Step 1: Rock. Step 2: Act.

Live Earth Highlights Climate Crisis

July 9, 2007

Last year, Al Gore used the film “An Inconvenient Truth” to educate millions of people around the world about the threat of global warming. Now he’s tackling a new medium: rock and roll.

This past Saturday Gore pulled off what he may be justified in calling the “biggest show on earth”: Live Earth, a global concert to “trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.” One hundred acts performed in eight cities spanning seven continents, including Madonna, who headlined the London show; the Police and Kanye West at Giants Stadium in New Jersey; and Shakira, who took the stage in Hamburg.

Gore may be justified in calling the concert “the biggest show on earth”: through TV, radio, and the Internet, the show was estimated to reach an audience of 2 billion people—about a third of the earth’s entire population.

That’s a formidable audience, and one that can collectively do much to stem global warming by signing the seven-point pledge Gore asked concert-goers and viewers to agree to. Pledge-takers agreed to plant new trees, increase their energy efficiency at work and at home, and reduce their own carbon footprints.

Yet as Gore acknowledged, the efforts of individuals can only go so far: to curb global warming, governments will have to make a commitment to address the emissions that cause it. The Live Earth pledge asks people to demand that their nation’s government enact policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil.

Saturday’s events served as a great vehicle for raising awareness, but now that the music’s over it’s time to take action. It’s the Center for American Progress’ stand that we can reduce our energy use and fuel consumption while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by taking steps that include:

• Creating a national cap on emissions, followed by mandated annual reductions.
• Implementing this cap economy-wide, protecting early adopters and providing opportunities for participation to the energy efficiency, renewable energy, and agriculture and forestry industries.
• Reinvigorating fuel economy standards to increase vehicle efficiency from the current fleet average of 24.6 miles per gallon to approximately 37 miles per gallon by 2025.
• Establishing a renewable electricity standard that mandates 25 percent of all electricity come from clean energy alternatives such as wind and solar by 2025.

“The time to hesitate is through,” Jim Morrison of The Doors once sang. There may be no better slogan for the cause to combat global warming. According to an international panel of climate experts, we have no more than eight years to freeze and reverse global warming pollution levels without facing serious consequences such as rising sea levels, more severe weather events, worsening crop yields, and water shortages.

Live Earth has served to raise awareness about the climate crisis; now is the time for individuals and governments to assume responsibility for addressing it.