Saving the planet and producing a 24-hour entertainment extravaganza on seven continents is really hard, sweaty work.

That could be one reason Al Gore looked a little less polar bear-like when he appeared on stage and on satellite at Live Earth concert sites around the world last weekend. Or maybe he’s shedding the pounds because he's decided to take a crack at the White House in 2008 after all.

After the often-derisive, critical bashing Live Earth received, Gore should seriously consider running for president again.

Live Earth -- which Gore dreamed up, organized and promoted to raise environmental consciousness about the world's supposed climate crisis -- was by all honest accounts an artistic and political dud that may have actually hurt the anti-global warming movement.

Featuring scores of leftover 1990s talents such as Duran Duran, Genesis and Madonna, the concert broadcasts probably came nowhere near attracting the 2 billion viewers Gore’s PR machine predicted.

For example, NBC’s concert-highlights show Saturday night drew only 2.75 million -- which means more Americans watched Peru and Argentina play soccer on Spanish-language Univision.

More important than the disappointing TV ratings -- and more damaging to the future of the crusade on which Gore has bet his career and the family zinc mine -- was the reaction Lame Earth got from the mainstream media.

Most media types agree with Gore’s exaggerated warnings about the apocalyptic effects of man-made global climate change. But the hypocrisy of seeing Live Earth’s celebrities burning up oceans of private-jet fuel, generating huge mounds of stadium trash and consuming gigawatts of electrical power while pontificating about the joys of carbon-neutral lifestyles was so outrageous that even biased news reporters couldn’t help but point it out.