Kevin Wall's revelation was pure Hollywood. He walked out of a Los Angeles screening of An Inconvenient Truth reeling with thoughts "about humanity, about my children, about my children's' children." Then, in the theater's parking lot, he watched people climbing back into their SUVs. He stopped to look down at his own gas-guzzler. Everyone's still doing the same old stuff, he realized. "It was a red alert."Wall, 55, is now a proud part of the solution. He drives a hybrid. His office is sustainable. And he's going to motivate billions of people to end global warming.
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When you hear the song that was playing when you first kissed your girlfriend, it still evokes emotion. |
Rounding up the biggest musical acts in the world wasn't as tricky as you might expect. Earlier this year, Wall and Al Gore, Live Earth's other major partner, took a stroll backstage at the Grammy awards. "We had a lot of artists come directly to us and clear their schedules to do this free event," says Wall, "because they thought it was so important." All the performers-some as famous for their conspicuous consumption as for their music-will receive environmental coaching prior to the event, and will be provided with handbooks on leading sustainable lifestyles.Throughout the concerts, Live Earth will screen short videos about global warming and display tips about helping to stop climate change. It's all part of the effort to link the global-warming message to the performances-the way we still think of Live Aid when we hear Freddie Mercury singing "We Are the Champions." "Music is an emotional carrier," says Wall. "When you hear the song that was playing when you first kissed your girlfriend, it still evokes emotion. If we can combine emotion with our message we can become associated with a piece of music-just like that first kiss."