A tad old, but still a good one!

You know, I don’t know if a giant concert with seven cities having unbelievably energy-inefficient stages lit and firing away for hours on end is the best way to fight climate change. Promoters say it is to raise awareness. Look, people in the Western world are aware. We never hear the end of it. Why don’t we put that money and energy into more productive things.

How about screwing musicians and putting that money, effort, and “carbon footprint”, which is huge by the way, and no matter what people say, it won’t have much of an effect — remember FarmAid, the African concerts, yeah, same idea, the result will be the same. People will not turn off their cars, you will not see a gradual, less a mass exodus from the suburbs to cities, you will not see people turning off the TVs and computers. These are habits, they need to be changed in other ways than a rock concert. Like everyone listens to freakin’ Bono, yippee. And I am so glad that Madonna with her private jet multicar entourage can sing a song, look like a whore, and lecture me on how to reduce my carbon footprint and be a good world citizen.

But enough bitching, I am a solutions man. So how about this. Ticketholders, donate to a cause, because presumably you are all there because of your deep moral feelings on the issue. How about donating to or starting organizations like Trees Atlanta, or encouraging initiatives in rooftop greening, such as planting trees, shurbs, and grass on rooftops. These are measures that should help with the urban heat island phenomenon seem here in Atlanta and in cities all over the world.

Another solution would be putting funds together to investigate and start-up light rail systems, from suburbs to urban areas. And let’s do this in the private sector, with a little government oversight, just to help keep costs down. The private sector is key. When people invest, they get rich when businesses succeed, so there is incentive to ride, incentive to innovate. More importantly though, let’s use those resources to get the message across where it may have not been heard before, Asia and Africa. Let nip an emissions or “climate change crisis” ( I feel dirty speaking like that) in the bud. Raise awareness there on a smaller scale. Change the norms in emerging nations, hit that first generation of industrialites, set the bar for future development.

Bottom line, we need to change habits and innovate, then share and spread that knowledge with Asia and Africa. China pollutes more than anyone, sorry to break it to everyone, but the US can no longer be the sole bearer of responsibility. India is not far behind. Let’s change that. Let’s begin initiatives that are 50 years too late in the West and use these same ideas over there before it gets bad. I had an idea that fizzled in my words there, but I think you get where I am going.

The answer is not in prohibitive climate treaties that are mearly a band-aid and a promise that no one can or will keep (see Kyoto Protocol). It is not in mandating companies in one industry spend their profits on advancement of another instead of improving their own (see big oil and “windfalls” mandated for use in alternative energy research). It is not about rhetoric from politicians, or carbon offsets, or legislative mandates. It is about you, me, and the guy next to you. The answers lie in planting a tree, cooling our cities, using less energy, installing a few curly lightbulbs, telecommuting a few more times, piling into the car to go out like when we were in high school. If everyone that can do this does, we win in the long run. You must demand change from the private sector, that is what is will make bigger industry change. The market works, let’s make it work for us.