Cut Carbon Emissions? Eh, Who Cares. Wait, Genesis is going to play 'Land of Confusion'? Save The Planet!

I was a little confused about the Live Earth concert over the weekend. Is there anyone on the planet unaware of Global Warming? Anyone that had access to a TV so they could watch the concert, that is. I've always been wary of the concept of 'raising awareness', as if it were some cure all for society's ills if we were all 'aware' that violence is bad and racism is 'not cool'. It gives me high school flashbacks of having to design a poster that address the social issue du jour while the teacher stepped out for a quick smoke. 500 years of racism in North American counterbalanced by a poster! Problem solved.

Isn't it more than a little hypocritical to have rock stars jetting around the world to concerts to spread some kind of message about reducing the carbon footprint? Madonna alone accounts for 45% of global carbon emissions, and I don't just mean her last album! (ta da bump bump). She has something like nine houses and her own private jet, so when she implored us to reduce our carbon footprint by rocking out to her latest single, should the 'Bullshit' alarm have started wailing?

I'm also a little confused by Al Gore. Politically, I think his recent moves have been masterful -- find an issue, stick with it and ride it back into the spotlight. The money from Live Earths is going towards his non-profit organization to fight global warming, but unless that organization is pouring that money directly into the schematics for a water-powered car, then how does that work exactly? Please don't tell me more posters.

Ten years ago I was convinced that global warming was happening, but in recent years I've been having my doubts, and I think it's mostly due to the rise in media attention. (Yeah, I'm just difficult to get along with for no reason). The mainstream media (aka The Man) seem to have accepted that global warming is happening and it's all our fault and we have to hurry to install florescent light bulbs and buy hybrid cars or it's all over -- the flood waters will rise, great storms will envelope the earth, dog and cats living together, the eventual reunion of Wings -- it's all over, man! We don't have a prayer! If the networks want to pretend the issue is settled, fine, whatever -- the media accepted that the Iraq invasion as dogma and look where that got us -- but it's silly to think that we can avert the incoming 'apocalypse' by changing a few light bulbs and taking the bus. The fact that the US refused to sign Kyoto is trumpeted as a smug, moral victory for the countries that support it, but not having China and India mentioned in the treaty, the two potentially largest greenhouse gas emitters in this century, is nonsense. All of this 'awareness' can lead to blow back. Remember the Amazon? Aids? Famine in Africa? There were campaigns, a multitude of posters, benefit concerts and those problems were solved. Now the Amazon is being regrown, no one gets Aids anymore and the 200th Sizzler opened in Darfur.