Madonna’s Pollution Solution

Madonna is a professed lover of the planet.

In July 2007, she headlined the Live Earth concert in London, which was designed to draw attention to climate change, and told the audience, “If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down.”

The press was informed via a statement issued by her spokesperson that “Madonna’s agreeing to sing at Live Earth is merely one of the first steps in her commitment toward being environmentally responsible.”

However, according to the Carbonfootprint Web site, Madonna’s upcoming “Sticky and Sweet” concert tour is expected to generate in excess of 1,635 tons of carbon pollutants as a result of her travels.

To break it down, 95 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted via the exhaust of her private jet as it flies to venues in Europe and the U.S. And when her entourage of 250 staffers joins her via commercial airplanes, another 1,080 tons of pollutants will be spewed into the air. Another 460 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted from transport of her cargo, which includes 30 wardrobe trunks and 4 large freezers.

The group of fellow travelers is essential to the material girl since it includes her 9 wardrobe assistants, 12 seamstresses, 12-piece band, chiropractor, personal trainer, masseuse, 16 caterers and approximately 100 technicians and dancers.

At the Live Earth event, Madonna performed a song “Hey You,” which she wrote just for the environment. Included in the lyrics are the following words:

“First love yourself,
Then you can love someone else.
If you can change someone else,
Then you have saved someone else.
But you must first love yourself,
Then you can love someone else.
If you can change someone else,
Then you have saved someone else.”

I guess lyrics like that give you a license to pollute.

James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University.