Live Earth’s first green test: clean up own mess!OSLO (Reuters) - Live Earth concerts on Saturday meant to spur action to fight global warming must first tackle another environmental hazard — mountains of trash and thousands of tons of greenhouse gases caused by the events.

“We want to set a new global standard for dealing with waste and recycling,” said John Rego, environmental adviser for the eight concerts meant to rock the world around the clock on a rolling basis from Sydney to New York and organized by an alliance led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

Live Earth needs to lead by example to convince people to change their lifestyles in the long term to confront a climate crisis caused by rising emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, Rego told Reuters.

So all electricity to power the concerts will come from renewable sources, such as biodiesel. Greenhouse gases spewed out by stars’ jets or by the audience’s travel will be offset by investments in renewable energy and by safeguarding forests.

Concert props may live on long after stars such as Madonna, Shakira and Bon Jovi have left the stage — old tires and oil drums used in the New York set will be re-used while some concert signs in Johannesburg will be used as roofing.

To cut use of plastics, burger boxes in London will be made of edible starch. Tickets to the concert in Hamburg include a 0.3 euro ($0.409) fee to absorb greenhouse gases. And in Sydney, the concert tickets allow free travel on public transport.

“The goal of Live Earth is to have millions of people committing to make a few small changes in their lives and demanding change from governments and businesses,” Rego said.

You can read the full article from environmental reporter Alister Doyle by clicking HERE.