Live Earth

This whole event did nothing to erode my opionion that most activists are in this to feel good about themselves, and have no clue what they are talking about. They really don't care as long as they can portray themselves as morally superior on their stage which all the world makes up.

Madonna, on Saturday:

"If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down. Come on, mother-[@*#%ers!] If you want to save the planet, let me see you jump!"

Yes, jump indeed. Jump to save the planet. Jump passionately. Make sure the cameras get a good shot of your jumpage. I wonder if anyone in the crowd thought to shout back "how high?"

Yes, Massah Madonna. (carbon footprint 92 times your average person's).

In Germany [...] newspapers were more upbeat about Saturday’s gigs designed to pressure leaders to sign a new treaty by 2009 that would cut global warming pollution by 90 percent in rich nations and more than half worldwide by 2050.

Let me clue these folks in on something. Treaties don't cut "global warming pollution". People do. And to do it, the energy that runs your computer games and your little iPods that play your Madonna songs and warms and cools your houses and lights your rooms and gets you from point A to point B will go away. From you.

They're going to pressure world governments into signing treaties that have as much chance of having any effect than your average U.N. resolution on Iraq. Then, in 2050 when the cuts have fallen far short of this ridiculously ambitious goal dispite the ink on the various papers -- they can complain "We jumped! What did you do?"

Actually the whole thing reminds me of Officer Shrift in "The Phantom Tollbooth". He was very interested in sentencing people, but the acutal carrying out of the sentence was irrelevant. When Milo, after being sentenced to 1,000 years, gets out of the very open jail the next day at the urging of the Which who tells him how to get out, Shrift sees him on the street and says "my, my, has it been 1,000 years already?" and walks on.

We jumped for Mother Gaia. It's up to somebody else to do something about it. And frankly, we don't care how hard that is. For you. That's not our problem. And you'd better not make it our problem, either. [turns up iPod and goes back to typing anti-Bush tirades on her computer, making a note on her calendar not to miss her appointment at the tanning salon]

I saw some chick in a news story several days ago telling us we can all cut global warming by using re-usable canvas shopping bags instead of paper or plastic disposable ones. Now I'm all for reasonable efforts to reduce pollution and sustaining our forest resources, frankly. I've got no problem with canvas bags. But cutting global warming by using them?

No. Clue.