Just imagine!
The climate crisis also requires music professionals to act. Although many are in complex relationships of dependency, they have room for maneuver. Moreover, their core competence is in demand: new worlds need to be formulated.
Our realities as music creators are different. From the future beats producer in the home studio to the singer in the yodel choir to the touring jazz trio, we operate in a wide variety of ecosystems. What many of us have in common is the limited financial resources we have to juggle. Especially after Covid. Caught between economic pressure and artistic demands, the urgency of our common task can fade into the background. This is understandable, but fatal because we are running out of time. If we do not significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees in the long term, the consequences will be of the following magnitude: India, a country with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants, will be largely uninhabitable in a few decades because it is simply too hot. As a music industry, just like all other industries, we have a collective responsibility to break our resource-intensive routines. We can do that.
The music industry causes the most emissions through mobility. DJs are flown from London to Warsaw, on to Mallorca and then to Berlin for the afterhour on a single weekend, bands travel all over Europe in small or large buses, and thousands of fans travel to their concerts by car. If you want to act more sustainably as a performing musician, you have to rethink the way we travel.
A flight from Zurich to London and back generates around 400 kg of CO2 per person. That is two thirds of what the organization My Climate says a person can emit each year if we want to effectively (and collectively) stop global warming. The average person in Europe currently consumes around 8.4 tons. By comparison, traveling to London by train - via Paris, in less than eight hours - produces 40 kg of CO2. Avoiding flights is one of the most effective ways of protecting the climate. CO2 offsetting offers no remedy. On the contrary: they are controversial because they shift the savings into the future. A German musician who wanted to offset his tour by buying a piece of forest and planting trees soon discovered that his trees had fallen victim to a pest. In order to bind the emissions, they would have had to grow for decades. The basic principle is therefore: avoid first, then reduce, then offset the rest.
As (touring) musicians, however, we are often caught up in a complex web of social and economic dependencies. This makes us all the more dependent on the other players also making a move. We can accelerate this process by making sustainability an issue. Again and again. In concrete terms: ask the manager of your concert hall whether the oil or gas heating has already been replaced and whether the electricity comes from renewable sources, use the "Green Rider" template to design your own catering rider, which you can use to encourage event organizers to eat vegetarian and vegan food or to do without plastic bottles, for example. Discuss with your booking agency how the routing of your tour can be made more efficient, discuss with your fellow musicians whether it is really worth driving or even flying hundreds of kilometers for this one concert. Apply to funding agencies for support for more sustainable travel (renting an e-van, train tickets, additional overnight stays). We know from several conversations that foundations would like to see more pressure from artists. Join Music Declares Emergency or another organization. And then: Turn to the audience: whether via songs, concert announcements or social media - share your concerns about climate heating, formulate utopias.
This is where our real superpower comes into play: as artists, we specialize in expanding realities. We are constantly creating new places through our music, from shelters for uncomfortable feelings to utopian landscapes. In light of the climate crisis, this imagination is in high demand. There can't be enough musicians who stick their heads in the clouds, ask questions and provoke change: What do alternative tour models look like? How can they be more ecologically sustainable, stress-free and economically viable at the same time?
What if, for example, every concert venue had its own backline? If our luggage was collected from the rehearsal room on cargo bikes, taken to the station and loaded using the train operator's transportation service and we could also travel relaxed by train? If we played six instead of 20 cities during the three-week tour, staying in one place for four days and playing four concerts in four venues? If these residency tours were promoted? If we had more time to get to know the local music scene and initiate collaborations?
Formulating even unfinished ideas can be an important first step. It feeds those people who specialize in translating our ideas into political realities.
