By Brendan Montague

Live Earth London

THE CAMPAIGN against climate change meets the world of celebrity today when Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Razorlight take the stage in London for Live Earth. New York gets the newly-reformed Police, Bon Jovi, KT Tunstall and the Smashing Pumpkins, and five other cities around the globe are hosting major concerts.
But Off-Grid can reveal how British environmentalists who began the move for a climate change concert were forced into the margins and their attempts to reduce carbon emissions replaced with a series of hopeless gimmicks.
They claim Live Earth became a huge PR-driven machine with multi-national companies who have disputable green credentials - like Smart cars, Pepsi and Philips - jumping on the green bandwagon.
The unprecedented event is being led by Al Gore with millions of people urged to �Answer the Call� to reduce their carbon emissions and prevent the cataclysmic effects of global warming.
Smaller symbolic concerts will take place in other cities, including Kyoto, where the Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gases was signed.
But the entire enterprise has been dismissed as a festival of �hot air� with environmentalists claiming the concerts significantly contributed to carbon output, not least because so many of the rock stars involved had to jet in to perform.
American presidential campaign failure Al Gore is desperate to become the world figurehead for climate change following the release of his film An Inconvenient Truth and has claimed the credit for the Live Earth events.

Off-grid can reveal for the first time how the original idea was conceived during an evening meeting between three environmentalists in Bristol in the Spring of 2004 � and how the partnership soon descended into recriminations, backbiting and allegations of �selling out� to the very multinationals blamed by many for climate change.
The first concert was to be called One Earth, which was then replaced by a day of spectacular events around the world in July 2007 under the title Global Cool. Off-Grid covered the Global Cool launch and denounced it as Greenwash.
The undisputed king of charity rock concerts, Bob Geldof, was supposed to be the inspiration for the event following the success of Live 8 - but even he blasted Live Earth as a waste of time.

Through a series of emails the idea ended up on the in-tray of Al Gore - who then announced separately he would hold seven �Live Earth� concerts in July 2007 demanding people �Answer the Call.�
Al Gore has been accused of hijacking the climate change cause following his failed bid to become President of the United States. A more cynical observer might argue that his advisors shamelessly ripped off the idea from a small group of British environmentalists and then brushed them aside.
The story begins in Bristol when Jamie Wallace introduced Mich Mathres and Alex Lambie. The three immediately hit upon the idea of persuading people to switch electricity companies to renewable supplies to reduce their carbon footprint.
They needed a way to spread the message to millions of people, and decided that day to hold a concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff with bands who were clearly dedicated to the environmental cause working together to raise public awareness.
The friends came up with the name One Earth and turned to local businesses who supported the environment movement to support the ambitious project. They claim this was before anyone had heard of Live 8 - which was organised by Kevin Wall, the founder of SOS and Live Earth.
Less than three years later and three entrepreneurs are barely speaking and a �200,000 debt hangs over the doomed enterprise with �60,000 wasted on booking a stadium for an event that was never held. And as they tried to save their project, their plans became even more ambitious.
The invention of the �One Earth� name has been claimed by Mathres. He managed to secure funding from the European Union for a concert in the United Kingdom to highlight climate change.
Described by friends as �an international playboy who liked to work hard and play hard�, he used his contacts from the famous Hamilton College in New York to get celebrities on board and, along with Lambie, placed a �60,000 deposit for the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for 22 July, 2004.
The inexperienced trio had just a few weeks to organise the event and were soon told by professional bookers that they would never get any acts in the middle of the festival season. They were forced to postpone � and not for the last time.
Taking their first serious failure in their stride, the friends became even more ambitious and organized a bigger and better concert for January 28. It was at this point that Live 8 hit the headlines.
With more time, and a growing trend of holding concerts for good causes, they hired a celebrity booker and in two weeks secured acts including the Strokes and the Darkness, who at that time were at the top of the charts.
Nothing, they thought, could go wrong. So on September 28, 2005, Lambie and Mathres set out on a drive around Europe in a hybrid car as part of their Climate Change Now tour, arriving in 16 European countries to call for people to switch to green energy firms.
As they arrived in Barcelona the following October, they received a phone call from the European Union confirming they had secured �300,000 in funding, money they knew they could match, triggering millions in investment in the concerts. They put their differences behind them.
But the excitement didn�t last long, as their plans were thrown in to disarray. In November they arrived back in London and received a letter from the EU saying the funding would be just �180,000 and even this was in doubt.
�Miche did what he always did and just disappeared. He switched off his phone and fled to his girlfriend�s in Belgium. It was some time before he even responded to email,� one supporter said.
Desperate to keep the project going, Lambie teamed up with Dan Morrell in March 2005. Morrell had set up one of the first Carbon off-setting companies, Future Forest. Initially the campaign won respect among green companies.
But Morrell had left Future Forest under a cloud, with some in the group claiming he had been forced out. The company even changed its name to Carbon Neutral to escape the growing cacophony of criticism.
Morrell has been described by former colleagues as a short man �suffering from Bonaparte complex� who could always found in Soho�s Groucho Club fawning upon celebrities. Unsurprisingly, Morrell soon fell out with Lambie and Mathres. He abandoned One Earth in June 2005 and set up rival organisation Global Cool.
With two rival organizations both looking for sponsorship, One Earth started to look like it was in serious trouble. A second date was booked for its concert but despite �100,000 being handed to a leading London PR company that December, there was very little publicity and just a trickle of ticket sales.
Lambie, who has been described by some former colleagues as �hopelessly na�ve� and �totally out of his depth� at that time, was again forced to cancel his One Earth concert. Against his better judgment, and facing �200,000 in debt, he agreed to go into partnership with Morrell for a second time and One Earth became part of Global Cool.
Julian Knight, who was head of foreign exchange at the Man Group, took on the role of chief executive of Global Cool and brought with him enormous respect. His background as an RAF pilot caught the interest of the media. Celebrities � and much needed concert-goers, would not be far behind.
�They were getting on well. Dan told everyone who would listen that he had secured �70million, but was unable to reveal the identity of the donor because of confidentiality agreements.
�Brian Eno was on board. Global Cool was officially launched at Number 10 Downing Street, home of the Birtish (sic) Prime Minister and the whole project looked like a sure-fire winner,� said one insider. Among those at the launch in February this year were Stephen Fry, KT Tunstall, Josh Hartnett, Brian May and Anita Dobson.
Once again, the adrenaline and excitement soon turned to despair. The mystery supporter turned out to be BP, the one British company that was sure to alienate more ideological environmentalists from the Global Cool campaign. And worse was to come.
Dan was told that Lord Browne, then CEO had backed the initiative, but BP then got cold feet and pulled out at the last minute. �Dan�s face was ashen. He looked like someone had pulled out the plug and drained his body of blood. It was game over.�
It wasn�t long before Morrell had fallen out with his friends at Global Cool. While everyone involved in the project has remained very tight lipped, it seems he was once again forced to leave. He promptly left for the United States on a one-man campaign to win support for a series of concerts to highlight the threat of climate change and was determined to win the support of Al Gore.
But Global Cool still looked from the outside as though it was going from strength to strength. There was a �soft� launch at the Tokyo festival fronted by Orlando Bloom. The website was launched on 30 January in London and Los Angeles with KT Tunstall and a host of other celebrities.
By now Lambie�s plans had become truely international. He drew up a �blueprint�, calling for simultaneous concerts in seven countries and a massive �switch� to green power. Then in April this year, he sent an email to David Blood, then the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the �right hand man� to Al Gore. Lambie, failing to learn from previous mistakes, soon handed over all his ideas, all his contacts and all his specialist knowledge. Lambie has not heard from Blood since.
But just one week after the Global Cool website was launched, a new organization � Save Our Selves � burst into life. Backed by Al Gore, with Blood not far behind, they announced Live Earth, a extravaganza of seven concerts around the world calling people to �switch� off their lights.
From its humble roots as a concert held in Cardiff and sponsored by green companies in Bristol, Live Earth has become a monster with the organizers handing over �1million just to off-set the carbon being generated by 100 acts flying to seven cities - each to perform for a matter of minutes.
James Wallace is no longer involved with the project while Mathres �has gone to ground� and could not be contacted. Lambie refused to comment but confirmed he is still active.
One of the original funders, who did speak, said only: �The egos and the celebrities have moved in and taken over. Every time the glitz and the glamour increased the more the green message was lost. There are millions of pounds being spent but I�ve all but given up on my investment.�