It was very nice that a bunch of the world’s best musicians held a 24-hour concert for my birthday.
Some of you may have thought that Live Earth was about saving the planet. I’m sorry to have to break the news, it was concert for my birthday. Al Gore insisted on the Live Earth, save the planet stuff … sheesh. What a guy.
Gore is an interesting guy these days. He’s still a little stiff, but he’s getting the climate change message out. To think that Gore was a hair’s breadth away from the U.S. presidency, I’m reminded that fate is a fickle creature. Some breathe a sigh of relief that Gore didn’t win, particularly in light of his new crusade. Imagine an environmentalist U.S. president. It would certainly send shudders down the spine of the corporate world.
However, I don’t think Gore would be nearly as effective in promoting climate change sitting in the Oval Office as he is now. I remember having a summer student who was real go-getter. We would teasing her one day that she was going to be the first female prime minister. Without batting an eye, she said she isn’t interested in politics because she can be more effective and get a lot more done outside of the political arena.
There is a certain truth to that. If Gore had been elected president in 2000, he would have had 9/11 and a whole lot of other issues to deal with as president. He likely would have been a less effective advocate for climate change sitting in that chair than the one he is in now.
Fate.
The Live Earth show was a good one, although I doubt many people took in the full 24 hours (even if really was for my birthday). However, the message is certainly getting out there -- climate change is real. It is happening and we need to do something about it.
The message was that there are big things and little things that we can do to help the environment. I’ve already starting doing what I can. I starting bringing my own cup into the coffeeshop. It cuts down on waste in the landfill.
I’ve had my scooter for about a month now and I figure I’ve used about 100 litres less fuel than I would have if I had driven my truck all that time.
One of the interesting things about the Live Earth show was the Live Earth pledge that people can take online outlining steps individuals can take to fight global warming on a local level and a larger scale level.
One pledge is “to demand that my country join an international treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90 per cent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.”
Given our federal government’s backpedaling on Kyoto, it’s a tough order. However, that’s the idea behind the pledge. Government’s, of all stripes, do respond to the will of the people. That’s what keeps them in power.
Another interesting pledge is to “fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2.”
While our provincial government has stated in it’s green plan that it will institute such a moratorium, the hypocrisy showed through when the Free Press discovered the provincial commitment on limiting coal-fired plants applies only to those plants used for power generation. Other such new coal-fired plants, such as the one proposed for Giscome to fire kilns, aren’t subject to the strict carbon sequestration rules.
And that leads me to another one of the pledges: “To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal.”
Live Earth was a good show and the good thing about the pledges is they reaffirm there is more we, as individuals, can do to fight climate change than turn the lights off when we leave a room.
We can pressure our elected officials to take action and to make fighting climate change a priority for their party and/or government. We can do a lot as individuals.