Bono Kills the Planet

A few words of mine on climate change and culture that appeared in the most recent print issue of Jacobin have been liberated from the paywall…

Remember Live Earth? You could be forgiven if the answer is no. It’s been ten years since the global mega-concert was beamed across the world in a purported effort to save it. How it was supposed to do so was never made clear, and it only took a few years for it to quietly fade into memory.

Founded by media mogul Kevin Wall and inconvenient-truth teller Al Gore, Live Earth consisted of twelve roughly simultaneous concerts, staged on every continent, including Antarctica. The diverse lineup featured everyone from Snoop Dogg and M.I.A. to Garth Brooks and the Soweto Gospel Choir. If social change could come from star power alone, global warming would’ve stopped on July 7, 2007.

We weren’t so lucky. A decade later, the most powerful nation in the world has a blustering climate denier at its helm, and every season seems to top its average high temperature by a few degrees.

Of course, today most of the performers and viewers alike would admit that the concert was a spectacular failure. Yet the idea that a culture of awareness can magically save the world remains alive and well.

Read the rest here…