It just may be that rock n roll/music will indeed save the planet. In 1999 Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson decided that we as a global village were missing the essential survival ingredient - the wisdom of our elders. So they set about to identify a few of them. It didn’t take long for them to approached Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel, both who have done amazing work beyond what I can even describe here in this brief blog post. If you’ve been under a rock for the past 20 years, you will want to read up on Mr. Mandela, but I would encourage everyone to please see the brief, but inspiring biography I’ve linked you to for Graca Machel.

While it took several years for them to put this group together, they launched these elders as facilitators of powerful global change last July.

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In a secret report,President Bush has been warned that rioting, nuclear war, rising seas that will sink costal cities are just a few of the calamities the will befall earth in 20 years if global warming continues.The Observer says it has obtained a copy of the report, which was commissioned by Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall.

The report, according to Jeremy Symons, a former EPA employee, was suppressed for four months by the White House. President Bush has been under increasing pressure to pay some attention to the apparent growing evidence that global warming is an almost immediate threat to humanity.

Here are some of the dire predictions in the report:

• Millions of lives will be lost in wars and natural disasters.
• Major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas.
• Britain’s climate will become “Siberian”.
• “Abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies”.
• “The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism”
• “Warfare would define human life”
• Widespread flooding of coastal areas of the United States would create a major upheaval for millions.

Not a very pleasant look at the future.

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Image courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Well wonder no more! This past month, our country witnessed another first in the world of green when Northern California’s KQED became the first ever carbon neutral public broadcasting station. For those of you new to the world of carbon offsets, this simply means that KQED is taking significant steps to reduce its climate footprint by neutralizing its net amount of carbon emissions through purchasing carbon credits and increasing a company-wide participation in green production practices.

But this is no easy feat! As KQED recently announced in a public statement, going carbon neutral included "establishing a baseline reading of carbon emissions and determining the amount of energy used in daily operations, from production vans, to transmitter towers, to the electricity used in the building. Carbon credits of the same amount were then purchased from the Chicago Climate Exchange, to promote energy efficiencies in other companies, or to be used towards renewable energy sources like wind power and bio-gas.”

On April 21, KQED will conduct a green pledge day to help support the effort in neutralizing the net total of this year's carbon emissions(!) Tune in from April 15 to Sunday April 22 for a weeklong Earthday celebration with KQED’s latest in noncommercial green tv and radio programming. Visit www.kqed.org/earthweek for an advance schedule. Also, if you’re interested in reducing or offsetting your own (or your company’s) carbon emissions, visit www.driveneutral.org/ for more info.

Finally, for anyone outside the Bay Area who’s interested in hearing more from KQED, a live webstream is always available at www.KQED.org.