Iowa Voice Misses Al Gore’s Point

The Goracle may not have a smaller carbon footprint than me, but that doesn’t make him a hypocrite.  Iowa Voice, tree-hugging conservationists that they are, have expressed quite a bit of concern for the environmental damage that Live Earth caused.  From yesterday:

1,000 tons of garbage generated…

100,000 trees need to be planted to offset the carbon emissions released during 24 hour event…

220,000 miles traveled by musicians to reach the concert…

All according to ABC News (video).

It’s sort of like me throwing an anti-drug concert and then smoking a doobie onstage. Actually, it’s probably more like me throwing an anti-drug concert and having Ozzy Osbourne shoot up on stage.

And for what? To draw attention to an “issue” that has already completely saturated the political scene? Who isn’t aware of “global warming”? So why the need to generate the garbage and CO2?

Those are some big numbers.  But they’re misleading.  To measure the event’s actual carbon footprint, you have to compare it to the carbon footprint that would have been left had the concerts not taken place.  The people attending would have still eaten food, breathed, and generated trash.  Many of the rock stars would have still been flying around the world.  As Al Gore himself said,

“There are 3,000 concerts around the world every year. These are eight of them,” Mr. Gore said as he sought to quell controversy spawned by the magnitude of the event.

“These eight will set a new green standard for the entire music industry.”

So “Private Pigg” certainly means well, but his criticism is somewhat misplaced.  Happily, he implicitly agrees with the premise of the Live Earth concerts.  One can only hope that he will continue to express his concerns after other big events.  I can’t wait to hear what he thinks of the carbon footprint that this year’s RNC Convention leaves after it wraps up.