Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Live Aid Ratings Footprint

Jim Treacher does the numbers on live aids ratings footprint:

Reuters says: "The overall numbers amounted to a small fraction of the 2 billion people that Live Earth organizers had hoped to reach through TV, radio and Internet coverage of the event, spearheaded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to raise awareness of global warming." 2.7 million viewers on NBC, 3.1 million on the BBC, 1 million on Germany's ProSieben network, and 9 million on the MSN stream. Let's call it 16 million, give or take. Meanwhile MoveOn.org and various news organizations are still touting 2 billion viewers, or almost 1 out of every 3 people on the entire planet. But hey, why bring numbers into it? This is science we're talking about! So they were something like 1,984,000,000 viewers off. Big deal, wingnuts.

And his take on raising awareness:

Apparently the average American produces 11 tons of carbon dioxide per year. So in just one day, Live Earth did as much "damage" to the environment as 6,773 of us non-celebrities could do in a whole year. I'd call that making a difference!

Raising awareness is indeed fantastic. For example, until now I wasn't aware that Sean Combs isn't the only rapper who can ruin a Police song:


And Quite rightly he suggests that

FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING WITH A ROCK CONCERT IS LIKE FIGHTING OBESITY WITH A HOT DOG-EATING CONTEST

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