He may have made the definitive film on climate change and come within a hanging chad of becoming the most world’s most powerful man but Al Gore’s status did little to protect him from another force of nature - Bob Geldof.
The unloved former US vice-president, turned unlikely hero of the environmental lobby, found himself the target of withering criticism yesterday from the singer-campaigner for copying his “Live Aid” format for a series of concerts to raise awareness of global warming.
Geldof, who invented the simultaneous global charity gig with Live Aid in 1985, accused Gore of doing little more than organising a worldwide musical extravaganza to state the obvious when Live Earth - a series of seven concerts across the world spanning 24 hours - takes place on 7 July.
Speaking in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, the former Boomtown Rats frontman, renowned for his expletive-strewn broadsides against world leaders in aid of debt relief for developing nations, said: “I hope they’re a success. But why is he [Gore] actually organising them?
“To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody’s known about that problem for years. We are all fucking conscious of global warming.”
Gore, whose documentary on climate change - An Inconvenient Truth - won two Oscars, wants Live Earth to act as a catalyst for action by individuals, corporations and governments to reduce carbon emissions.
The concerts in London, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Tokyo, New York and Shanghai, will be played by more than 100 acts from Madonna to the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Police. It is expected that up to two billion people will watch the event via television, radio and internet.
But Geldof, who was speaking during an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant at a leadership seminar, said that, unlike Live8 - the successor to Live Aid in 2005 to persuade the G8 countries to tackle global poverty - the organisers of Live Earth had no specific target.
He said: “Live Earth doesn’t have a final goal. I would only organise this if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations. They haven’t got those guarantees. So it’s just an enormous pop concert or the umpteenth time that, say, Madonna or Coldplay get up on stage.”
To add insult to injury, Geldof added that he was irked by the choice of name for this summer’s benefit gigs, which has led to a slew of unsolicited inquiries to his office. He said: “It sounds like Live8. We’re getting lots of responses from people who think we are organising it.”
Gore, who was Bill Clinton’s deputy for nine years before being beaten to the presidency by George Bush in November 2000, amid the furore surrounding faulty voting machines, was maintaining a dignified silence last night over Geldof’s remarks.
When launching Live Earth last month, the American said: “By attracting an audience of billions we hope Live Earth will launch a global campaign giving a critical mass of people around the world the tools they need to help solve the climate crisis.
“But ultimately, corporations and governments must become global leaders taking decisive action to stop global warming.” The organisers of Live Earth insisted it would be more than a melodic outpouring of global angst, with a series of measures for the aftermath of the event to be announced later this month. Any profits made by the event will go to the Alliance for Climate Change, of which Gore is chairman.
The concerts will also be carbon neutral with electricity to power venues, including the new Wembley Stadium, sourced from green producers and generators running on bio-fuels.
All food and drink stands will use compostible containers and hybrid cars will be used to ferry the likes of Genesis, Duran Duran, Keane and Snow Patrol to the stage from their hotels, which will have been fitted with low-energy light bulbs and recycling containers in each room.
A spokesman for the London concert said: “We’re taking every single step to reduce the impact and at the very end we will offset carbon emissions.
“Quite a few of the acts are going to be local. We’re not in the days of Concorde flying Phil Collins across the Atlantic to play at two concerts. It’s not just a lot of musicians wanting to appear to be green.”
Despite the disagreements, tickets for the concert sold out in a matter or hours, after a ballot.
Head to head
Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, aka ‘Sir Bob’
Age: 55
Key issue: Alleviation of global poverty through cancellation of debt.
Star turns: Band Aid (1984), Live Aid (1985), Live8 (2005).
Famous friends: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bono, Pope Benedict XVI, Nelson Mandela and Dalai Llama.
Key phrase: “I don’t fucking care. Let’s do this thing.”
Albert Arnold Gore, aka ‘Al’
Age: 59
Key issue: The aversion of global catastrophe through by reducing carbon emissions.
Star turns: Military journalist (Vietnam 1969), US Vice-President (1993-2001), presenter of An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Live Earth (summer 2007)
Famous friends: Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates.
Key phrase: “I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of being a candidate again.”
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