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05/26/2008: "No More Pyrotechnics - rock concerts going slightly greener"
Some bands and concert organisers have taken strides to minimise touring's environmental impact. Festivals such as Lollapalooza, an American summer institution, and Britain's massive Glastonbury Festival have switched to biofuel-powered generators. The organisers of last summer's Oshega Festival in Montreal went one step further: they hired Hydro Quebec to supply their main stage with emission-free geothermal energy. Reverb has encouraged organisers to offer reusable aluminum canteens rather than plastic water-bottles, and also set up "Eco-Villages", with information on how to minimise one's carbon footprints, outside concert venues.
This is all very well, but bands still seem more committed to talk than action. The Dave Matthews Band, peripatetic college favourites, made much of its decision in 2006 to use biofuels and emissions reduction credits (ERCs) to make its annual summer tours "carbon neutral". But it still schedules concerts at places like the George Amphitheater, 150 miles east of Seattle and hundreds of miles from any public transport. That produces immense quantities of CO2, half of which will still be there in 100 years.
[ Pathetic! ]
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11438710