Dear Live Earth Press Room

I have been very vocal over the last few days about what I think are the chances of Live Earth succeeding, and I would be dishonest if I thought that it would change more than a very few minds for good. I don't know how you measure the success of a set of concerts, but regardless of my predictions, I did state to various journalists that I did wish you all the best in your venture.

That is, until now. I have had the deep misfortune to stumble upon your streaming media site to discover that your key sponsor is one of the most notoriously anti-environmental vehicle manufacturers on Earth. The parent company, GM, was the last auto manufacturer to leave the voracious climate change denying Global Climate Coalition. GM were also a key funder of the anti climate change lobby group, the Competitive Enterprise Institute. As for Chevy themselves, the Forbes Top 2007 Gas Guzzlers has Chevrolet's models really cornering the market with vehicles at numbers 4, 6 and 8! This is one company that loves to pollute.

If I want to see a video of a performance I have to see a Chevy banner ad, and watch a 30 second advert saying what a great company they are. And that is meant to be a good demonstration to the millions of Live Earth viewers on how to care for the planet?

It sucks, and you know it. Live Earth has been polluted, and I am more than happy to tell Al Gore this myself.

Yours

Keith Farnish
www.theearthblog.org

I really wish I didn't have to publish this, but corporate intervention must not be left ignored.

Keith


Keith Farnish www.theearthblog.org

I pledge:

• As a member of the Top 3 Percent, to not hoarde 84% of the earth's resources.

• To sell off 4 of my five mansions, and then sell the fifth and move into a $125,000 three bedroom in Indianapolis

• To not waste energy with TV Specials, Documentaries, or other hot air when I could just be a normal person biking to work

• To not make billions of dollars by selling the American people foods laced with corn syrup that causes diabetes, heart ailments and youth obesity

• To not make crappy music and movie, printed on millions of non biodegradeable CDs and DVDs, and oh yeah, even if they are streamed on the Internet, they still waste billions in resources pumping and promoting things that will have no meaning the next year
  

Hey, Keith: If you were to get someone to put your letter on a site to get others to sign on, I will!  I was appalled at the sucking up the Live Earth people must have done to even consider, much less allow GM as a sponsor, as it sure as Hell sent the WRONG message to the viewers.  Of course, I don't know if it was NBC who made the deal with the destructive Devil.  NBC/GE has its own record of Corporate Oligarchy rapaciousness.  

The LAST thing we need is more of the blind consumerism and superficiality that GM has always represented.  Really watered down the message Live Earth was trying to instill in the viewers:  'Dit Dit Dit Dah Dah Dah Dit Dit Dit--now buy some archaic, pretentious, environmental destruction.'  How foolish.

Lost in all this crap is the small bright spot revealed, that Gore traveled to the site in NJ from DC on Amtrak.  One step forward...dozens back.

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

Hey, Keith:  ONE more thing: you did GOOD by writing  and providing your letter for all to see, including--I hope, GM and the Live Earth people.  If anything, harsher stronger wider criticism of accepted, unexamined destructive practices is what is in order.  Be proud--Be assertive--Kick ass!  FAR better to do so than to look back and wish you HAD--when too late!

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

1. Doing so did not require sacrifice (CFL bulbs last longer and I don't have to change them as often).

2. Doing so did not cost more (they actually save me money in the long run).

I don't really want to get a reputation as the "Live Earth Basher", so won't be starting a petition - there's so many around that I have stopped signing all but the most critical ones - but have passed the letter on to a couple of key contacts, and would be happy for others to pass it on too.

I really want to see lots of good, positive news, like the kind I feature on www.reduce3.com. I don't want to see spin. Guess which is the more common. If Live Earth have a means of following up on the pledge signers (not that the pledge is faultless either - number 1 should be "I will strive to reconnect with the natural world, without which I cannot survive.") then I would love to see some success come out of that.

Keith Farnish
www.theearthblog.org

Keith Farnish www.theearthblog.org

When they went to commercial, and the biggest sponsor was GM, I just about turned the TV off.

Then after an hour of listening to person after person talk about the energy-efficient light bulbs, I thought, "yeah, that's a really good thing to do, but why aren't they giving a broader range of advice and minor changes that make a big difference" -- then I realized, of course, they're focusing on the lightbulbs -- GE is a major producer of energy-efficient bulbs, and NBC is broadcasting this (GE's the parent company). I think they should have been a little more transparent with this information.

I don't mean to be skeptical (maybe it's just my journalism training kicking in), I'm sure this event did a lot of good, but some aspects--like these two examples--really bother me.