Live Earth is ambitious by any standard: eight concerts featuring the biggest names in music, playing for a 24-hour period tomorrow across the globe, all for the cause of global warming.

But like its template — 2005's Live 8, the global concert devoted to poverty in Africa — the mission of Live Earth is somewhat amorphous. Its aim is to "trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis."

Concerts are scheduled for Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; London; Johannesburg, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Tokyo; Sydney, Australia; and Hamburg, Germany. A band of scientists will also perform in Antarctica, stretching Live Earth across seven continents.

WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION

More than 150 artists will perform, including Madonna, the Police, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alicia Keys. Sixty short films and 30 public service announcements have been produced, which will be broadcast between performances. Also planned are more than 6,000 parties in 119 countries — ranging from home viewings to museum festivals.

The concerts will be broadcast at 7 p.m. on NBC, from 4 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Bravo and from 1 to 8 p.m. on CNBC. They will also be broadcast online at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com and on XM satellite radio.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who partnered with Kevin Wall in founding Live Earth, said the world needs to rise up as one giant vox populi to influence "a new political reality."

"The tipping point in the political system will come when the majority of the people are armed with enough knowledge about the crisis and its solutions that they make this cause their own," Gore said. "Then, you will see the entire political system shift dramatically."

A 'TIPPING POINT' TO CHANGE

Kevin Wall, an Emmy-winning concert producer who produced Live 8 and founded Live Earth, said he hopes Live Earth will change attitudes about global warming and jettison a larger movement.

"This concert is not the solution," Wall said. "This concert is providing, hopefully, that global tipping point to start to get us into empowering people, get them into the tent."

"Maybe we can make the noise, maybe we can be the town crier, maybe we can say like Paul Revere, 'The British are coming,' " he added.

TAKING THE MESSAGE HOME

Live Earth will send proceeds to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit organization chaired by Gore (tickets for the U.S. concert range from $83 to $348). Wall was originally inspired to put on Live Earth after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth," the Academy Award-winning documentary on Gore's global warming slide show.

"The question I kept asking myself is, 'What can I do?"' said Wall.

At a news conference last week, Gore and Wall mapped out some of their goals for Live Earth. They unveiled a "7 Point Pledge" that concertgoers will be asked to sign. Those who sign it promise to pressure their country to sign treaties to cut global warming pollution, personally reduce carbon dioxide pollution and plant trees, among other things.

LEARN MORE: www.liveearth.org