Washington - Environmental activists tried to rally Sunday in Washington to encourage action on climate change, but they couldn't get the weather to cooperate. Green Apple Festival, a group seeking to raise environmental awareness through live music events, was the organizer of concerts across the country ahead of the annual Earth Day observance, which is Tuesday.
Concerts with diverse performances were held in New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
An eighth show started in Washington on the National Mall - the grassy promenade that stretches west from the Capitol, lined with museums and monuments - but was plagued for hours by torrential rain.
Speakers and musicians who were able to perform urged concertgoers to contact their congressmen on Tuesday to push for action on climate change. The United States is the only major, developed country that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for causing climate change.
Hollywood actor Edward Norton, star of Fight Club and American History X, said: "We can either be the authors of a tragedy that the world is never going to forgive us for, or we can be heroes that - like Abe Lincoln down the Mall here - the world will never forget for what we did."
After fewer than half of the artists had gotten on stage - with big acts including The Roots and Will.I.Am waiting in the wings - lightning from approaching thunderstorms caused local police to order an end to the festivities.
Despite the weather-induced cancellation of what was intended as the biggest of Sunday's eight US shows, Green Apple Festival founder and executive producer Peter Shapiro remained committed to music as a tool to raise awareness.
"This festival is not going to change the world. I know that," he said. "But lots of little things have to happen for the world to change, and one of them is to make Earth Day as big as it can be."
