Live Earth: How Green Was My (Celebrity) Valley?

Science and global politics are complicated; doing your part to help our suffering-but-still-spinning planet, it turns out, is less so. So while pundits and bloggers are still roiling over the efficacy of last weekend's Live Earth global concert bonanza, we will leave the greater debate to them, and focus instead on interviews we grabbed in between sets from artists at New Jersey's Giants Stadium show last Saturday — among them, Fall Out Boy, Alicia Keys (pictured), and co-host Carson Daly. In the process, we found out what being "green" means to them, and got some really good, easy tips for our readers and ourselves. (For a full concert review in print, see this Friday's issue).

Fall Out Boy: Rockers, troublemakers
Entertainment Weekly: What's your number one tip for greeniness?
Joe Trohman, guitarist: Short showers.
EW: Or shower with someone else, right?
FOB, in unison: Yeaaahh.
Pete Wentz, bassist: Wooh!
Patrick Stump, singer: I'd say thinking about it. Because the thing is, once you get inspired about something on your own, that's when you're actually gonna do something about. If we sit here and tell you what's the most important element, you're not going to care. Think about it yourself, read about it, you'll probably find something you believe in. And, you know, get those light bulbs.
JT: I actually saw a thing on Woodstock, and there were a bunch of guys who seemed like they were really into the environment, and they had beards. So I grew a beard. I thought that would help.
PW: Showering's a thing of the past.
Andy Hurley, drummer: I walked by Rosario Dawson. I'll do anything for her. Whatever she tells me to do!
EW: You guys doing anything for conservation on your tour bus?
PW: Well right now we just got off the Honda Civic Tour, for the Hybrid, and that's what we kind of put all of our ideas behind.
PS: We have been in looking into bio-diesel fuel for our bus. It is kind of a hard thing to mobilize, but it will get figured out.
PW: I want to do the tour on bikes!
EW: Like the Ditty Bops?
PW: Yeah! Not really for environmental reasons, I just want those kind of calves. Then I could wear shorts!
PS: Also, we don't have any paper products on our bus...
PW: I don't use plates at all! No utensils! You got hands, right?
PS: Uh, hi, Mom. That's classy.

KT Tunstall, Scottish singer-songwriter/TV soundtracker extraordinaire
EW: What is your green angle?
KTT: I actually got into it before my first album came out, so I'm part of an organization called Global Cool, and they basically help artists, people who've got a bit of a platform, to green their lives. So they're not just going around telling people what to do, they're actually doing it themselves. When my first album came out, about a penny and half of each CD goes towards tree-planting. I've got about 6,000 trees planted now in Scotland! And I run my tour buses on bio-diesel, and I've just started a new initiave where you pay about 50 cents to a dollar over the normal ticket price, but I carbon-neutralize your journey to the gig. You have to keep learning, because the more records you sell, the more [waste] you're producing. But it's really exciting because right now, my flat in London is getting renovated, and I'm getting it "greened" — solar panels, sheep's-wool insulation, reclaimed woodwork, non-toxic paint.
EW: Bob Geldof says everyone already knows about global warming, so Live Earth isn't necessary...
KTT: Well yes, everybody knows about it, but nobody knows what to do. So that's why it's important. I'm lucky I have some really smart friends who know a lot. Like, your phone charger uses energy, whether it's charging or not, as long as it's plugged in. It's just little things, you know? I'm also actually part of this thing Edward Norton, the actor, set up, called Solar Neighbors. Because when you get solar panels, the government gives you a grant towards it, and if you're financially well-off, instead of keeping the grant, you give it to a low-income household so they can get solar power themselves. So some house in L.A. is going to get solar power because of me [laughs]. That's so cool!

Taking Back Sunday, Long Island rock outfit/MTV staples
Singer/guitarist Fred Mascherino: I bought a car about four or five months ago that runs on used vegetable oil. It's an old '82 Volkswagen Rabbit, diesel. I get grease from Chinese restaurants and I filter it and put it into my car. It smells like food, it makes me hungry!
EW: What about the trans fats?
FM: The car is getting fatter, actually [laughs]. But yeah, there's plenty of stuff we do at home that anyone can do, it's pretty easy...
Singer Adam Lazzara: Hang-dry your clothes, change out the light bulbs for halogen.
FM: Today is the start for a lot of people of finding out things they didn't know. And even though I've been passionate about it for a long time, I've learned new things here today, and as a band, we're learning and trying to do everything we can. We did the carbon offsets for our last tour and recycled in the venues and backstage and on the bus, and we encourage our fans to carpool to shows. We have links on our site to stopglobalwarming.org and just try to do our part.

Alicia Keys, R&B superstar/part-time actress
EW: What drew you to this?
AK: Just the fact that it's something really serious, and every day it just gets worse and worse, and it's going to affect us whether we live in New York or Singapore or Africa or wherever. I think it's important that we show solidarity and just that we show government officials and our neighbors that it's important to us. I mean, myself, I don't even understand how it's gotten to this point. If in 1970-something, when Marvin Gaye wrote "Mercy Me," it's like... what's the problem? I don't get it. The world could blow up, and people who are in the position to make a change... it's ridiculous. The more I learn, the more I understand what will make a difference. I love hybrid cars. I don't know why every car isn't a hybrid! Simple things like changing the light bulbs, in my tour bus, when I go out on the road, that's what I want to utilize. Once you're conscious of it, you can implement these things.

Carson Daly, Late-late-night TV host/Live Earth co-host
EW: How'd you end up here?
CD: Well I was invited by the organizer. Artists were invited for their musical abilities, and I was invited for my mediocre hosting abilities [laughs]. How do you turn that down? And, I was just talking to Zach Braff — not name dropping, but he's a friend — and we both admitted that we knew very little about global warming, and it was An Inconvenient Truth that made us both go, wow, we should both start paying attention.
EW: Have you learned a lot from today?
CD: I've learned the little things. Like I'm a gadget freak, I have a Blackberry and I leave my chargers in. Even if you're not charging it, that's phantom power. I drink a ton of coffee at work, so I'm going to bring in a mug now. Stuff like that. It's funny because my sister has a hybrid, but it's really hard to get one. I was like, I want one! And she told me there's like a six-year waiting list. But today is about not just making an impact on consumers, but larger corporations too, right? So they can maybe fix that.

AFI, dark-rock chart toppers/animal-rights champs
EW: So, you're all vegan or vegetarian, and from California too, so we're guessing you're pretty green. Do you guys use bio-diesel on your tour bus or anything?
Jade Puget, guitarist: You know what, we just have a normal bus, because we'd have to charge a lot more for tickets for our fans, but if the bus industry itself would change, that would be so nice. A lot of bands don't have that choice, only because they can't afford it.
Davey Havok, singer: It's unfortunate that we're in a situation where that's a luxury, and I think a lot of people are in the same position... [looks at JumboTron screen] Um, they're showing cows' butts. That's unnecessary.
JP: It's probably something for CO₂ emissions or something.
EW: Cows are a leading cause of that. So much methane!
DH: Well, an inherent part of our existence is being vegan and vegetarian, so the fact we don't consume any animal products or flesh, that's something you live virtually every second of every day of your life.
EW: What about in your personal life?
JP: One good thing about being in a band is you don't use your air conditioning and lights at home! But we're always careful of water consumption, lights, wherever we go. I heard a good one today too — put an insulated blanket around your water heater, and you'll save a thousand pounds of CO₂ a year.
EW: Do you think this day will make a real difference?
DH: I do. I think we're in such a celebrity-based society that when you get artists and celebrities and actors and models together on such a global scale, people are bound to pay attention. A lot of these people are tastemakers, trendsetters, and a lot of people go to them for not only their style but their politics.
JP: It's unfortunate that so many young people today won't listen to Al Gore or another politician, but they'll listen to some band...
DH: Not ideal, yeah, but that's the way it is.