Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A group headed by former Vice President Al Gore is planning a single day of concerts on seven continents featuring more than 100 performers, including Bon Jovi, Snoop Dogg and Fall Out Boy, to promote awareness of global warming.

The "Live Earth" shows will take place July 7 in London, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg and locations to be determined in the U.S., Brazil and Japan, Gore and music producer Kevin Wall said today in Los Angeles. Details of a show in Antarctica will be announced next month, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said.

The concerts are part of "Save Our Selves," or SOS, a new campaign founded by Wall, the producer behind the 2005 Live 8 concerts that raised money for Africa. General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal Inc. television and movie unit will televise the shows in the U.S. Gore and Wall said they expect "Live Earth" to be the most viewed event ever, reaching more than 2 billion people through television, radio, the Internet and film.

"We have a climate crisis that is a planetary emergency," Gore said. The concerts and promotions tied to it are a "mass persuasion campaign," according to the former Democratic senator from Tennessee and 2000 presidential candidate.

Wall said he was inspired to put together the SOS campaign after watching "An Inconvenient Truth," a movie featuring Gore lecturing about the dangers of global warming. The film is a contender for two Academy Awards, including best documentary feature. Wall is head of Control Room, a closely held company that has an exclusive agreement to broadcast concerts over Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet sites.

120 Countries

The Live Earth concerts will be webcast exclusively over MSN. Other media outlets to carry the shows include XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in the U.S. and the British Broadcasting Corp. in the U.K. The group also said it has secured agreements for TV, Internet and wireless coverage in 120 countries, with more to come. Terms of the deals weren't disclosed.

"This is the start of something very big. It's the start of awareness of our planet, of our climate crisis," actress Cameron Diaz said at today's news conference from the California Science Center Museum in Los Angeles.

Save Our Selves is counting on celebrities such as Diaz as well as corporate executives and government leaders to help promote the group's message, said campaign spokesman Yusef Robb.

"The goal is to trigger a mass movement across the globe to combat our climate crisis," Robb said in an interview.

Ticket Sales

Proceeds from the concerts will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a group headed by Gore that includes Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Managing Director Theodore Roosevelt IV and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush. Tickets will go on sale next month. The group didn't disclose the cost of admission or how much money it expects to raise.

Gore has long called for stronger U.S. action on climate change, co-sponsoring the first congressional hearings to study the issue in the 1980s. The former vice president also has been nominated by two Norwegian lawmakers for a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to raise public awareness of global warming.

Such accolades have stirred speculation that Gore might make another bid for the White House. Gore, who lost to Republican George W. Bush in 2000, repeated today that he has no plans to run for president.

"I'm involved in a different kind of campaign now," Gore said today, referring to his efforts to spur public action on climate change.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net ; Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: February 15, 2007 18:20 EST

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