Cheat Seeking Missiles: Climate Change Blamed For Live Earth Flop

That terrible, horrifying ~~global warming~~ climate change! Now it's gone and messed up Live Earth!

Officials at Live Earth Johannesburg have blamed the effects of climate change for poor audience attendance at Saturday's South African event. Organiser John Langford believes extremely cold weather in the region - it snowed last week for the first time in a quarter of a century - kept people away from the concert .... "We're expecting 10,000 here tonight. It's a bit chilly, and we've had a strange winter... is it climate change? We had snow in Jo'burg last week for the first time in 25 years."

The chutzpah of these guys. Too hot? Too cold? Too wet? Too dry? Too normal? Blame it on climate change!

But Madonna looked good ... even if they cropped out any sign of electronics. Meanwhile, back on the planet:

The Live Earth concert promoted by former Vice President Al Gore received plenty of media coverage and hype, but most Americans tuned out. Just 22% said they followed news stories about the concert Somewhat or Very Closely. Seventy-five percent (75%) did not follow coverage of the event.

By way of comparison, eight-in-ten voters routinely said they were following news coverage of the recent Senate debate over immigration. Fifty-four percent (54%) said they followed news coverage of the President’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence. (Rasmussen)

Al, you may have peaked too soon. But still, the Oscar will look nice on the well-lit mantel of your well-cooled Tennessee spread.

So, what taste did Live Earth leave in the mouth of consumers? Not too good, apparently:

Live Earth has been branded a foul-mouthed flop.

Organisers of the global music concert - punctuated by swearing from presenters and performers - had predicted massive viewing figures.

But BBC's live afternoon television coverage attracted an average British audience of just 900,000.

In the evening, when coverage switched from BBC2 to BBC1, the figure rose to just 2.7million.

And the peak audience, which came when Madonna sang at Wembley, was a dismal 4.5million. Three times as many viewers saw the Princess Diana tribute on the same channel six days before.

Two years ago, Live 8 drew a peak television audience of 9.6million while Live Aid notched 10million in 1985.

And what did the BBC, which hyped the concert endlessly in recent days, blame the low turn out on? Your call: Is this climate change, too?