The night-walkers of Uganda

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150 acts, two billion viewers – and a 
lot of greenhouse gas
24-hour, seven continent show raises awareness 
but at what cost to climate? 
Oliver Burkeman and Jonathan Watts
in Beijing
July 7, 2007 
The climate scientists have spoken. Now it’s 
James Blunt’s turn. But even though scepticism 
is a natural response whenever pop stars 
promise to change the world, no one can deny 
the size and intensity of the Live Earth concerts. 
The 24-hour, seven-continent sequence of 
concerts, began in Sydney on July 7. The 
organizers, led by Al Gore, expected it to reach 
2 billion people via 120 television networks, 
Internet and radio. This made it the biggest 
media event in history. At Wembley, 80,000 
people watched Madonna, Genesis, the Red Hot 
Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, the Beastie Boys, 
Duran Duran and James Blunt, although the 
rumours that Paul McCartney would play were 
just rumours. 
All this has its moral difficulties. The Red Hot 
Chili Peppers flew in by private jet from Paris, the 
band’s management confirmed, then left again 
by private jet for a gig in Denmark. The Beastie 
Boys were in Montreux the next day and Genesis 
played in Manchester the same evening. 
The Guardian newspaper said that spectators 
travelling to the London and New Jersey concerts 
generated approximately 5,600 tonnes of 
greenhouse gases between them – the same as 
7,270 people crossing the Atlantic by plane. You 
can, it seems, be part of the solution and part of 
the problem, at the same time. Even those who 
watched online found that Live Earth’s website 
is sponsored by the Chevrolet company, which 
manufactures SUVs. 
These warnings will not matter if the event 
achieves its goals: pressuring politicians to sign 
an international treaty pledging to massively 
reduce emissions within two years and 
persuading people to make lifestyle changes, 
such as using energy-efficient light bulbs, or 
going to work by public transport once a week. 
The greatest challenge facing Mr Gore and his 
organization, Save Our Selves, is the concept 
of ‘awareness’. The worst-case scenario is that 
raising awareness about climate-change may 
not lead to action but to fatalism. It doesn’t help 
that pop stars are among the worst individual 
greenhouse-gas offenders. Last year, Madonna’s 
Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of carbon 
dioxide in four months, said John Buckley,
of the website www.carbonfootprint.com, who 
also provided the estimates for Live Earth 
concertgoers. 
The rock group Arctic Monkeys said this week 
they didn’t take part in Live Earth, because it 
would be “a bit hypocritical”. “Especially when 
we’re using enough power for 10 houses just for 
[stage] lighting,” said drummer Matt Helders. 
Bob Geldof, instigator of Live Aid and Live8, said 
in May that raising awareness was pointless. 
“Everybody’s known about that for years,” he 
said. “We’re all conscious of global warming.” 
To minimize the event’s own footprint, Live Earth 
organizers promised to power all shows with 
renewable energy, and to offset flights taken by 
the 150 acts performing in London, New Jersey, 
Shanghai, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Hamburg, 
Sydney and Rio de Janeiro. (Scientists at a 
base in Antarctica also performed by satellite, 
so the event covered all continents.) And Gayle 
Fine, a New York-based spokeswoman for the 
Red Hot Chili Peppers, said the band offsets all 
tour travel, and ground crews use biodiesel fuel 
where possible. 
Offsetting is controversial among some 
environmentalists; they say it simply eliminates 
guilt. But Madonna lives in London, organizers 
said and, generally, bands performed in cities 
where they lived or in the continents where they 
were touring. 
There is another possible interpretation of July 
7’s global events – as well as the hope that they