07.05.07 kulturnatib

Earth calling Cebu

Where do good ideas come from? From other good ideas.

The good idea that spurred ex US vice president Al Gore to write his best-selling book, 'The Inconvenient Truth' that became the Oscar-winning documentary of the same title and is the inspiration for a worldwide event come Saturday, July 7 called “Live Earth : SOS For A Climate In Crisis” is, like all good ideas, a simple one.

The good idea behind all these is that ordinary individuals can do something about the present climate crisis, global warming and other environmental problems that beset us and ultimately threaten the human habitability of planet earth.

This good idea is also what is encouraging a group of individuals, disparate in age, gender and profession, but united behind this good idea; to get together and organize a similar event here.

The idea is to use the drawing power of music and the arts to put across the message that ordinary people can do something, mostly quite ordinary things, to address the present challenge and, most importantly, to start doing them now.

Thus, like the worldwide event that will take place simultaneously or one after the other, given time differences, in places such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Melbourne, Johannesburg, London and others, musicians and other artists will take center stage on this day.

Sharing the stage will be local environmental NGOs such as Fisheries for Sustainable Harvest (FISH), Cebu United for Sustainable Water (CUSW) and others and the national Greenpeace Philippines who will launch their nationwide campaign called Simple Lang that suggests practical things to do to conserve energy, consume wisely and behave with respect to our communities and planet.

The simplest of these, Greenpeace encourages, is the signing of a personal pledge for the planet. The signing of such pledges will also be the centerpiece of Greenpeace's involvement in the event.

Already more than 25 top local bands have committed to participate, as well as two literary groups, Women in Literary Arts (WILA) and Bathalanong Halad Alang sa Dagang (BATHALAD) and the performance art group of UP, Performa.

Randy Su, of the Outpost Restaurant, the venue for the event and the lead convenor, says that, “While the line-up of bands will guarantee that the crowd will have a rollicking good time, we would like to ensure that they leave the event remembering not only the good music but, more importantly, the message that they are empowered. That they can contribute to solutions to global problems and they can start contributing now.”

The organizers say that the concert is free. But they encourage people to bring used books and clothing that will be turned over to groups who can distribute the same. They also encourage people not to bring their cars or vehicles in order to already practice one of the things that can be done to reduce carbon emissions which is to utilize mass transport or the jeepney.

More, practically, since the event will be at the parking lot, parking will be a problem that is best avoided, they say.

Lastly, in order to attract an early crowd, the organizers are making provisions for giveaways though on a limited, first come first sever basis.

This event will be among the 6,000 local initiatives worldwide registered with the Live Earth Organization that will contribute to global awareness and, the organizers believe, local action.