Plastic rubbish on a beach
An idea based on Live Aid and
Band Aid
I don't know about you but the oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico and the appalling way the clean-up and stopping of the leak was
handled really depressed me. I still cannot stop thinking about all the
billions of sea birds, turtles, dolphins, fish and other marine creatures that
will have lost their lives because of this tragedy, and the damage to the coast
and marshland, as well as to the livelihoods of people who live in the States
affected, is immeasurable.
Besides the ongoing ecological disaster, there is the
very serious danger being caused by marine pollution by plastic. David de
Rothschild sailed across
the Pacific Ocean on 2009 on a catamaran
made entirely from used plastic bottles and called the Plastiki. One of the
main purposes of his expedition was to raise awareness of the pollution of the
oceans by plastic waste.
All over the world people who are disgusted by what
has happened to our seas are saying something must be done. I have been
thinking deeply about it all and have come up with an idea based around the
success in the past of the Band Aid charity single and the more recent Live Aid
rock and pop concerts.
Ocean Aid the
concert
The
original idea for Band Aid had been hatched by Sir Bob Geldof, who with the help of Midge
Ure, had assembled a collection of pop and rock singers to lend their talents
to a charity single entitled Do They Know It's Christmas? It was recorded and released under the
collective name of Band Aid.
Bob Geldof
It swiftly
became a number one single. Singers involved included Bono from U2, Boy George,
George Michael, Bananarama and Paul Young.
From
this in 1985, Live Aid followed on and in 2005 there was Live 8. These massive
charity concerts featured appearances by a host of internationally famous pop
and rock stars and were screened worldwide so were seen by billions of people.
If such
events could be organised to help benefit the starving and poor people of the
world then why not a similar effort being made to raise awareness about the
dangers to our oceans and to raise funds for their protection?
As to
where the money raised would go that would have to be worked out. There are
activist groups like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd that work on marine
environmental campaigns but there are many more organisations that are
concerned with keeping the oceans as they should be. Perhaps a new one could be
set up inspired by the growing need for something to be done to protect the
oceans and their ecosystems?
It is
not just plastic pollution and the British Petroleum (BP) oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico that
is killing marine life. Overfishing, bottom trawling and over-acidification of
the seas are all wreaking havoc too. Because the water is becoming too acid
coral reefs are disappearing and along with them go the complicated and very
beautiful ecosystems of life that depend on them.
Anyway,
having come up with the idea I did a bit of "Googling" to see if the
term Ocean Aid was already being used. I was very pleased to find that a team
of people have thought like me and that Ocean Aid 2010 had already been
organised.
That
doesn't stop a much bigger global event or series of concerts at stadium-sized
venues to also happen though. An Ocean Aid single could be written, recorded
and released and possibly to be followed by an album of songs written specially
for it. The concert or concert series could all be recorded both as sound
recordings and as visual footage that could be broadcast on worldwide TV and
sold later as DVD releases.
Then
there would be Ocean Aid merchandising. The possibilities are endless.
I am
sure very many stars from the world of pop and rock music would be only too
glad to be involved in this. Film stars and other celebrities could appear on
stage at the concerts too as special guests.
It
would of course be a lot of work organising all this that I have outlined here,
but it has all been done before and to great success. I am presenting here the
seed of the idea.
What is
needed now is Sir Bob or someone else with the celebrity status and power to
make this happen! Now are we going to make this happen? Who can help?
Ocean Aid links
·
David de Rothschild's
supporters and fans on Facebook
Facebook site for David de Rothschild's supporters and fans
Facebook site for David de Rothschild's supporters and fans
·
The Plastiki Expedition
The Plastiki, a boat made from 12,500 Plastic bottles, sailing from San Francisco to Sydney on a mission to showcase waste as a resource and highlight plastic pollution.
The Plastiki, a boat made from 12,500 Plastic bottles, sailing from San Francisco to Sydney on a mission to showcase waste as a resource and highlight plastic pollution.