Climate change and music: what can artists do to make a difference?
We all want our actions to be working towards positive outcomes, especially around the climate crisis.
How can artists find their place? Musician/activist Heidi Lenffer and environmental researcher Dr Kyle Devine talked with Spirit Level’s Tim Shiel.
Written by Sukhmeet Grewal.
Ask anyone under the age of 60 what the preeminent issue facing our society today is, and you’ll likely be greeted with the words “climate crisis” or similar.
And while some industries the world over have jumped to action, many more have not, and it is in this binary that we must establish the place of the music industry, musicians and the creative industries as a whole.
Questions need to be asked, and more importantly answered, as to what the role of musicians in the world of the climate crisis can and should be.
It was precisely these questions that were at the crux of a conversation in late 2020 between Tim Shiel from Spirit Level; Heidi Lenffer, a Sydney based musician part of the award winning band Cloud Control; and Dr Kyle Devine, an Oslo based music researcher and academic working to track the environmental impact of recorded music.
What should the relationship between musicians and the climate be? This informative hour-long conversation identified some key pieces of advice that might be of use to artists trying to find their place.
1. Remember that digital music is physical
Digital music is physical, but perhaps not in the ways you would expect. While digital consumption may occur online, its production and distribution has very real physical and material repercussions.
Kyle Devine argues that although music has longbeen thought of as “ethereal in some sense”, in that it “floats in the air and hits your soul”, there currently exists an immense amount of physical infrastructure necessary for it to be delivered to consumers digitally. This infrastructure comes at an environmental cost.
Kyle also notes that, perhaps ironically, it is often his friends who are environmentally conscious consumers — i.e. they buy organic and drive electric cars- that are more likely to purchase vinyl records, a music medium so heavily reliant on plastic. This reinforces the notion that we often simply do not think about music in the way we think about orher things in our lives, possibly because of our deep emotional connection with it.
For every Spotify or Tidal play, there exists miles of underwater cables and innumerous carbon emissions that are triggered by the chosen listening device, in order to play a song that is most likely emanating from a “storage warehouse in the middle of nowhere Utah”, as Heidi Lenffer puts it.
The change from physical to digital has also directly coincided with increased difficulties involved in measuring what impact the production of music is having on the environment. Gone are the days when pressing a record provided a clear picture on how much plastic was used, nowadays, researching the environmental impact of streaming is made notoriously difficult posits Dr Devine.
While industry experts have shifted to using terms such as “energy intensity” to understand the impact of streaming, the sheer amount of variables involved in streaming (download resolutions, file size, the locality of the file, etc.) make it a laborious and difficult task.
2. Address the climate crisis in ways that make sense to you as an artist
In tackling any major social or political issue, it is imperative that artists engage in ways that are true and meaningful to them, argues Dr Devine.
Whether it be Peter Gabriel of Genesis fame, penning the anti-Apartheid anthem BIKO, Steve Beaker mobilising the black musicians of South Africa in the 70’s and 80’s into a new wave of Black Consciousness, or, Rick Fines, who recently recorded his latest album completely through the power of solar.
During an intense period of touring with her band Cloud Control, Heidi Lennfer found herself trying to understand and engage with the climate crisis, looking for a way to contribute that made sense for her.
She launched Future of Energy Artists (FEAT), an “artist led renewable energy investment movement”. FEAT aims to help all artists, big or small, by offering the opportunity to be a part of the solution to a couple different problems, including artist insecurity and the climate emergency.
Heidi explains that “through touring, artists can put a percentage of their earnings to directly fund new solar farms being built around Australia” and that any percentage will act like an “investment rather than a donation”.
FEAT acts as a way for “artists to be an active part of the solution”, states Heidi, rather than passive observers. With artists such as Courtney Barnett, Vance Joy and Midnight Oil already on board, FEAT “didn’t want to allow massive mutli-national corporations to privately build the grid” but rather, allow the opportunity for “the arts community to be involved and flex that creative urge” as we tackle the climate crisis.
FEAT currently works closely with a “80 hectare wind farm” just southwest of Toowoomba, which has the capacity to “power over 11,000 homes”.
Since this conversation, FEAT has also launched the Solar Slice — a 1.5% ticketing surcharge that will fund crucial carbon reduction measures for the live music and entertainment sector. This is designed to be a next level manoeuvre to bake sustainability into the DNA of all live events coming out of COVID, and to provide the money that’s necessary to prioritise serious climate action.
3. Recognise that the climate crisis is a consequence of human exploitation
Human exploitation, as a consequence of capitalism, remains at the core of the global climate crisis and one cannot be solved without the other.
“Currently there is a tendency to speak of environmental issues as carbon issues,” says Kyle Devine. “when we also need to understand how these are tied to human forms of exploitation. The two cannot be separated.”
Even more sustainable future technologies may rely on obtaining materials from historically oppressed societies. “The materials come from places on earth where the main motivation is to make money and not on human welfare, they are intrinsically systems of human inequality.” states Dr Devine.
The climate crisis can only be solved if we also endeavour to abolish the global systems of exploitation that have plagued our earth for far too long.
4. Artists act as cultural leaders in their circles, and can inspire action
There is a need for artists to discuss the climate crisis openly with their audience and with their industry, as artists often hold unique positions of cultural influence whether its in front a large mainsteam audience, or a smaller tight-knit circle.
Writing songs about the climate emergency isn’t necessarily the most effective thing you can do as an artist. Remember that, as an artist, you have an outsized influence on those around you as someone whose ideas, opinions and values matter to others — whether you are an artist with a small audience or one of the most popular artist’s in the country.
“Imagine Vance Joy going on daytime television talking about his investment in our solar farm,” says Heidi, adding that bringing high-profile artists on board with FEAT has been a useful and novel way of bringing climate issues into the news and media cycle.
Before setting up FEAT, Heidi consulted with many climate scientists in the field, many of whom advised her that the best thing she could do to help, as an artist, is to make noise and make use of the cultural influence she and her peers might have to bring conversations around climate to the surface.
“One of the best thing that an artist, musician, a cultural leader can do about these issues, is not only learn about them, but also talk about them, so that these conversation happen, and continue to happen.”
Music’s contribution to the climate crisis can be described as a “drop in the bucket”, and as such Dr Devine understands the “confusion, hesitancy and discontent that people feel when we talk about how the materiality of music impacts on the environment.”
However, “the fact that music isn’t a major contributor” to the climate crisis, doesn’t mean we can “bury our heads in the sand.”
Kyle notes that raising the topic of music consumption’s environmental impact amongst his friends can be met with groans, adding that he sometimes gets labelled a “music hater” when he tries to talk about these issues. However, he also points out that it is those “who care most about music and who love music, that should be the first to ask these kinds of questions about music.”
“Being alive in this world means you have to be aware of the underbelly of every aspect we interact with,” says Heidi Lenffer. “We have to make the choice to be aware, but also have the urgency to move forward. These things need to happen alongside each other if we want to make a difference and real change.”
5. We must not give up, despite inaction from those in power
The climate crisis requires expansive and rapid action by the governments of the world. But Heidi mentions that consequential action to address the climate crisis still seems unlikely in Australia, owing to the “current political climate where coal lobbies are continuously lobbying for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry.” She points to specific policies such as the Abbott government’s dismantling of the Climate Commission in 2013, a publicly funded climate science research body.
Heidi mentions that in the face of the climate crisis, you have to “keep on trucking. It doesn’t make sense to sit at home crying, paralysed in fear.”
Resigning oneself to apathy is exactly what these large corporations want, as they strive to exploit and damage the planet in the search for profit. Taking a stand and committing to take action in the face of this crisis is a true act of courage that any artist can commit to, and will inspire others to do the same.
“We created this mess, so we can uncreate it,” says Heidi. “While we may soon reach a moment where things are too far gone, we are not there yet. So the optimism is still there.”
