http://www.shanghaiist.com/archives/2007/0..._al_gore_br.phpShanghaiistWill Al Gore bring "Live Earth" to Shanghai? February 16, 2007
The Washington Post reports that the former next president of the United States, Al Gore, is going to put on some massive live shows to help persuade the world to take global warming and climate change seriously:
At the news conference Thursday announcing this summer's ambitious "Live Earth" concerts -- designed as an exercise in "mass persuasion" about threats of global warming -- Al Gore described his vision: a 24-hour musical extravaganza across seven continents, featuring as many as 150 of the world's top recording artists, introduced by an army of "celebrities and thought leaders" (think: Cameron Diaz and Richard Branson), playing before a total live audience of a million people, and reaching 2 billion more via television, radio and the Internet on July 7.
And in the next paragraph they tell us what cities will play host to these shows:
The foreign cities hosting the stadium-size concerts will be Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg, London, Rio and Kyoto, Japan.
The evolution of Al Gore has been anything but scientific. In some ways, we're almost glad he didn't win the presidency (even though he did), because the quirks and quidditties that made him the butt of jokes has seemingly blossomed into something that's a bit more maverick but definitely more interesting than what he would have been otherwise.
The Oscar-nominated film An Inconvenient Truth which we, lamentably, have not yet gotten around to seeing, is just the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of Al Gore. In the spirit of the film, we'er going to get a copy of that DVD in Shanghai, rather than driving Honda mini-SUV down to a local Blockbuster Video in California.
Needless to say, getting one of these shows to be held here would be pretty darn cool, even if Bon Jovi doesn't show up. The battle against global warming gained some steam when lawmakers from countries around the world signed a pact that will attempt to further curb environmental degradation and climate change. China isn't sure whether or not they will agree to mandatory emissions limits just yet, arguing that as a developing country it should get some kind of slack and that developed countries need to take primary responsibility.
What Shanghai needs is a little bit of Snoop Dogg—the LBC and the PVG, hookin' back up? As they say in the suburbs, oh shiznit!
Merci beaucoup to Shanghaiist
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Notice the first line highlighted in blue from the Washington Post