Live Earth: Did it get the message across

I would have to say both yes and no.

Yes they mentioned at every possible point that something needed to be done and they kept pointing out that humans had done the damage and the only way to stop it would be for us to change our ways, the only problem was they didn't really suggest any ways for people to change.

I don't know what the Live Earth coverage was like in other countries but frankly I think the BBC could have done a much better job of it. Most of the interviews I saw were lackluster and at best consisted of celebrities preaching that something should be done while you could see a guilty look in their eyes indicating that they weren't doing it themselves.

For such a big event there was little to no promotion what so ever. I don't think I saw a single advert on the BBC indicating the show was coming up and I feel that there may be a lot of people who watched it on the off chance who may have come away from it still feeling they didn't really know what it was all about.

The actual physical amount of time that was dedicated to the event however was great. Anyone flicking channels on that day wouldn't have been able to miss at least a small amount of the concert, so hopefully its usefulness as a tool for getting peoples attention was significant. However there wasn't a clear message being projected throughout the event and there certainly wasn't any sign of educating people on how they could do their bit.

Most other major events that are either fundraising or raising awareness of an issue usually have a very strong message running throughout the proceedings. Take Children in need for example, even though they fill an evening with lots of entrainment the core message is always being thrown at you with moving films showing you the actual changes you could make, educating you about the issues that the event is taking on. I feel Live Earth lacked this central message and didn't push forward any educational material to really get across to people what they could do to help and how they could do it.

Even if you take a look at the official Live Earth website now, there is more information on there about their commercial partners and the fact they had a concert then there is educational material to help people be more environmentally friendly.

Everyone knows there is a climate issue it's on the news everyday. We don't need anymore big events to "raise awareness", what we really need is better education to allow people to make a difference.

I wonder how much the Live Earth event actually cost to put together, and how many free composters, power saving light bulbs, home solar and wind installations and bicycles could have been bought with the money and given to people who actually want to make a difference.

If these people have the power to shout about the problem as loud as they do then surely they also have the power to do something practical about it. Next time someone has an idea like this I hope they stop and think how much of a difference they could really make if the time, money and resources were used in a different way.

Makes me think that maybe its time to start writing some environmentally educational articles. I already have one which is rather basic on energy saving light bulbs, so I might do another revision of this with more information especially now the prices of bulbs have dropped considerably.