Sheryl Crow,
Laurie David end global-warming tour with nod to Rove

Their college tour ended, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David describe their efforts to stop global warming as part of the most important mission of our time.

That's the hope of Grammy-winning rocker Crow and David, who produced An Inconvenient Truth, the global-warming movie that won the Oscar for best documentary.

"It's great to go out and play music, and I love that too. And it's also nice to make money. But this is not that," Crow said Sunday in an interview in Washington, D.C. "This is a whole bunch of people dedicating their time, their lives, working for free, for a mission. And it is the most important mission."

The pair rode a biodiesel bus on a 12-campus tour to raise awareness about global warming by engaging students on the topic. It started earlier this month at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and was timed to end on Earth Day.

David said, "Federal inaction is no longer acceptable," and she is pressing for Congress to enact a bill to impose mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases within two years. She predicted the 2008 election would revolve around three main issues: jobs, terrorism, and temperature.

Crow said, "I just feel like if this isn't addressed by this administration. If this administration isn't hearing this message loud and clear, then I feel like there's an irresponsibility."

The two women planned to meet with the House Energy Committee chairman, John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, on Monday.

Crow and David were interviewed before appearing at the tour's last show at George Washington University with Grammy-winning musicians Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Carole King.

Also speaking at the concert was David's husband, Larry, a comedian and producer best known as cocreator of the TV show Seinfeld, and environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"Hurricane Katrina is just a taste of what's to come if we don't stop global warming," Kennedy told some 2,000 people who turned out for the songs and speeches.

Crow opened with "A Change Would Do You Good" and did a spirited duet with King on "I Feel the Earth Move."

Crow and David unsuccessfully tried to change the thinking of Karl Rove, President Bush's top adviser, at a correspondents' dinner Saturday night. "I honestly thought that I was going to change his mind, like, right there and then," David said the interview.

Crow dedicated the closing number of the concert, sung by all the performers, to Rove, wryly calling him her "new friend." The title: "We Can Work It Out," written and made famous by the Beatles. (John Heilprin, AP)