U2 360 Tour Takes Environmental Heat

U2 is out on a stadium tour in support of "No Line on the Horizon." It's the 360 tour sponsored by Blackberry. A stadium tour hoping to kick The Rolling Stones in the stones for out earning them with their two year "A Bigger Bang" tour which began in 2005 and brought in $558 million over U2's Vertigo tour which had previously championed at $389 million. The three legged tour will see the band play into 2010 where it ends in Europe.

Those figures aren't crunched in tours today. According to Billboard, Bon Jovi was top show dog for 2008. Their "Lost Highway" tour was the highest grossing bringing in $210.6 million. Bruce Springsteen was not the Boss coming in second with his "Magic" tour taking in $204.5 million leaving Madonna's "Sticky and Sweet" tour in third with $162 million.

As the tour hit the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Sunday night for an unprecedented global concert live web cast for later release on DVD, Bono and company have come under critical scrutiny for the massive toll this tour is taking on the environment. The stage setting is a unique construction standing 150 feet tall being referred to as a spaceship on four legs with zero room for intimacy.

Relying once again on Willie Williams for design configurations and Mark Fisher as architect the claw like stage takes its inspiration from the Los Angeles International Airports' Theme Building.

Over 135 trucks were needed to haul 500,000 pounds of equipment into the stadium – which will reportedly emit three times more carbon than Madonna's 2006 world tour according to the Belfast Telegraph.

All this comes within a year of Bono's "prayer" that "we become better in looking after our planet," quotes The Guardian.The criticism stands that U2 doesn't need to embark on a tour of such behemoth size and scale. It is entirely unnecessary. "No Line on the Horizon" was not a critical success, it did not reinvent the wheel, and worse served fans a bloated version of themselves they were too blind or justified to catch. The band now consists of four very wealthy men not in need of cash but still playing rock star. At what and who's expense when your lead singer stands so high preaching concern from the pulpit?

Guitarist for the band The Edge has told BBC6 U2 is spending the money and doing this tour for the fans and that "we'd love to have some alternative to big trucks bringing the stuff around but there just isn't one. U2 will offset whatever carbon footprint we have."

The band would need to plant 20,118 trees a year, according to Helen Roberts, an environmental consultant for carbonfootprint.com but, unfortunately for U2, carbon offsetting is simply a guilt-free way to pay it forward leaving critics to call it "counter productive" and "a scam" relying on an industry with no standard to govern it. The carbon neutral trend "tries to make money from tapping into consumers' guilt," said Jutta Kill of SinksWatch, an environmental group that monitors such projects. "Those who are in a role-model function do not do the movement for effective action on climate change a favor by promoting carbon offsets."

Next we have the fans themselves driving to the concert. 96,000 people with general admission tickets will cause quite the traffic nightmare. Public transportation no matter how obsessively urged is not the most convenient in Pasadena. Roads were congested for hours after the concert in Las Vegas which held little more than 40,000 people.

So in the final days of dwindling arena rock shows the Irish rockers leave their mark in history and the environment by distinguishing how they can throw their arms around the world being political, profitable but certainly not green.