Al Gore’s Campaign for a Climate in Crisis

Al Gore’s planed 07/07/07 Campaign for a Candidate in Crisis, um, I mean Climate in Crisis, just rubs me the wrong way. Think about this with me if you would and see if Gore is not being a bit hypocritical. For this campaign we’re talking about 24 hours of concerts on all 7 continents. We’re talking about an estimated 3 million actual attendees and an anticipated 2 billion online and television viewers. We’re talking 100+ popular entertainers.
Think of how much energy will be expended to make this happen — jetting people around, driving equipment around, electricity to power all the lights and equipment, power for the computers and televisions, and on and on. Think of all the promotional efforts — printing, advertising, news media coverage, etc. — that will lead to lots of new polution and resource consumption.

I don’t like being preached to by Gore’s entertainer and Hollywood friends who tend to live extravagent lifestyles. I don’t like being preached to by Gore either, who in my mind, lost his credibility years ago.

But I saved the big one for last and this one really irritates me: a concert on Antartica. How absurd! How disgusting from this group who claim to be helping save the planet. They’re going to bring a bunch of hot air, waste, polution, and more people to a place that they claim is very fragile and melting away at an alarming rate. I couldn’t believe it when I first read it in their press release. So hypocritical.

I’m sure Gore will say this will be a “carbon-neutral” event. However, carbon neutrality doesn’t address all the other polution. In fact, it doesn’t adequately address the carbon produced now. Offsets by trees can take years. How long will it take to offset the carbon they will produce? Again it strikes me as hypocritical.

What I think they should do if they really cared about offsetting carbon is do like Johnny Appleseed and plant trees for the sake of planting trees. They should skip the concerts and waste and just work. They should not strive to be merely neutral but to actually produce change in themselves. If they did this first, they might begin to earn some credibility to actually merit being listened to.