Musings About Live Earth

I've been hearing, off and on, the whining from Environmentalists that today's Live Earth concerts will actually have a negative environmental impact, and there are better ways to address the problem, blah blah blah. I couldn't count how many activists have been more than happy to run out to various media outlets to condemn the concerts as eco-unfriendly and, coincidentally, promote their own organizations.

Personally, I believe the Live Earth concerts are a good thing. Most Environmentalists and “climate activists” live under a determined delusion that most people are as well informed as they are. This is just not true. Sure, most people are familiar with the idea of Global Warming (and I capitalize it because it's become a bit of a catch-phrase). But very few people are actively trying to do something to minimize their own contributions to the problem. For most people, Global Warning is a problem that they expect their scientists and governments to address and solve. So however familiar they may be the concept of Global Warming, they're still going to be commuting to and from work in their SUVs. However high the gasoline prices go, the oil companies will still be making record profits.

It's not enough to present the facts and assume that they are profound enough to be gain notoriety on their own. That's a pollyannish outlook, at best. These people may understand the effects and dangers of Global Warning, but they seem to grasp amazingly little about human nature.

If we want to change people's approaches to dealing with Global Warning on a personal level, we have to make it cool to address the problem. Look at Europe. They've been trying to at least start dealing with the problem for years. Not because they're so much smarter than Americans, but because dealing with it has become a cultural issue, and Europeans are generally better informed about the problem. In the United States we have this parcel of Conservatives and Republicans who are still defiant as to whether or not there even is such a thing as Global Warming. Europeans are trying to address the problem while we're still debating whether their is a problem.

I'll hope for the best. It has to start somewhere. In the United States we still haven't reached that tipping point where people in general have started taking the problem seriously, much less started trying to do their part to make it better in some small way. So for now, I'd like to invite those who are doing the loudest whining about the environmental impact of the Live Earth concerts themselves to shut the fuck up. Please. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.