Why rock won't save the planet

This Saturday, Live Earth, a series of huge concerts around the world, will use music and modern media, in the words of the organisers, to "trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis".
I sincerely hope that it works, but I fear that our refusal to acknowledge climate change has very deep roots - too deep to be addressed by feel-good concerts. After all, we have known about climate change for a surprisingly long time. The first serious warnings came in 1965 and climate change has been at the top of the political agenda for 15 years.

For years, the assumption has been that if people only knew more about the seriousness of the issue, they would act. We have had a decade of terrifying research, voluminous reports, portentous political statements, interactive websites, Sunday supplement pull-outs, and screaming banner headlines.


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