Regarding entertainers who still tout burning the planet to fill their tour bus fuel tanks with agrofuel.....

There is no good excuse for being this ignorant at this point.  

Did anyone find the emphasis on lightbulbs a bit annoying? sure, energy-efficient lightbulbs are great but the idea that people are doing their bit by using them and can carry on driving SUVs and taking flights and buying stuff they don't need from China is laughable.

Actually, the lightbulb thing, I believe, is a wonderful idea. Sure, saving a few bucks a year in energy costs isn't that dramatic, but the act of changing the lightbulb, one of the simplest acts one can perform, acts as a sort of 'gateway drug' for further environmentalism.

Once I switched over to CFLs, I started asking myself how I could do more, including buying a water heater jacket for better insulation, being more vigilant about my thermostat, instending to bike more, etc. All this stuff is simple, but I intend to take it further. The hope is that more people who change a lightbulb will get the same bright idea.

Hopefully this idea is what will prompt personal research and education about the issues (what the US seems to lack terribly), and get people away from the 'greenwashed' ideas like agro-fuels and 'clean coal'.

Nerethel

In response to Nerethel, I completely agree with your stance on lightbulbs.  I feel that as environmentalists we sometimes expect too much.  By that I mean that we expect/want people to completely change their lives overnight.  As much as we would all like to see things change as quickly as possible, some people are going to be resistant to this change especially if we tell them that they need to buy a new car, get solar panels on their houses, reinsulate their homes, only eat organic, locally grown foods, etc.  For those people who are inspired to make these changes, you're AWESOME!  But, I think we have to be a little patient with some of those who are resistant.  Any change is good change.  Think about what a difference it would make if we could get every household in America, or a state, or even one city to use CFL's.  It would be a huge help.  As Nerethal said, once people make small changes and realize the impact, they're more willing and more excited to try to do more.  Do I think that we should just focus on small stuff and forget about the bigger issues?  No way, but I do think that we should encourage people in anyway that we can to make green choices, even if they're small ones.

It figures that Al Gore and the other power elites would put their lot in with Microsoft.

Live Earth!
Microsoft Live! search engine.

Doesn't it just figure?   And of course it was hosted on MSN and the site told you to use an IE7 Browser, and that you have to have Windows Media player.

More convinced than ever that the whole Warming thing is just a marketing ploy.    Hell, Steve Balmer would turn his 18 burner patio bar-b-que grill on full CO2 spewing throttle if he could sell a few more Vista licenses.

Uh, Al Gore is on the Board of Directors of Apple.  Makes your Microsoft conspiracy (yawn) a bit tenuous.

Al Gore seems to really be enjoying his celebrity status and hanging with the cool crowd.  But, can't help wondering if he was not also rocking the vote at Live Earth.  

I certainly hope it turns out that he was leveraging this opportunity...a brillant (and fairly stealthy) campaign strategy.

And, if true, his inaugeral speech should begin: "Suckers!" (wink wink)