[Al] Gore is scheduled to announce the concerts today in Los Angeles. He's expected to be joined there by rock stars Jon Bon Jovi and Sting, rap musician Pharrell Williams and media executive Kevin Wall, who served as worldwide executive producer for Live 8, the 2005 concerts that drew attention to African debt relief.Gee....can't imagine why the Bush administration wouldn't want Al Gore parked on their front lawn, so to speak, just days after the annual Capitol Fourth, but I digress...more details on the event are found here and here.
The Gore-promoted event will be held July 7, according to published reports, with seven major concerts on seven continents. Producers are said to be considering Washington as the North American host city, but one likely venue -- the Mall -- might be unavailable to them, a National Park Service spokesman said yesterday.
Can a concert, even one as massive as a six continent, 24 hour extravaganza (no, that does NOT include Antarctica...it's the middle of winter!), promote the cause of saving the earth enough that people will take action?
I mean, the Police reunion will help, of course (and one wonders if this is why Sting decided to tour with Andy and Stewart), but can a concert change enough minds that are intractably resolved to the stubborn belief that global climate change is not real, or not a threat, or perhaps even a benefit?
It's not intended to. We need to focus on the fact that there are billions of people on this planet whose only interest in the news is what can filer down to them as they go through their meager existences, without television, without the internet.
But with music. This is not to change minds. It is to inform.
So maybe, just maybe, it will open enough eyes in places like India and China...and America, I'm ashamed to say...who are mis- or underinformed.
It might make a difference, and given the stakes of man's continued existence, it must be done.
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