Pop Stars Vs Global Warming

14-07-2007 07:15

The 19th century wordsmith Percy Shelley once said "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world". Move forward a couple of hundred years to the 21st Century and rock star visionaries are lining themselves up as the planet's saviours.The notion is every bit as idealistic, pompous and delusional as it was 200 years ago, but unlike their poor old "unacknowledged" predecessor Shelley, the likes of Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have got the mite of a former US Vice President behind them.In fact, it was Al Gore - the man who came within spitting distance of the White House's Oval office in the 2000 US presidential elections - who helped round them all up for Live Earth - a worldwide concert series designed to increase awareness about the dangers of global warming and "Save Our Selves". It's an S.O.S you see; see what they did there? And, on July 7 most of the music world's top stars could be found in any of eleven venues across all seven continents performing to sell-out crowds and a worldwide TV audience of more than two billion people.Marching into the epic battle versus global warming, the likes of Alicia Keys, Kanye West, The Police, Crowded House, Shakira and many, many, many more went armed with their hugely popular back catalogues and some useful tips about recycling and switching off household appliances.They spread their platinum-selling tentacles out over every continent going. If you were at London's new Wembley Stadium your biggest (selling) treat was Madonna; New Yorkers got the newly re-formed The Police; Sydney drew the even more box-fresh returnees Crowded House; Birmingham boys UB40 graced Johannesburg; Hamburg got Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens); Tokyo gazed upon Rihanna; And a ram-packed Copacabana Beach in Rio rocked to the funk of Lenny Kravitz. And that was just the headliners.So clearly, in an attempt to draw the world's attention to the ravages of climate chaos, organisers Save Our Selves, led by founder Kevin Wall in conjunction with Mr Gore, had decided their policy would be to think big, then triple it. That way, they still claim, the message would resound around the world like a clarion call, causing life-changing epiphanies right left and centre.