Sunday, July 08, 2007

Live Earth

I'm going to take the cynical side on this, and wonder why pop stars whose entire lifestyle is based around conspicuous consumption think they have a leg to stand on with regard to climate change (or indeed just about any environmental problem), especially when their "contribution" is just more jetting around to mega-concerts. What is "awareness" supposed to achieve anyway? Climate change is hardly a secret (denial is a river that's drying up pretty fast even in the USA).

Jules is always complaining that I take her ideas without attribution, so I'll credit her for this one: they might as well be having an orgy to promote AIDS awareness.



4 comments:

Roger Pielke, Jr. said...

For your betting files:

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2007/07/06/1183351452273.html

James Annan said...

Roger,

I've already dealt with that here .

guthrie said...

It is a perfectly good point to make. I personally am already trying to work out how I can ratchet down my carbon contributions over the next few years. Having insulated my attic, turned my thermostat down, avoided foreign holidays twice a year, etc, the main thing left is my comute to work. So I need a new job that I can get to by public transport or walking.

This could be rather hard.

James Annan said...

I've not yet found a job where I couldn't conveniently live within cycling distance. I've not even had to work hard at it - a 10 mile radius generally covers a wide range of environments.

I don't claim to be a paragon of virtue though. As a climate scientist in Japan, my main vice now is probably long-haul flights. I don't blame myself for the fact that my small rented house has no fewer than 5 huge single-glazed French windows.

You could try avoiding foreign holidays 4 times a year :-) Why not call it an offset and sell it to someone, in fact!