Rocking the planet to save the world
July 9th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
Live Earth, the much-publicized 24-hour rock concert, happened yesterday. The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog has the updates and Telegraph pans it as a huge yawn. Earlier, George Marshall at The Guardian talked about why rock won’t save the planet and readers gave their opinions here. Marshall pointed out:
This could be a revolution if it were a mass rally with clear political objectives. Imagine millions of people taking to the streets around the world with a coherent agenda for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not. It is a rock concert with climate infomercials spliced between bands singing about the people they fancy. The music will contain virtually no mention of climate change and will lack the anger, fear and aggression needed to galvanise change.
Apparently, the concert reached 10 million people online at MSN. What remains to be seen is whether these people will now cut down on car use, switch off lights more often, buy ‘greener’ products or do anything else remotely aimed at saving the planet.
It’s difficult for people to invest in issues that they can’t really ’see’ the ill effects of. For most people, global warming is a scary but rather distant reality. The very largeness of the issue makes it hard to grasp. And awareness building programs are inevitably a mix of doomsday prophecies and admonitions to ‘do your little bit’. Possibly, what is needed is smaller, more focused suggestions that take into account that people also need to live their lives today while trying to preserve the world for the future.
What do you think?