best thing you can do for the planet really to ditch it and buy a new one (energy efficient or not)?
And what’s this: Jimmy Carr popping up on Ross’s sofa bemoaning the cynicism surrounding around the event. Jimmy Carr? Attacking people for being cynical? Hmm.
Actually, I didn’t mind the BBC’s coverage: Ross was not afraid to poke gentle fun at proceedings when necessary, in pleasing contrast to the irritatingly cringeworthy coverage of the world of awfulness that was the Diana concert the previous week (If you were fortunate enough not to see it, I can report that it was every bit as awful as you might have expected. Or perhaps slightly worse). Say what you like about Ross, and whether his massive salary is justified, but at least he can deal with the challenge of a live broadcast in a way that Claudia Winkleman and Jamie Theakston unfortunately cannot…
Anyway. So I had a telly on for most of the afternoon that wouldn’t otherwise have been switched on. And now I’m using a computer that wouldn’t otherwise be switched on to write about it. It’s ok, though, because I’m raising awareness. Well, everyone’s got to do their bit, haven’t they?