FIRST OFF . . .

The members of the seminal cult-rock band the Grateful Dead said Tuesday they are spearheading a campaign to help save the earth’s rain forests. The band announced a Sept. 24 benefit concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden to begin a “long-term, committed action” to stop the destruction of the world’s rain forests--which the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace claims is disappearing at the rate of 100 acres per minute. The benefit concert--the proceeds of which will go to Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network and Cultural Survival--will also feature Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and Suzanne Vega. “As a person, a musician and a citizen of the earth, I object (to the deforestation),” Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia said Tuesday. But the band’s environmental concerns aren’t limited to concerts. In a space frequently occupied by paid announcements from multinational oil corporations and other large firms and organizations, the band placed an ad on the op-ed page of the New York Times on Tuesday, laying out its argument against deforestation and supplying those interested with an address for further information. The band urged readers to write “sometime within the next 25 minutes”--enough time, according to the ad, to destroy four square miles of rain forest.