Sunday, July 08, 2007
PLAN REVEALED
Those Live Earthians sure aren’t short of ideas:
"If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down!” Thus Madonna revealed her plan to combat global warming ...
Some of the 65,000 people who’d spent $110 on a ticket appeared unaware of the seven-point pledge that Al Gore, the event’s chief impresario, had asked all spectators to make. Asked about it, they offered blank looks and said they were there for Madonna (whose annual carbon footprint, according to [Carbon Footprint representative John] Buckley, is 1,018 tons—about 92 times the 11 tons an average person uses per year).
By comparison, Formula One driver Jenson Button’s annual carbon footprint has been calculated at just 54.383 tonnes. More trouble for Madonna and Live Earth:
Instead of being lionised, Madonna found herself accused of hypocrisy last night after allegations that she has financial links to some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The Ray of Light Foundation, a charitable fund established by the star to support her favourite causes and named after one of her biggest selling hits, has $4.2 million (£2.1 million) of shares in a string of companies including Alcoa, the American aluminium giant, the Ford Motor Company and Weyerhaeuser, an international forest products company. All have been criticised by environmentalists.
Never mind all that; as Live Earth founder Kevin Wall explains, Madonna wrote a song:
“Whatever is being said, I know that her commitment to this cause runs deep. She is performing for free and has written a new song for us, which I think goes to show that."
These people are hilarious.