Music and the climate crisis: a contributor or tool for change?
Far Out recently had the chance to talk to Queen guitarist Brian May at the launch of the 40th-anniversary boxset of Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project, an opportunity to ask if musicians could do more to help the environment. May, a vocal advocate for animal welfare and climate consciousness, told me plainly: “We can all be greener in everything we do”.
“That’s it really,” he said. “Always be conscious of it. I’m certainly that way now. It’s not just about climate change though; it’s about the way we’ve polluted and poisoned the earth as well, so we need to be mindful of all that,” he added. But what should that mindfulness look like for the music industry? Music has always been a powerful tool for social change, whether it’s tackling prejudice with Rock Against Racism, the ’90s riot grrrl movement rallying against sexism, or shedding light on LGBTQ+ issues, as May’s own band did so prolifically.
But the climate crisis has proved far more difficult for artists to get behind, not least because live music’s own climate impact is undeniably significant. International touring and all its associated buses, trucks and planes generate around 400,000 tonnes of GHG emissions every year in the United Kingdom, and that’s before getting into the nitty-gritty of merch, riders, lighting, and travel for press junkets.
But there are other factors at play when it comes to the music industry shying away from the climate crisis. Lewis Jamieson, one of the founders of Music Declares Emergency, blames a media culture of blame on certain artists, given that artists such as Bono and Chris Martin have always been popular targets for hypocrisy hounding. However, it is also the complicated nature of the issue at hand. Being aware of environmental issues is a more thorny and complicated subject to stand up for, not as simple as being ‘anti’ one thing or ‘pro’ another.
“There’s always been this thing about the hypocrisy charge when artists get vocal about it,” says Jamieson, “Because music is perceived as a high carbon industry”. But the reality is, if you compare it to the big emitters like mining and agriculture, music accounts for damage on a far smaller scale. The problem is that the situation is perceived totally differently because society interacts with music in a way we don’t with mining. As Jamieson explains: “We see it in front of us – the touring, the shows, the records, the merch – so the perception is that it’s high carbon.”
Launched in 2019, Music Declares Emergency (MDE) is an organisation that recognises the swaying power of musicians and looks to utilise it to allow artists to help make the industry greener. As Jamieson puts it, MDE was never conceived with the goal of music being a zero-carbon industry, which is something of a pipe dream. “It was about music getting on the zero carbon bandwagon, using its voice, using its connections, its inspiration, and ability to narrate and inspire, to support music fans in having the conversation in a way that we didn’t think was happening in 2019.”
But awareness has got better since the formation of MDE, and in 2022, they put out a study that found music fans care more about the climate crisis than non-music fans. The study showed that 82% of people who described music as important to them expressed climate concern, which dwindled to 72% when it came to the musically ambivalent. The figures make a strong case that musicians can have a big impact in making their audiences aware of the climate crisis and, beyond that, making them care too.
But naturally, musicians can’t shoulder all the responsibility, especially considering 80% of the carbon emissions from any outdoor live event come from the audience getting there and back – something the industry itself can’t solve. “But we can certainly advocate people use public transport and utilise the voice and financial muscle of artists to demand a better transport infrastructure,” says Jamieson. Addressing the issue of transport in cities would not only help live music and the night-time economy – but support also theatres, restaurants, and pubs too.
But the larger issue does seem to be a reluctance from artists to come out and address the climate issues we face vocally. As Jamieson pointed out, there’s the risk they’ll get dogged in the media for hypocrisy, which happened to Foals and Radiohead when they supported the MDE declaration in 2019, when the Daily Mail elected to count up the number of miles flown on their respective tours. But that’s a perception that artists speaking out about the climate crisis need to be perfectly eco-conscious in their day-to-day lives in order to do so. Jamieson explains that we need to abandon this perfectionism and champion the artists who are making a concerted effort to speak out about the issue while educating fans, promoters and music venues on the small, practical changes they can make.
