The stages made of recycled tires have been torn down. The rock stars have jetted home. Al Gore has left the building. But even though Live Earth is over, the controversy is still going strong, with some critics and fans calling it a complete flop, while others herald it for making an important impact on a generation of music lovers.

A record 10 million online viewers watched Saturday's Love Earth concert series, setting the record for the most simultaneous viewers of any webcast concert, a press release from event organizers said. But the reaction in some countries has been less than favourable: in the U.K., the TV broadcast on the BBC was hugely dwarfed by the previous week's Princess Diana tribute, which brought in 11.4 million viewers, while Live Earth attracted a mere 3.1 million.

The strength of the message itself also surged and waned during the day. Gore's handful of appearances drove home Live Earth's plea that people sign a seven-point pledge demanding environmental reforms from governments, big business and themselves. Between band sets, crowds were also treated to environmentally themed short films, and eco-friendly tips scrolled in the background and during commercial breaks.

The Black Eyed Pease performed a song about the climate crisis for their London show, while Madonna urged fans to jump if they wanted to save the planet. But many artists failed to make mention of why they were there at all: Billy Corgan only took time to plug his new Smashing Pumpkins album, not the globe, while notoriously big-mouthed Kanye West kept quiet except for a late-night callout to find “new leaders to follow” as he closed the New York show with The Police. And some who tried to push the green issue just fell flat, such as Duran Duran, who publicly patted themselves on the back for not arriving via a private jet. How giving!

Some critics have also pointed out that the eight shows across the globe (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janero, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg) generated more than 1,000 tons of garbage and caused huge amounts of carbon emissions because of the distances musicians traveled to perform. In Britain, tabloid News of the World also pointed out the hypocrisy of some performers, including Madonna, who has nine houses, a fleet of cars and a private jet, which makes her carbon footprint an estimated 100 times larger than the average Briton's.

Still, at the end of the long, long, hard-rocking day, 24-hours of environmentally conscious footage was broadcast to some 2 billion people across the globe. It might not have been perfect, but maybe there will be a few less bottles in the trash and a few more energy efficient bulbs in sockets today.

Take the Live Earth Pledge at http://www.liveearthpledge.org/ and learn more about what you can do to save the environment at http://www.liveearth.org/

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