Live Earth: Worse Than Pointless

Heh.

Yes, I know the organisers of the nine concerts on six continents will be planting another Amazon of trees to offset the carbon spewed forth by all the amplifiers and lights and hydraulics and TV cameras and private jets required to broadcast Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran and the reunited Crowded House to the world, singing that green is good.

But it will be years before any of those tree plantations can offset the damage of a massive ego-boosting exercise that is not only redundant, but harmful.

Why? Because people will feel that they've done something just by showing up and having a good time.

And I'm not just talking about the pop stars. It's true that pop stars have just about exhausted their credibility, telling us to cancel Third World debt, adopt Africans and feed the world, while leading lives of very conspicuous consumption.

It's also about us, the punters who troop along to these benefits that we might stand up and be counted. Being counted is not worth squat. We might catch public transport to these gigs, although flying to Sydney to see Neil Finn at the Opera House is not a very green way to go. But we're still colluding in a massive production of greenhouse gases in order to raise awareness of the damage done.

It's worse than pointless.

Yes, that's true. But they'll have the moral highground, and isn't that all that counts? It's like wearing red ribbons to show you care about AIDS. You're better than those who don't wear them simply because you have one on.

Speaking of pointless, empty head Leonardo DiCaprio really cares. Without him, I'd have had no idea we're facing extinction.