The carbon impact of all those gigs and gatherings is up for debate more now than ever, big acts such as ColdPlay and Massive Attack have cancelled gigs until they can measure the impact on the environment.
But not all artists are in a financial position to cancel all their gigs and many artists rely on touring for an income. Let's be real most musicians and performers can not afford an environmental consciousness.
Today on Radio 4 Tom Heap asks what the music industry can do to reduce its carbon footprint. Tom spoke to various different artists and also interviewed the founders of Music Declares Emergency - No Music On A Dead Planet https://www.musicdeclares.net/.
The main three areas for discussion included the emissions for the band travelling, moving the equipment, the venue emissions and the impact of audiences travelling to and from the event. Having listened to the show I checked out Music Declares Emergency - No Music On A Dead Planet https://www.musicdeclares.net/ which advocates the following:
We call on governments and media institutions to tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency.We call on governments to act now to reverse biodiversity loss and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2030.We recognise that the emergency has arisen from global injustices and will work towards systemic change to protect life on Earth.We acknowledge the environmental impact of music industry practices and commit to taking urgent action.
We have signed up and will follow Music Declares and are very interested in how our members can benefit, however the interview raised many contradictions and many of the suggestions for us were very weak and hypocritical. But it is very tough debate. We get that. To summaries the main suggestions in the interview with Tom included the following:
Standard riders to not include plastic
Not to allow single use plastics at events
Always use renewable power sources when you can
Event organizers to insist on recycling as a priority
Working with responsible corporate partners
Not to work with financial institutions that are not responsible
Using LED lights to reduce energy use
Put restrictions on touring, travelling and taking less equipment
Use streaming media as an alternative to reach audiences
Do not fly around the world to shoot gigs on environmental change
Going on a bus rather than taking your own car
Car share
Put pressure on venues to be more environmentally friendly
Getting rid of plastic CD cases
Ecological packaging
Environmental merchandise and use organic materials
Higher train usage, go car free
Ecological and renewable streaming and data storage
Rent all the equipment at location and not travel with all the kit you need
Do not produce and sell vinyls
The largest omissions on carbon footprint is the audience travelling so a main argument from the artist is that they need to travel to the audience.
Surely, the suggestions made in the interview is not enough and it will not deliver the outcomes to climate change that is needed, it is sycophantic and feeble for global change. In our view the recommendations and solutions suggested are not sustainable themselves.
However, Music Declares Emergency have a great section on their website which is much more comprehensive and lists about actions for artists, songwriters, producers, a label, publisher, a venue, festival live music promoter, manager, agent and fan. So we are going to support them.
