Saturday, July 07, 2007

Are the concerts happening?

I mean the "Live Earth" concerts, of course, which are supposedly taking place everywhere in the world today. At least in the places where the performers' private jets can land, that have electrical grids robust enough to deliver the electricity needed for lights, amps, etc., and where people can/will shell out the big coin for tickets.

Al Gore stands to rake in a nice chunk o' loot for this gig, if not directly, at least from the company he's involved with that sells "carbon offsets" to trendies who haven't thought the whole process through. He buys "offsets" from himself, too, which is a slick public-relations move. After all, what loyal follower wouldn't buy their indulgences from Big Al? But it'll only be a matter of time until the Nigerian email scammers start offering to share deceased government officials' leftover credits with us.

Not that I know what's taking place, Live Earth-wise, even though I hope everyone, including those great environmentalists on stage (Madonna cares about ecology?) has a dandy time. Today, as every day, I'm doing my bit for the environment by keeping the TV switched off. Heck, I probably won't even drive today, unless some worthwhile reason pops up.

I did hear yesterday that we now must add earthworms and compost piles to the ranks of Gross Polluters, joining cows and other natural innocent bystanders.

We are rapidly reaching the point where the whole issue becomes ludicrous. Every living thing emits nasty stuff during its life, and afterward, too. Allowing government -- any and all governments -- to take even more control over our lives, raise taxes and otherwise meddle in the chronically shortsighted ways governments meddle, will have no beneficial result.

It's a shame, because there are steps everyone should take, most quite simple. And none of them involve sending checks to Al Gore's company.

A LITTLE UPDATE FROM THE "LIVE EARTH" FOLKS: I ran across this enlightening little piece about how the concerts are going to be "eco-friendly." Virtually all the major -- and frankly, unworkable -- Grand Solutions listed are followed by the universal cop-out alternative of these loons:

Buy carbon offsets.

Hell, you can even buy 'em from the website's "gift shop," along with apparel.

It never seems to dawn on anyone that the nasty crap is still being pumped into the air. All these "earth-savers" are doing is paying a tax to allow them to continue to pollute, while trying to pass laws that keep everyone else from doing what they do.

3 comments:

Dorrie said...

yes, the concerts ARE going on, and why not? if it was to promote this cause, it would be for something else, perhaps less worth like illegal alliens perhaps? let the world have it's Woodstock!

Cat Stevens spontenously joined in the Hamburg concert. And I believe they are all doing it for free? fine! it will be nice to know afterwords were the money goes...

Today I finally saw Al Gore's movie... I think it was very good. Have you seen it? Lots of stuff to ponder... true facts, NOT fiction! And if he lives in a mansion or flies around to give his speeches, well, the mansion he has earned, and how else can you travel to some countries? They tried to convince people over here to give up their vacation in Mallorca to help the environment... stupid! The plane doesn't care if 100 or 200 people are on board, it flies there any way! Besides, those tourists provide income for those islands.

Long post, sorry, but I think you just start seeing things from BOTH sides and TRY to be a little more positive about some things.

Oh, and you never apologised for accusing Pelousy (however you spell it) of wanting a big 747 as a duty plane. As it turned out, she DIDN'T request it! it was being forced upon her for security reasons!!

Sorry Scribby... I just had to give you a little sermon... you are being constantly too negative and that CAN'T be good in the long run! I hope you don't mind! *wink*

John0 Juanderlust said...

Hahaha
I saw Al's movie and researched the data and various commentaries.
Often there may be a fact, but the conclusion, association of cause and effect, and suggested solution may not be sound.
Not jumpong on a band wagon, no matter how large, is not the same as being negative.
When people propose laws to affect the pocket book of others in the name of dubious solutions to a dubious and not very well understood phenomenon, objection is possibly the only positive brush stroke in the picture.

Anonymous said...

I have not seen his movie, but I understand that even that most liberal of daily papers, the New York Times, has said that much of Hal Bore's premise is flawed. The question I have never heard anyone address is, how can we know if our current global weather change is a natural phenomenon that has occured over and over for eons or is a recent man-made event? I think we should all be reasonable stewards of our environment, but some of what is being proposed is WAY over the top. There's too much contradictory evidence out there for me to buy into Big Hal's program. Then again, "Internet Hal" wouldn't lie to us, would he? :)