What was the point of Live Earth?

For those of you who missed the Live Earth concerts on Saturday, i think it is important to let you know that the Earth is getting hotter. Apparently we are not aware of this fact enough, but thanks to Al Gore and an army of pop musicians we should now be in no doubt as to how big a problem climate change. Oh, but don't take my word for it, Madonna says so as well!

Throughout Saturday, the BBC broadcast musician after musician playing their biggest hits in a bid to boost their sales/show their support for the big cause. I was watching Wimbledon for much of the day, and occasional flicks over to the concert did not do much to improve my low expectations of it. I caught the first few minutes of the event in which dozens of drummers played on stage together, each bearing a massive cheesy grin. From there we went to Jonathan Ross and Jimmy Carr in the studio who then introduced the loud and moaning Shakira: It was not a great start. Further dips into the channel presented more bands from the present and past, with little to explain what exactly this was all in aid of.

So what was it all about? Well as we are all aware, climate change is happening, and this is apparently largely down to the actions of the human race. But what can we do about it? Well on a simple level, you can do a number of things, all of which have been well reported in recent times. Things like using less electricity and cutting down on the flights you take are pretty much at the top of the list. So organising a massive series of gigs involving musicians flying in from different locations around the world, might not be the sort of thing we should be encouraging then? The whole thing is as big a farce as the Spinal Tap show that featured at Wembley.

There has been a lot of criticism of the obvious hypocrisy and idiocy of the gigs, with many others pointing out the unenvironmentally friendly flights made by those involved to get to the different gigs. Seemingly in reaction to these criticisms the lead singer of Duran Duran felt compelled to make it clear to everyone watching that he had not flown to Wembley on a private jet. Give that man a medal!

These sort of concerts seem to be getting more and more frequent nowadays, and I'm sure i can't be the only only one that's getting pretty bored by them. Two years ago we had Live8, another farce of a concert in which nothing was accomplished except to show those in power that when faced with a serious issue, we as citizens choose to have a party. Why not instead of having a big gig we actually took these issues more seriously?

If every time we are faced with a serious issue we put on a big entertaining show then how can we expect the government to take us and the cause seriously. How many of those at the gig actually voted at the last election? How many petitioned, campaigned or wrote to their MP about the issue of climate change? If they are not willing to engage in these effective forms of representation that democracy allows us, then these gigs will, as i expect, have very little effect.