SOS - save ourselves

There's been rumours floating around for about a week now, and it looks as though an announcement is coming soon. But for what....?

It looks like it's to be called SOS or Live Earth and will happen on Saturday 7th July 2007 - that's 7/7/07. It's being mentioned as having a music line-up bigger than LiveAid or Live8, and aims to put the subject of climate change before a world-wide audience of 2 billion people.

It's thought that the event will feature co-ordinated film, music and television events in seven cities including London, Washington DC, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and Kyoto, and involve up to 2.5m people in events and link-ups at the cities involved as well as other locations.

The Financial Times reported last week that someone close to the event told them "Live Aid was about asking people to stump up money, this is about effecting systemic change. The aim is not just to drive awareness but to get people to take action." These actions are likely to include personal pledges to reduce emissions, for instance by using energy efficient equipment or flying less.

All very worthy ... but eFestivals wonders whether the staging will feature energy saving lighting and PA systems powered from green sources, how many of the acts involved will fly in on their private jets or helicopters, whether the acts will suddenly insist on changing their product packaging to be greener, how many miles of traffic tailbacks there'll be, how many car parks will be full of gas-guzzlers, how much extra rubbish will be created and extra energy used though the corporisation of the alcohol and food available, and whether these things will be locally sourced, etc, etc, etc, etc. Or will it be like previous events where the rich told the poor to give away their money, but this time the biggest users of unnecessary energy are telling the rest to cut back?

There's been various reports that an announcement would happen in days already gone by. The website can be found at http://www.saveourselves.com - you can sign up at the website for the all the news when it's announced.

eFestivals says: We can wait for governments and businesses to stop pointing the finger at anyone but themselves, or we can take responsibility for our own actions and the consequences of those actions. Practicing what we preach, eFestivals is carbon neutral. This is our future - the longer we each take to act, the more there is to be done.

The amount of energy a person or business uses can be reduced by a significant amount by a few simple measures - and save money too! Turn your heating down just a little, and put on warmer clothes; turn your TV off properly (don't leave it on 'stand-by'), and unplug your chargers when not in use; fill the kettle with just the water you need; turn lights off, and use low-energy bulbs; and think about whether all your journeys are really necessary, and whether they could be made using public transport, or bicycle, or by walking.

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