Gore blimey

We're not certain, but there's a gentle lapping of rising waters of desperation in Al Gore rolling up his sleeves to beg for participation in the Brazil part of Live Earth:

"I want to invite every person who cares about the environment in Brazil to come to the event here in Rio," he said.

Since the country is four and half thousand kilometres long and four thousand kilometres wide, you might think that the kindest thing for the environment would be for people living outside Rio to not make a massive trek across the nation, burning fossil fuels on the way. Gore threw open his invitation during a visit to Rio, part of a whistle-stop tour of South American capitals to warn the world against needless consumption of scarce resources. Don't worry, he made the journey in a coracle, powered by the burning of uncounted Floridian ballots.

Meanwhile, Bob Geldof has had a go at Gore. He's less than impressed with Live Earth, and not only because none of the seven nation's organisers have yet to offer him a slot to do I Don't Like Mondays:

"I hope they're a success," De Volkskrant newspaper quoted Geldof as saying in an interview.

"But why is (Gore) actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all (expletive) conscious of global warming,"

Unlike, of course, the African debt crisis, which was known only to fourteen sub-Saharan finance ministers and Bono and Bob prior to the Live 8 concerts.

"I would only organize (Live Earth) if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations," he told the newspaper. "They haven't got those guarantees, so it's just an enormous pop concert or the umpteenth time that, say, Madonna or Coldplay get up on stage."

Unlike Live 8, of course, when the umpteenth minus one time Coldplay and Madonna got on stage had almost magical effects.

Geldof also criticized the former vice president's choice of the name Live Earth.

"It sounds like Live 8," he told the paper. "We're getting lots of responses from people who think we are organizing it."

Of course you are, Bob. And Peaches is having to turn down all sort of djing jobs left, right and centre.

If we were Al Gore, we'd invite the rump of the Boomtown Rats to play. Without Bob.

[Thanks to Joe for the tip on the Geldof stuff]