The Earth dies screaming, so pass the Courvoisier

The Live Earth concerts is proof that the politics of environmentalism are rooted in middle-class hypocrisy. I have yet to see many, or any seasoned environmental campaigners fully endorse the Live Earth 'extravaganza', indeed, even openDemocracy's very own green guru Oliver Tickell concedes that the 'whole cult of celebrity can be stomach-turning'. Well, if you ask me that is putting it mildly to say the least. We all know that celebrities like Madonna are opportunistic when it comes to worth while causes, one day they are for something, the next day they drop it and move on to yet another global event or cause. Tickell also points out the glaring contradictions of A-list celebrities like Madonna telling the little people how they should live their 'carbon-neutral' lives - yeah right, Madonna. John Buckley of the CarbonFootprint.com told the Daily Mail how 'Madonna's Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of CO2 in four months of last year. And that was just the flights between the countries, not taking into account the truckloads of equipment needed, the power to stage such a show and the transport of all the thousands of fans getting to the gigs'. The truth is, the real message of the Live Earth concerts is it's absolutely acceptable to be a millionaire pop-star, just so long as they get on a stage once and a while and tell the population how they should reduce their carbon footprint - hypocrisy becomes ok. The shear hypocrisy, and all of the glaring contradictions are neatly summed up by Live Earth's highly irritating little book entitled Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook. The author of the book is the multi-millionaire David de Rothschild from the same hyper-rich Rothschild banking dynasty. The book is packed full of unbearable ideas that pussyfoot around the problem of climate change - like for example, we are told to grow our own tomatoes, and if your cold at home, wear a jumper instead of turning the heating on. The book is, to all intents and purposes, a green version of our very own Holy Bible - the only difference is the Live Earth Global Survival Handbook is produced by a guilt-ridden, plummy-mouthed aristocrat who thinks he can tell the little people how they ought to live.

Submitted on Sat, 2007-07-07 20:48

David Wood

Posts: 186
Joined: 2003-12-02

Can you say 'ad hominem'? Can you say 'self-contradiction'?

You sound even more confused in your reasoning than usual... You admit that no environmentalists seem to be supporting Live Earth with any enthusiasm or indeed at all in most cases. Yet apparently it proves, at the same time as having this lack of support from environmentalists, that 'the politics of environmentalism are rooted in middle-class hypocrisy.' Really? Surely even you can see the rather large self-contradiction there... And by the same reasoning, I presume the existence of rich socialists proves that socialism is rooted in the desires of the rich, and the existence of irrational arguments from ex-RCP members proves that the RCP was rooted in irrationality. None of these things follow, and neither does your 'argument' (such as it is...). Everyone with half a brain can see that Live Earth is a bandwagon-jumping exercise by market-driven egocentric opportunists. It says nothing about the roots of environmental politics. It says a lot about how popular superficial interpretations of the same circulate amongst the vain and vacuous, as one of many fashionable causes. The real truth or important of those causes however, remains unaffected by the identity of those who claim to support them. The content of an argument is not altered by the identity of the person making it. This is basic logic of the sort established several hundred years ago. Do keep up...

Submitted on Fri, 2007-07-20 07:08
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