NBC's Al Gore 'Live Earth' Boosting On Air Began on Friday -- Eight Days Early

At the end of Friday’s Today show on NBC, the marketing of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts began, just eight days shy of NBC’s big three-hour Live Earth concert in prime time, hosted by NBC anchor Ann Curry and Carson Daly. (Not to mention the other 72 hours donated to Gore by NBC Universal.) NBC’s Friday guest was David DeRothschild, author of "The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook." Like a good NBC employee, anchor Natalie Morales praised the climate-crisis cause: "Fantastic effort. It’s going to raise a lot of awareness."

The author mostly made the usual plugs for compact-fluorescent bulbs and other electricity savings, but the strange part (at least for late June) was urging everyone to wear a sweater and turn the thermostat down. Did they think they were recording a segment for Christmas break?

The transcript follows:

Natalie Morales: "And before we go this morning, doing your part to stop global warming, now you've heard all the warnings, and you know about the dangers, what can you do about it? Well, David De Rothschild is an adventurer, environmentalist, and the author of ‘The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook.’ David, good morning."

David De Rothschild: "Good morning. Thank you for having me."

Morales: "This is all about in order to prevent global warming, well to stop it, we need to stop our carbon dioxide emissions. You say first basic tip is just change your light bulbs."

De Rothschild: "Just do it. I mean I’ve spent time in the North and the South Pole. This is real. We're seeing it happening. There are small things we can do. The good news is they're all in here. Changing light bulb is one. One light bulb...if every American changed one light bulb, we’d take 800,000 cars off the road, equivalent, in carbon dioxide emissions."

Hoda Kotb: "You know what I didn’t know in the book you say unplug all of your appliances when you leave the house. I didn't know that saved any energy."

De Rothschild: "It's amazing. We just alone in tvs and vcrs, we're wasting $1 billion worth of energy every year just by leaving these things running, so, just, you know, holidays are coming up, when you leave your house, turn it off."

Morales: "The next thing you say is to put on a sweater."

De Rothschild: "A sweater."

Morales: "Turn down the thermostat."

De Rothschild: "Exactly, I mean the sweater’s a great one again. Sweaters make you sweat, turn down the thermostat, you're going to save yourself money, save the planet. About 4, 4% of your electricity bill will be saved."

Kotb: "In grocery stores, they always ask paper or plastic. In your book, you say neither."

De Rothschild: "Neither, neither, no don’t do it."

Kotb: "What do you do then?"

De Rothschild: "The best thing you can do is go into the store with your own bag, canvas bag, any kind of bag. You know, it's all in here. You’ll find all the tips."

Morales: "And a lot of people are heading out for The Fourth of July holiday. One thing, if you’re in a hotel room, you say tell them not to change your sheets every day."

De Rothschild: "Do you do it at home? I don’t change my sheets everyday."

Kotb: "And the towels too."

De Rothschild: "The towels, we have a shower, throw it on the floor, get a new one. You know, save them. Save them. Save the planet."

Morales: "This book is published as a companion guide for Live Earth, which is a concert on July 7th. A 24-hour concert right? It’s going to be broadcast here on the networks of NBC."

De Rothschild: "It’s an amazing event happening next weekend. There's still some tickets available. I just heard that the port authority has released more tickets. Lots of room, 5000 seats. They're going fast. Big bands."

Morales: "Around the world."

De Rothschild: "Around the world. 2.5 million people involved in this, so it’s going to be an amazing event."

Morales: "Fantastic effort. It’s going to raise a lot of awareness. David De Rothschild, thanks so much."

Rothschild: "Thank you very much."