Leo, Larry and enviro-friends "entertain" global warming cause!

A few weeks ago while finishing a 10 mile stretch in northern Tennessee, i decided to give in to a guilty pleasure; i checkeed into a hotel room on the side of US 41. While i rested my weary feet, soaked up a hot bath and channel surfed my way into oblivion i caught a quick glimpse of Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio sitting along side some suit/professor guy who had a somber look on his face.

I turned off the boiling water, reached over for the remote and turned up the volume. The professor was yapping about the end of the world so it took me a while to figure out why Oprah and Leo were yapping about the end of the world but a few minutes later, Leo chimed in; "and that Oprah is why we have to begin changing our ways....we can't rely on gasolene forever...the planet depends on it!"

Oprah listened intently, the mega media mogul, who just last year gave away like 250 carbon monoxide emitting vehicles to her entire audience was singing another tune. That of environmentalist. Or was Oprah just desperate to get a big name star on her show, no matter how unpopular the topic may be. I mean c'mon, just a few months earlier a monkey-like Tom Cruise could barely be heard over the roar of several hundred screaming women as he gushed over his new fiance (Katie Holmes). Lets face it, the environment is not sexy. So if Leo wants to yap about Hybrid Cars, then Oprah's gonna let him.

Leo had two messages; change your lightbulbs and drive the new "it" car. A Hybrid. Hell, he even told Oprah, she's gotta get rid of her SUV. Oprah politely declined but said she's buy the bulbs. At 30 bucks a piece, and on a subsequent show i learned that Oprah has like 30 homes, you sorta gotta be as rich as Oprah is just to afford the switch. He also ended the show by plugging www.virtualmarch.org and www.stopglobalwarming.org as well as his upcoming special that would air some upcoming Sunday. I made a mental note and forgot about it.

Last night, while awaiting my Greyhound to Miami to see the "fam" it just so happened that i caught a glimpse of Larry David (creator of Seinfeld and star of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm) riding thru the streets of Las Vegas on a horse, dressed in Colonial garb yelling; "Global Warming is Coming, Global Warming is Coming, save yourself." An exhausted David was then pulled from his horse, given water and cleverly told people to head to Caesar's Palace to get the rest of the message.

This turned out to be the TV special Leo had elluded to on Oprah. That night folks like Ben Stiller, Tom Hanks, Leo himself, and a who's who of Hollywood heavy weights entertained the crowd with stand-up bits that every now and then would mention the word environment or global warming.

Inside the Greyhound Terminal, where most riders clearly were black, hispanic (mostly mexican immigrants) or some other lower income group, the TV special was almost completely ignored. Hard to do with folks that have nothing to do inside a building that is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Some glanced excitedly when they recognized a star they knew but after a few seconds would go back to polishing leather boots, pacifying bored and crying kiddies or fighting with the vending machines over a lost quarter. That is....until Cedric arrived. That is Cedric "The Entertainer", the black comedian who made a splash on the runaway hit documentary "The Kings of Comedy". What he said spoke volumes about the state of the environment, or at least what groups of people even have the time to care. But for now you need to just know that at this moment, a hush fell over the room. Folks took notice. "Hey man, look, its Cedric"...."Check it out, that's Cedric, quiet up, he's speakin"

Of all the stars, of all the millions spent on this production (in the most environmentaly unfriendly city in America, i might add), Cedric told it like it is, and his thoughts spoke volumes about the state of environmental awareness today; loosely translated here is what he said; "Now i gotta be honest, i'm still tryin to figure out why i was invited tonight, cuz Black folks, i mean lets face it, black people are the last ones to give a crap about the environment. That's because, i mean, we're just thinkin about the rent man, trying not to get shot, i mean the environment is a tough thing to focus on when u got like 10 kids runnin around the house."

It's a bit ironic that though it affects us all, the issue of global warming might be something only folks that have leisure can think about. Or better said even have the time to care about it.

Another thought crept into my mind. There at this station, folks that don't even seem to have the time to think about such problems as global warming might just be doing something more about combatting the problem than most economically advantaged parts of our population. I mean the shear act of conserving energy by sharing a vehicle to travel - and there is nothing more efficient and more environmentaly friendly that 55 people sharing a bus - is much more of a proactive step than driving hundreds of miles in your air conditioned SUV.

Now that is not to say that poor folks dont drive big cars. But i don't see (and i go Greyhound quite a bit) lots of white folk, lots of Leo DiCaprio's conserving energy either. So i don't know, it seems like a wash to me. On the one hand i see folks with lots of money, foolishly driving Humvees, building (and of course needing to consume more energy to operate) mansions that call themselves environmentalist. Oprah will reluctantly (and can afford to) change light bulbs but wont ditch her Expedition. And Hollywood will come together to bring attention to a cause that only Hollywood Heavys can bring attention to. But are folks just being entertained. Or are they listening?

The bigger question is; Does it even matter? I don't think even the experts can agree on that one. I'll have to lean towards my pessimistic side on this one. I just don't see how we can stop the runnaway train that is our modern world. We consume much more than we conserve. And because of that we'd have to radically consume a hell of a lot less to even come close to making a difference. I wonder if Leo and Oprah could have bought a mess of 30 dollar light bulbs and mailed them out, one per household, to like a small city.

I would gladly take one. But i'd have nowhere to screw it in to. But that's another story. One day, maybe i'll share my radical plan for saving the environment...for now i gotta head to the Metro Rail Station where 100,000 other poor but dedicated envirionmentalists fight for the environment in Miami as they commute, mass transit style, each and every day. In comparison, i'd mention Miami's population figure here but that would just depress you.

I'm out. I can smell the turkey now!