Live Earth

Posted by: Matt Johnson | 13 July 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The global Live Earth event was not without its critics.   A weekend of self-styled “Concerts for a Climate in Crisis” was an ambitious concept, not least because attracting big artists and even bigger crowds to large venues created its own pretty significant impact on the environment.

Was it a success in terms of raising awareness?

Well, that rather depends on where you are coming from.  There’s no doubt a huge number of people are now aware of the risks posed to our environment by carbon emissions and other attacks on our ozone layer.

Many of them would probably find it hard to point to anything new gleaned from watching almost 15 hours of live BBC coverage centred on the London leg of Live Earth.

At the weekend, those who chose to scoff at the concept of the event, pointed to the volume of emissions generated by a whole squadron of pop stars jetting hither and dither to take to the various Live Earth stages.

Add to that the fuel spent by the hundreds of thousands of fans travelling to attend the gigs in person, and the energy required to stage the concerts, and you begin to see a hefty fuel bill, although concert organisers stressed they were seeking to make their activities “carbon neutral”, I wonder how they will decide whether they did or not?

Against a background of pretty fierce criticism from many quarters, it was interesting to see which global brands had aligned themselves with the event. When I glanced at the Live Earth website there was strong branding from a motor manufacturer; a major electronics company and a software provider.

It was an interesting bunch of commercial partners – gas-guzzling motor vehicles and electrical appliances are firmly in the sights of some factions of the climate change lobbyists, yet here they were extolling the virtues of their energy efficient light bulbs and greener motorcars. Good luck to them. They cannot be accused of burying their corporate heads in the sand.

As businesses, albeit on a colossal scale, they have identified an issue that threatens their long-term performance and have chosen to do something about it.  Only time will tell if they have stolen a march on their competitors.

The same situation faces the aircraft giant Boeing. Amid much razzmatazz and dazzle the US firm unveiled its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft to the world on Sunday – a date chosen because it is presented in US-style as 07 08 07.

It’s Boeing’s first all-new jet since 1995 – and an awful lot is riiding on its appeal to the world’s airlines. It’s the only big commercial aircraft made mostly of carbon fibre rather than aluminium and is billed as the most environmentally friendly ever built. Pity it was not in service for the stars at Live Earth,

Credit to Boeing for working to find solutions to problems that really do spell trouble for the world’s aviation industry.

Perhaps some wealthy independent travellers may choose to select personalised 787s as the private jet of choice in a bid to balance their carbon accounts between gigs around the world.

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