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The Upshot of Live Earth



The Live Earth concerts are over, and it's recap time.

TreeHugger is polling its readers for their opinions. At writing a full 40% think the event was a waste of time and energy.

And the New York Times has a cranky review of the broadcast, complaining about the timidity of the message--that small and painless changes in habit, like switching off lights when they're not in use, can make a big difference--and about the corporate sponsorships and celebrity hypocrisy. Madonna's got a zillion houses! She can't tell me what to do!

We offer this perspective:

Who cares how many cars Cameron Diaz has? When she says you should turn off the shower when you shave your legs, it's still the truth. A broken clock is right twice a day.

Not putting on a seven-continent concert would have saved energy, and a Philip Glass concerto inspired by the chemical structure of CO2 might have been a cleverer official song.

But TreeHuggers and the folks at the NYT (the choir) don't need this sermon. Metallica and Linkin Park and Xzibit and Kelly Clarkson delivered a different audience and got its attention.

We think the Boston Globe got it right.

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