LOS ANGELES, California – In an effort to engage billions of people across the globe to combat global warming, former Vice President Al Gore, Kevin Wall, Cameron Diaz and the MSN Network have launched Save Our Selves, SOS – The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis.
Its first event will be Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all seven continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world’s top musical acts.
"To solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people," Gore said. "We are launching SOS and Live Earth to begin a process of communication that will mobilize people all over the world to take action."
"The Climate Crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement," said Gore. "We hope to jump-start that movement right here, right now, and take it to a new level on July 7."
Live Earth is expected to engage an audience of more than two billion people through concert attendance and broadcasts.
The first 25 artists were announced February 15. They are: Pharrell, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Paolo Nutini, Sheryl Crow, AFI, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Corinne Bailey Rae, Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Mana, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, Korn, Faith Hill with Tim McGraw, and Bloc Party.
SOS was founded by Kevin Wall, who won an Emmy as worldwide executive producer of Live 8. Wall announced that Live Earth concerts will take place in Brazil, Shanghai, Japan, Johannesburg, London, Sydney, Antarctica, and the Eastern United States.
"We’ve been overwhelmed by the response from the artist community and are feverishly working out the logistics for all of the bands that want to be involved," said Wall.
"Our climate crisis is the paramount challenge facing humanity," Wall said. "SOS is more than a global distress call. SOS will give the world the tools we need to answer that call with meaningful action. The most important part of SOS is how individuals, corporations, and governments respond."
MSN has partnered with SOS to make the Live Earth concerts available across the globe. The Live Earth audience, and the proceeds from the concerts, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis.
Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN said, "Anyone around the world with an Internet connection will be able to come to MSN to view not just the concert events, but also an extensive collection of interactive media that will entertain, educate, inspire and ultimately drive change."
Live Earth will implement a new Green Event Standard that will become the model for carbon neutral concerts and other live events in the future. The Green Event Standard is being developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Commission.
The campaign’s identity is based on SOS, the international Morse code distress signal: …–… SOS is the most urgent, universal message we have, and SOS will use that signal as a continuous distress call to prompt individuals, corporations and governments around the world to respond to our climate crisis with action.
"SOS is creating an unmatched communications platform to take on an unparalleled crisis," Wall said. "Our message must saturate the globe if we’re to succeed, and we will.
In the U.S., we’re partnering with NBC-Universal and its networks. On satellite radio, we have SIRIUS and XM. In the UK, we’re partnering with the BBC. In Japan, we have a historic partnership with two broadcast partners. We have already secured television, Internet and wireless coverage in 120 countries, and the rest are soon to come."
