Lost in confrontation ... less preachifying, more singing. Thom Yorke at the Big Ask benefit concert in May. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
Are well-meaning rock star campaigners actually doing more harm than good? Does the preachy tone of Thom Yorke and Bono put so many people's backs up that their message is ignored?
Consider the most recent entry from Yorke's blog, which he posted on Sunday on: "If you are concerned about climate change, if it scares you speechless and wakes you in the night, if you are bothered about the flooding you keep seeing, or those high winds, or that there is something not quite right about the fact you're still walking round in a T-shirt in October, please find out about the Big Ask campaign."
The Big Ask is an initiative, sponsored by Friends of the Earth, which looks for ways to halt global warming, and Yorke is one of its most passionate celebrity supporters. You can't argue with his message - he's only expressing what most right-minded people already think. (Not that he himself is without sin; He told the Guardian that he's considering whether the band should cut down on carbon emissions by no longer playing distant locations.)
But you can wish it was said by someone other than this sour-faced gloom-monger. Yorke has the oratory style of a Dickensian workhouse governor; when one of his grim pronouncements appears, your reaction is to instantly turn the page. By doing so, you're not avoiding his message; you're just curbing the environmental damage caused by his own hot air.
Meanwhile, Bono's commitment to eradicating poverty is wholly admirable, but the man himself works people into a lather. This was vividly illustrated by the response to a blog I posted here a few months ago. It was about an American church's decision to sing U2's music during services, but many readers saw it as a chance to complain about Bono's in-your-face pontificating. The consensus was: nice message, shame about the messenger.
Maybe he and Yorke could take a lesson from the Clash, who, 27 years ago, raised awareness of climate change in a most vivid and effective way - they wrote a pop song about it : "The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in/ Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin/ Engines stop running, but I have no fear/ Cause London is burning and I, I live by the river."
