Category: Arts & Culture Key figures: Al Gore, Kevin Wall (producer), The Police, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Madonna, Bon Jovi
Summary
Live Earth was a global environmental benefit concert series held on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07), designed to raise awareness about climate change through music. The event featured more than 150 musical acts performing across twelve locations worldwide on the same day — spanning all seven continents, including a symbolic performance by the band Nunatak at the Rothera Research Station in Antarctica — making it one of the largest coordinated concert events in history. Produced by Kevin Wall in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection, Live Earth was explicitly framed as a cultural extension of Gore’s climate advocacy campaign following his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The concerts were broadcast globally across television, radio, and internet streams, reaching an estimated 2 billion potential viewers across all platforms.
Venues and Performers
The twelve concert venues spanned all seven continents:
| Venue | City | Notable performers |
|---|---|---|
| Giants Stadium | East Rutherford, New Jersey | The Police, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer |
| Wembley Stadium | London | Madonna, Genesis, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Spinal Tap |
| Sydney Football Stadium | Sydney | Jack Johnson, Crowded House, Wolfmother, John Butler Trio |
| Copacabana Beach | Rio de Janeiro | Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray, Pharrell Williams, Jorge Ben Jor |
| Makuhari Messe | Chiba (Tokyo) | Linkin Park, Rihanna, Kumi Koda, Xzibit |
| Tō-ji | Kyoto | Yellow Magic Orchestra, Michael Nyman, Bonnie Pink |
| Oriental Pearl Tower | Shanghai | Sarah Brightman, Eason Chan |
| HSH Nordbank Arena | Hamburg | Shakira, Snoop Dogg, Enrique Iglesias, Chris Cornell, Yusuf (Cat Stevens) |
| Coca-Cola Dome | Johannesburg | Joss Stone, UB40, Angélique Kidjo, Soweto Gospel Choir |
| National Mall | Washington, D.C. | Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood |
| Basilica of St. John Lateran | Rome | Italian orchestral and choral performers |
| Rothera Research Station | Antarctica | Nunatak (British Antarctic Survey scientists) |
Headliners were chosen in part for their global name recognition and appeal across demographics. The Police — who were concurrently on their reunion world tour in 2007, their first since 1983 — closed the Giants Stadium concert, which drew approximately 60,000 attendees. Madonna, headlining Wembley Stadium, performed to a capacity crowd and delivered a speech declaring: “If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down.”
Broadcast and Viewership
The concerts were simultaneously broadcast across a network of television partners in more than 130 countries. In the United States, NBC broadcast the Giants Stadium concert and portions from other venues, reaching 19 million viewers. Forty-one percent of Canadian households tuned in. In Brazil, 37 percent of households watched some portion of the concert. By July 23 — sixteen days after the event — cumulative online video streams had reached 55 million, watched by an estimated 23 million unique viewers across MSN Video (the primary internet streaming partner), YouTube, and partner sites.
The event also made significant use of mobile distribution platforms. Verizon Wireless in the United States offered exclusive mobile video highlights, marking one of the earlier large-scale concert events to integrate mobile video delivery as a primary distribution channel alongside broadcast television.
Environmental Message and Pledges
Each concert venue displayed the Live Earth “7 Point Pledge,” written by Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, which audience members were asked to affirm:
- Demand that my country join an international treaty to cut global warming pollution 90% by 2050.
- Take personal action to help solve the climate crisis — drive less, fly less, use energy from renewable sources.
- Fight for a moratorium on the construction of new coal power plants.
- Work for legislation to make solar, wind, and other clean energy sources affordable.
- Achieve 100% renewable electricity in my own home within the next ten years.
- Plant new trees and reduce deforestation wherever possible.
- Buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment.
The pledge was promoted as a mechanism to convert concert attendance into lasting behavioral and civic action. The Alliance for Climate Protection reported collecting over 7 million pledge signatures globally in the weeks following the event.
Reception and Criticism
Critical reception was mixed. Music critics generally praised individual performances — particularly The Police reunion set, widely reviewed as one of the strongest shows of the group’s 2007 tour — but questioned the coherence and impact of the event as a whole. The Guardian described the London concert as “an expensive, well-intentioned muddle.” Writing in Rolling Stone, reviewer Brian Hiatt noted that Wembley’s set list was “remarkably diverse” but the environmental messaging between acts “ranged from earnest to hectoring.”
The environmental credibility of the event attracted pointed criticism. Critics noted that flying 150 artists and support crews to eleven international venues generated substantial carbon emissions. John Buckley of Carbon Footprint Ltd. estimated that the concerts collectively produced approximately 74,500 tonnes of CO2 — roughly the equivalent of Ghana’s monthly national carbon output. Organizers had committed to offset all emissions through accredited carbon-offset programs, but the offsetting mechanism itself drew skepticism from environmental scientists who questioned its effectiveness.
Some artists declined to participate on ethical grounds. Bob Geldof, organizer of Live Aid (1985) and Live 8 (2005), criticized Live Earth publicly, stating: “We are all ‘going to save the planet’ seemingly. But why? And why with such a debauched idea as a rock concert? Why would you want to save this planet? I’m not being funny, but we’re not really sure that it can be saved.”
Context and Legacy
Live Earth coincided with a pivotal moment in the public mainstreaming of climate change as an issue. Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 12, 2007 — jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — for his work raising climate awareness, of which Live Earth was a centerpiece. The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, also released in 2007, provided the scientific consensus that underpinned the concert’s messaging. The convergence of the Nobel Prize, An Inconvenient Truth’s Academy Award win (Best Documentary, February 25, 2007), and Live Earth made 2007 a singular year for climate change entering mainstream popular culture.
Subsequent Live Earth events were planned but largely cancelled or downsized. A proposed Live Earth event at the North Pole was never realized. A follow-up global event for 2009 Copenhagen climate summit preparations stalled. The 2007 concerts thus remained the singular large-scale realization of the Live Earth concept, though they prefigured the broader use of music and entertainment to promote environmental causes that would continue in subsequent decades.
Significance
Live Earth 2007 represented one of the largest coordinated cultural events in history and a landmark in using entertainment infrastructure to advance a policy agenda. The concert’s reach — an estimated 2 billion potential viewers, more than 130 countries, and 12 simultaneous venues across all seven continents — exceeded prior benefit concerts in global coordination, though it fell short of Live Aid’s singular cultural impact. It marked the moment when climate change, previously a concern primarily among scientists and policy specialists, became a mainstream entertainment-culture issue mobilizing audiences who might not otherwise engage with environmental politics.
The event stands alongside the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release as one of the most globally coordinated cultural moments of the summer of 2007, and its emphasis on celebrity-driven social messaging anticipated the model of advocacy that would define entertainment culture through the 2010s.