Make noise for the Climate!
The new music scene isn’t just about style. Billie Eilish, Massive Attack, Coldplay, AJR… These artists, who each move crowds in their own way, share the same desire to perform in public in a format that is more respectful of the planet. After all, concerts are major emitters of greenhouse gases. And while it’s possible to choose a low-carbon diet or practice zero waste, the music industry makes it difficult for individuals to make their own climate choices. And we’re not advising you to give up live music – that’s not an option.
The paths to a greener music scene are less simplistic. The current music sector is familiar with them, but has difficulty applying them. This is what prompted veteran band Massive Attack to organize the “lowest-carbon concert ever” for some 34,000 spectators in their hometown of Bristol on August 25, explains Nature. The band formed in 1988 approached researchers at the University of Manchester in 2019 to ask for a “roadmap for the UK live music sector”. Two years later, “one of the first attempts to assess the carbon footprint” of the music industry was published, according to the scientific journal. However, little or nothing had changed on stage on the other side of the Channel, considered the activist musicians. So they went for the giant prototype.
In Bristol, their entire concert on August 25 relied on renewable energies, from LEDs and electric batteries, which replaced diesel generators, to vegan stalls and waste composting. As 41% of the carbon footprint of this type of event is caused by spectators’ car journeys, everything was done to encourage them to take the train – the band even negotiated the extension of rail traffic service. Nobody should have to make a difference,” musician Robert Del Naja (3D) told the BBC. The most important thing is to create “a model that serves the rest of the live music sector”.
In the U.S., Billie Eilish made a point of explaining last year on stage at the Lollapallooza festival in Chicago that a large part of her show “was powered by solar energy”, recalls NPR. The American singer embraces public demand. According to a survey of 350,000 American concert-goers, 78% believe that artists should use their fame to make a difference on climate change. Planet Reimagined, which published the study in April, is an initiative of American pop rock band AJR, supported by Live Nation, one of the industry’s biggest players, with the aim of championing a “new live practice”. This summer, explains the American public media, the band filled entire stadiums and partnered with associations at each point of their tour to “encourage spectators to act locally to help reduce the impacts of global warming”. In Phoenix, “they sent over 1,000 letters to the mayor asking him to recognize extreme heat as a climate emergency”, enthuses singer Adam Met.
In France, the Déclic report (18 concert halls, festivals and tour operators) delivered the first quantified inventory of the carbon footprint of contemporary music in the spring. The report shows that the bigger the festival, the further the artists and spectators travel, the bigger the carbon footprint. The lesson to be drawn from this? You don’t have to be as famous as Billie Eilish or Massive Attack to tackle the problem. We’ll continue to go to concerts without fear of ecocide, by pushing organizers and artists to be energy sober.
Source Article : https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/climatiques-faites-du-bruit-pour-le-climat_222079 by Annick Rivoire
