WP: Al Gore to Sound Off On Climate Change With Concert Event: Modeled after Live 8

[DeepModem Mom]

Al Gore to Sound Off On Climate Change With Concert Event
By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 15, 2007; Page C01


Al Gore with Queen Latifah at Sunday's Grammy Awards. The former vice president is reportedly planning a single-day series of concerts to raise awareness of global climate change. (By Mark J. Terrill -- Associated Press)

Al Gore's next gig: concert promoter.

Using popular music to bring attention to his pet issue of global climate change, the former vice president is planning a single-day series of concerts modeled after Live 8.

Gore is scheduled to announce the concerts today in Los Angeles. He's expected to be joined there by rock stars Jon Bon Jovi and Sting, rap musician Pharrell Williams and media executive Kevin Wall, who served as worldwide executive producer for Live 8, the 2005 concerts that drew attention to African debt relief.

The Gore-promoted event will be held July 7, according to published reports, with seven major concerts on seven continents. Producers are said to be considering Washington as the North American host city, but one likely venue -- the Mall -- might be unavailable to them, a National Park Service spokesman said yesterday....

***

Details of the July 7 event have been guarded as closely as a National Intelligence Estimate. The event's official name has not yet been announced (it will be either "Live Earth" or "Save Ourselves," according to Advertising Age), and no performers or host cities have been publicly confirmed. A bare-bones Web site, http://saveourselves.com, offered little beyond the 7/7/07 date and a logo of dots and dashes -- Morse code for "SOS."

The Financial Times, which reported the event last week, listed London; Shanghai; Rio de Janeiro; Cape Town, South Africa; Kyoto, Japan; and Washington among the host cities....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021401629.html

[NYCGirl]

1. Hey, Wash Post fact checkers! Isn't it "Live Aid" and not "Live 8"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid

But other than that, it's good news.

[truthisfreedom]

3. I think since it's planned for multiple continents on one date, it is Live 8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_8

[jilln]

4. No, it was Live 8

Live Aid was in the 80s.

[NYCGirl]

5. Ah, I must've slept through Live 8. Thanks to both of you! NT

[Mabus]

13. You and me both

fyi, I just remembered something from yesterday. Does "The O'Franken Factor" ring a bell? I just started searching for the guest line up for the first show when I suddenly remembered Al used to call it "The O'Franken Factor". I'll get back to you on that guest line-up in an hour or so on the other thread.

:hi:

[truthisfreedom]

2. Sounds like a plan.

Rock and roll is always a bit messy.

[ryanmuegge]

6. And how much oil is going to be burned flying all of these pampered stars around?

[hippiechick]

7. fly ? pampered ?

I'm sure the folks who'll be involved in this will either already be touring in the area (less disruption to their existing schedules), or - depending on who it is - travel by bus/motorcoach ...

Guessing that Mariah Carey and Celine Deion aren't planning on making appearances, so I'm not sure what you base your "pampered" assumption on.


:shrug:

[marshall]

19. Experience suggests it

Remember the scandal over "That's what friends are for":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That's_What_Friends_Are_For

Dionne defending herself: When asked about it, she explained: "If you're going to give your time, then make it comfortable for me, you know?" She said she needed a limousine and a two-bedroom hotel suite, and she didn't want anyone next to her on the plane.

[silvermachine]

21. OK...

...so that's one example. But it hardly defines fundraising through music.

[marshall]

34. Remember USA for Africa's "We are the World"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World

Lots of infighting and the press relished the fact that everybody except Bruce Springsteen showed up in limosines.

I'm just saying that the participants are going to be watched like they were on a reality tv show, and the pundits will be ready to hammer at everything. If they show up in anything bigger than a bicycle they will be accused of wasting fossil fuels, etc. They've just got to be ready to roll with the punches.

[truthisfreedom]

10. Just how much natural gas is being burned by the computers we use to post here?

Everything takes energy. Working for change will increase emissions in the beginning, reduce them in the end. When you're caught in barb wire, you have to bleed a little to extricate yourself. It's just a matter of making the best choices along the way.

[ryanmuegge]

20. Ahh, good point. I guess the larger question is...

Is a rock concert really the best way to go about changing things? I don't see what good a concert's really going to do for this problem.

[silvermachine]

22. It could raise awareness...

...as well as money. Farm-Aid has done good things, as have other, smaller rock benefits as well. I've played in a few.

[progressivebydesign]

16. What is it with people on DU today being so negative?

Second post I've read in the past few minutes with some snarky, negative, attitude about something that is positive.

[silvermachine]

23. Sometimes you have to...

...consider the source. And the real motivation.

[tabasco]

24. Just like all the other charity concerts.

There are always some dumbasses who can't stand to see people helping other people. Must suck to be you.

[rocktivity]

8. Seeing as Bon Jovi played a trailer of Inconvenient Truth on their last tour

and they're supposed to be releasing an album this summer, they might be on the short list.

:headbang:
rocknation

[jus_the_facts]

9. Hmm...just read Metallica will be in Belgium and Greece the first week of July...

....maybe they could mend some wounds with Tipper and play in London! :headbang:

[rocktivity]

11. Yipes, has Latifah been taking lessons from Laura?

x(
rocknation

[Hawkowl]

12. Brilliant!

I think Gore has the most briliant and innovative campaign strategy of any candidate in modern times. Movie. Grammy. Concerts. Book release. Nobel nomination.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Thanks for the thread DeepModem Mom

Al Gore rocks!:yourock:

[WCGreen]

15. CLeveland Cleveland Cleveland....

Bring that concert to Cleveland...

We need it...

It's a rust belt city that shows what happens when profits trump everything else...

Cleveland Cleveland Cleveland....

Bring it here Al...

Bring it Here....

And, there is the Rock-n-Roll fame sitting right next to an 80,000 seat stadium built at public cost that just sits there 95% of the time...

And we have a Ritz as well as several other four star hotels...

Bring it to Cleveland Al....

[fooj]

17. What's NOT to love about this man?

[Doondoo]

18. K&R

[goodhue]

25. Al Gore Sets Global Warming Concerts With Snoop Dogg, Bon Jovi

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBuzy8X9R8Ic&refer=us

Al Gore Sets Global Warming Concerts With Snoop Dogg, Bon Jovi

By Kim Chipman and Alan Ohnsman

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A group headed by former Vice President Al Gore is planning a single day of concerts on seven continents featuring more than 100 performers, including Bon Jovi, Snoop Dogg and Fall Out Boy, to promote awareness of global warming.

The ``Live Earth'' shows will take place July 7 in London, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg and locations to be determined in the U.S., Brazil and Japan, Gore and music producer Kevin Wall said today in Los Angeles. Details of a show in Antarctica will be announced next month, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said.

The concerts are part of ``Save Our Selves,'' a new campaign founded by Wall, the producer behind the 2005 Live 8 concerts that raised money for Africa. General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal Inc. television and movie unit will televise the shows in the U.S. Gore and Wall said they expect ``Live Earth'' to be the most viewed event ever, reaching more than 2 billion people through television, radio, the Internet and film.

``The goal is to trigger a mass movement across the globe to combat our climate crisis,'' spokesman Yusef Robb of Save Our Selves said in an interview.

Proceeds from the concerts will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a group Gore heads that includes Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Managing Director Theodore Roosevelt IV and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush. Tickets will go on sale next month.

* * * *

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBuzy8X9R8Ic&refer=us

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

26. Where's Nelly?

"It's gettin' hot in here. So take off all your clothes."

:evilgrin:

[WindRavenX]

27. jesus, Al Gore *is* a rock star!

Mr.Gore, plz save America.

[hippiechick]

28. earlier discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2732553&mesg_id=2732553

[WePurrsevere]

29. Music touches people in ways words can't so I think this is a great idea.

:thumbsup:

[Son Of Spy]

30. Gore Announces Climate-Change Concerts

LOS ANGELES -- Al Gore announced on Thursday a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi.

The 24-hour event on July 7 is part of a kickoff campaign, Save Our Selves -- The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis, that promoters hope will trigger a broad movement to address what the former vice president calls a "planetary emergency."

more

Update:

more

He'z a RoK Star :D

Son Of Spy

[hippiechick]

31. earlier discussion(s):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2732553&mesg_id=2732553

Not LBN anymore ... it was all over DU yesterday. :hi:

[zanne]

32. Excellent idea.

There's nothing like music to motivate people. I hope that one of the concerts is televised, pay-per-view or not. I'm on the fence about Al Gore running for president. I think he'd make a dream president, but then again, I don't think he'd have the time to dedicate to global warming. How about Al Gore 2012?

[Son Of Spy]

33. Gore Announces Climate-Change Concerts

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