The good and bad of Live Earth
So the family has been catching parts of the Live Earth concert in between ordinary Saturday tasks, like going to the grocery store in a gasoline automobile and doing laundry using electrical appliances.
First, NPI has been a big fan of Al Gore, and I don't mean this post to be disrespectful. The very thought of a holographic Al Gore is at once so wonderful and wonderfully creepy and weird that you just have to chuckle.
That being said, the concert is being interspersed with short films that I find excessively simplistic, propagandistic and preachy. As wonderful as recycled paper towels are, we're not going to fix this with lifestyle stuff. Used French fry oil is not much of a long-term solution, folks.
Governments are going to have to take action, and the only acceptable way for that to happen is when democratically elected governments who represent the will of the citizens do so.
To be fair, there are a lot of people out there in the world who don't follow politics closely, and I suppose it can be argued that taking the issues to them via popular culture mediums is a good thing. It is a good thing, I guess, if it doesn't go too far.
We're not doing the cause any favors using propaganda techniques. I suppose the film makers are passionate about the cause, which is great, but in the realm of politics the artistic license has to yield sometimes to more practical matters, like being accurate.
I just saw a very snazzy short film that featured a man continuing to ignore the rising water in his home, until finally he emerges through the roof to find he's all alone in a vast sea. Not exactly subtle, and not exactly accurate. It may be fun for Hollywood and the info-tainment complex to flex its muscles in this manner, but it's going to open us up to a whole lot of valid criticism.
On the positive side, much of the music is fantastic and there is nothing hypocritical, in my book, about wealthy celebrities trying to generate publicity for the cause of doing something about global warming and other environmental issues. However much energy was consumed to do the concerts, I'm sure it was a drop in the bucket compared to what the war machine used today.
You can find television schedules and information for this evening at the Live Earth web site.
First, NPI has been a big fan of Al Gore, and I don't mean this post to be disrespectful. The very thought of a holographic Al Gore is at once so wonderful and wonderfully creepy and weird that you just have to chuckle.
That being said, the concert is being interspersed with short films that I find excessively simplistic, propagandistic and preachy. As wonderful as recycled paper towels are, we're not going to fix this with lifestyle stuff. Used French fry oil is not much of a long-term solution, folks.
Governments are going to have to take action, and the only acceptable way for that to happen is when democratically elected governments who represent the will of the citizens do so.
To be fair, there are a lot of people out there in the world who don't follow politics closely, and I suppose it can be argued that taking the issues to them via popular culture mediums is a good thing. It is a good thing, I guess, if it doesn't go too far.
We're not doing the cause any favors using propaganda techniques. I suppose the film makers are passionate about the cause, which is great, but in the realm of politics the artistic license has to yield sometimes to more practical matters, like being accurate.
I just saw a very snazzy short film that featured a man continuing to ignore the rising water in his home, until finally he emerges through the roof to find he's all alone in a vast sea. Not exactly subtle, and not exactly accurate. It may be fun for Hollywood and the info-tainment complex to flex its muscles in this manner, but it's going to open us up to a whole lot of valid criticism.
On the positive side, much of the music is fantastic and there is nothing hypocritical, in my book, about wealthy celebrities trying to generate publicity for the cause of doing something about global warming and other environmental issues. However much energy was consumed to do the concerts, I'm sure it was a drop in the bucket compared to what the war machine used today.
You can find television schedules and information for this evening at the Live Earth web site.
