chicken_little
08-07-2007, 04:26 PM
Is it just me, or does the whole Live Earth thing seem like a big pile of hypocrisy? I'm not a fan of the way environmentalism is quickly becoming such a popular thing to believe in, but I do care about the Earth and hate to see needless usage of natural resources and damage to the air we breathe. Anyway...something about the concept of gathering a LOT of people together this way hasn't been sitting right with me for a while now. So I decided to do a little bit of math pertaining to one of the main issues that the environmentalists are so concerned about - automobile emissions and fuel consumption.
Here's a list of the concerts:
Australia - Aussie Stadium, Sydney
Brazil - Copacabana Beach, Rio
China - Oriental Pearl Tower, China
Germany - HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg
Japan - Makuhari Messe, Tokyo
South Africa - Coca Cola Dome, Johannesburg
Turkey - Seven Towers Fortress, Istanbul
UK - Wembley Stadium, London
USA - Giants Stadium, NYC
Okay, now say for a moment that every single person attending (not including celebrities, performers, presenters, etc.) drives 200 miles round trip in a 2003 Honda Civic with an automatic transmission, which is a very efficient car compared to most. And also assume that each of the people drives around 12,000 miles per year. Taking those assumptions, and using the site terrapass.com, we can calculate the amount of consumption and emissions per person for travels to and from the concert.
- 5.33 gallons of gasoline consumed
- 104.33 lbs. of CO2 emissions produced
Next, consider the rounded capacity of each stadium hosting festivities, according to Wikipedia:
Australia - Aussie Stadium, Sydney - 45,000
Brazil - Copacabana Beach, Rio - UNKNOWN (Expected the largest crowd)
China - Oriental Pearl Tower, China - Outdoors/UNKNOWN
Germany - HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg - 57,000
Japan - Makuhari Messe, Tokyo - UNKNOWN
South Africa - Coca Cola Dome, Johannesburg - 18,000
Turkey - Seven Towers Fortress, Istanbul - UNKNOWN
UK - Wembley Stadium, London - 90,000
USA - Giants Stadium, NYC - 80,000
I've marked ones unknown if they took place in locations without measurable capacities.
Okay, the known total is 290,000 people. The location in Brazil was expecting to have the largest crowd, so let's put that at 100,000. For the other locations, assume a total of 110,000. That comes out to a grand total of 500,000 people attending. It's safe to assume that many people will travel together, so to get the number of automobiles traveling to the festivities let's say that everyone travels in pairs, bringing the number to 250,000 automobiles.
Doing the math with that number, we come up with the following:
- 1,332,500 gallons of gasoline consumed
- 26,082,500 lbs. of CO2 produced
There's more!
Based on the Wikipedia information, there are approximately 173 performers, presenters, etc., that will be involved. This number is based ONLY on the name of the performer/band/artist, and does not include all of the groupies, roadies, assistants, etc. who come along with them. These people most likely will travel by aircraft, then by automobile, thus adding to the fuel consumed and the emissions produced. I haven't been able to find any data that seemed reliable regarding the emissions and fuel consumption of aircraft, so I won't try to do any calculations.
Wait, there's more! :D
As I was typing this out I noticed something on Wikipedia:
All over the world, there will be 7112 concerts associated with Live Earth.
WHOA! I can't even guess at how many more miles will be traveled by all of the people going to those concerts. I bet it will be significantly more than if they'd all gone about their normal daily routines.
So, sticking with the numbers that I did calculate, let me put them in perspective.
According to terrapass.com, a person who owns a 2003 Honda Civic with an automatic transmission will use 533 gallons of gas per year and produce 10,428 lbs. of CO2 per year. In ONE DAY the people attending Live Earth have consumed as much gasoline and produced as much CO2 as 2500 of these example Civic owners would use in a YEAR! And remember, the Honda Civic is supposedly among the most environmentally friendly cars around. Who knows how many people will travel in old cars that aren't so "green" or big SUVs that chug gas and spew carbon.
HOLY @#$*!!!
That's not even the whole picture! There's still the matter of all of the trash produced, electricity used to power the festivities, and who knows what else.
So much for this being about caring for the environment! It seems to me that they're doing more harm than good. And I'm willing to bet that all but a small percentage of people will actually change their lifestyles since they simply attended for the entertainment.
Here's a list of the concerts:
Australia - Aussie Stadium, Sydney
Brazil - Copacabana Beach, Rio
China - Oriental Pearl Tower, China
Germany - HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg
Japan - Makuhari Messe, Tokyo
South Africa - Coca Cola Dome, Johannesburg
Turkey - Seven Towers Fortress, Istanbul
UK - Wembley Stadium, London
USA - Giants Stadium, NYC
Okay, now say for a moment that every single person attending (not including celebrities, performers, presenters, etc.) drives 200 miles round trip in a 2003 Honda Civic with an automatic transmission, which is a very efficient car compared to most. And also assume that each of the people drives around 12,000 miles per year. Taking those assumptions, and using the site terrapass.com, we can calculate the amount of consumption and emissions per person for travels to and from the concert.
- 5.33 gallons of gasoline consumed
- 104.33 lbs. of CO2 emissions produced
Next, consider the rounded capacity of each stadium hosting festivities, according to Wikipedia:
Australia - Aussie Stadium, Sydney - 45,000
Brazil - Copacabana Beach, Rio - UNKNOWN (Expected the largest crowd)
China - Oriental Pearl Tower, China - Outdoors/UNKNOWN
Germany - HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg - 57,000
Japan - Makuhari Messe, Tokyo - UNKNOWN
South Africa - Coca Cola Dome, Johannesburg - 18,000
Turkey - Seven Towers Fortress, Istanbul - UNKNOWN
UK - Wembley Stadium, London - 90,000
USA - Giants Stadium, NYC - 80,000
I've marked ones unknown if they took place in locations without measurable capacities.
Okay, the known total is 290,000 people. The location in Brazil was expecting to have the largest crowd, so let's put that at 100,000. For the other locations, assume a total of 110,000. That comes out to a grand total of 500,000 people attending. It's safe to assume that many people will travel together, so to get the number of automobiles traveling to the festivities let's say that everyone travels in pairs, bringing the number to 250,000 automobiles.
Doing the math with that number, we come up with the following:
- 1,332,500 gallons of gasoline consumed
- 26,082,500 lbs. of CO2 produced
There's more!
Based on the Wikipedia information, there are approximately 173 performers, presenters, etc., that will be involved. This number is based ONLY on the name of the performer/band/artist, and does not include all of the groupies, roadies, assistants, etc. who come along with them. These people most likely will travel by aircraft, then by automobile, thus adding to the fuel consumed and the emissions produced. I haven't been able to find any data that seemed reliable regarding the emissions and fuel consumption of aircraft, so I won't try to do any calculations.
Wait, there's more! :D
As I was typing this out I noticed something on Wikipedia:
All over the world, there will be 7112 concerts associated with Live Earth.
WHOA! I can't even guess at how many more miles will be traveled by all of the people going to those concerts. I bet it will be significantly more than if they'd all gone about their normal daily routines.
So, sticking with the numbers that I did calculate, let me put them in perspective.
According to terrapass.com, a person who owns a 2003 Honda Civic with an automatic transmission will use 533 gallons of gas per year and produce 10,428 lbs. of CO2 per year. In ONE DAY the people attending Live Earth have consumed as much gasoline and produced as much CO2 as 2500 of these example Civic owners would use in a YEAR! And remember, the Honda Civic is supposedly among the most environmentally friendly cars around. Who knows how many people will travel in old cars that aren't so "green" or big SUVs that chug gas and spew carbon.
HOLY @#$*!!!
That's not even the whole picture! There's still the matter of all of the trash produced, electricity used to power the festivities, and who knows what else.
So much for this being about caring for the environment! It seems to me that they're doing more harm than good. And I'm willing to bet that all but a small percentage of people will actually change their lifestyles since they simply attended for the entertainment.