Clinton Rolls With Stones
Former President Bill Clinton will make an appearance at the
Rolling Stones’ free environmental awareness concert in Los Angeles
on Thursday night. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which is
staging benefit, enlisted Clinton — sans saxophone — to give a
speech about the perils of global warming.
The Stones’ touring keyboardist Chuck Leavell is a tree farmer
and an active environmentalist, and he’s helped Mick Jagger, Keith
Richards and Co. get more involved in the issue. “I would like to
see the country join hands with the rest of the world and try to
usher in some much-needed regulations and guidelines,” Leavell told
Rolling Stone last month. “I believe that we are here to
be good stewards of the land.”
During the Clinton administration, the United States signed the
Kyoto Treaty, an international agreement by industrialized nations
to limit greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global
warming. In 2001, the Bush administration pulled the U.S. out of
the treaty. More than 150 nations then agreed to a modified version
of the treaty, but President Bush still would not sign it.
More than 12,000 fans won tickets to the Stones concert during
an Internet drawing, with a handful of tickets also distributed
through radio station contests. The performance will be among the
last for the Stones on the first North American leg of their Licks
World Tour.
More information about global warming and the Natural Resources
Defense Council can be found at www.nrdc.org.