Stay Music Change Weblog
On this submit, Stay Music Change pupil intern Abigail Dunn considers the environmental affect of music, and gives some private reflections on whether or not the present disaster offers a chance to take inventory of tips on how to deal with this.
The Coronavirus pandemic is inflicting international devastation, with international locations the world over going into lockdown with the intention to forestall it spreading. It has utterly modified the way in which we reside, with many individuals discovering themselves out of labor as a result of closure of companies from outlets to bars to cinemas.
The reside music trade is one which has in fact been hit notably onerous, with the closure of venues not solely placing an finish to artists’ touring for the close to future, but additionally leaving the likes of the bar employees, safety, bookers and techs out of labor.
Within the UK, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has not less than acknowledged the challenges that grassroots venues, particularly, are going through and has assured a £330 billion bundle of help throughout this difficult time. This may solely, in fact, mitigate the worst of the injury – however it’s a begin. Likewise, the UK authorities have introduced a plan to help the self-employed, and the Musicians’ Union are working onerous to make sure that no musician falls by way of the cracks.
That is, then, an especially difficult and scary time for everybody throughout all features of the reside music sector. However it’s a lengthy haul, so it’s essential that we discover the silver-linings in addition to the clouds, to assist get us by way of the subsequent few months of uncertainty.
Within the larger image, it’s clear that the reside trade worldwide has been a contributor to the commonly detrimental impact on our planet of contemporary life over the previous few a long time. A 2010 examine commissioned by Julie Bicycle confirmed that music consumption and manufacturing within the UK alone was accountable for round 540,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases, round three quarters of which got here from reside music performances. Three of the details which I purpose to the touch on this piece, are the impact that journey, onsite vitality use and plastic air pollution brought on by the reside music trade have had on the atmosphere.
Journey
It’s evident that trendy modes of transportation corresponding to vehicles and planes have a massively damaging impact on our planet, emiting greenhouse gasses which contribute to damaging local weather change. Massive, established artists flying from nation to nation and driving between cities in big tour buses to carry out their music to the world is part of this. In actual fact, reside live shows and performances have been proven to generate 405,000 tonnes of greenhouse fuel emissions yearly. Nonetheless, a key situation right here truly lies with the followers as a lot as, or extra so, than with the artists – 65% of the air pollution brought on by reside music occasions was truly proven to return from viewers journey to the occasions. It’s festivals particularly which have the most important affect, as they are typically located outwith cities, with followers having to make their very own manner out to the extra distant areas to see their favorite artists carry out. And with the rising recognition of visiting festivals overseas, this implies an rising variety of attendees travelling by aircraft to get to them. Sadly, this situation is sort of unavoidable, as gig and competition excursions have turn out to be an important supply of revenue for many artists, with streaming providers corresponding to Spotify and Apple Music not changing the previous revenues from bodily copies of music.
Nonetheless, bands corresponding to Coldplay have introduced that they’re making a aware effort to cut back their carbon footprint. After they can, Coldplay journey by practice, they’ve paid to have timber planted, and have even thought-about ending touring altogether. For now, they’ve put their touring on maintain till performing will be made much less damaging to our surroundings.
Many festivals additionally organise public bus journey from main cities to their occasions, and though that is maybe placing fewer vehicles on the street, it might probably’t finish the issue solely.
Vitality use
One other big contributor to the worldwide warming is the vitality consumption of the reside music occasion itself, with about 32% of greenhouse fuel emissions being related to venue vitality use within the UK. Festivals shouldn’t be overlooked of this, as they use big turbines to energy every thing onsite, from sound methods and lights to meals stalls and portaloos. Though festivals corresponding to Wooden Pageant in Oxfordshire are run solely on renewable vitality, and Glastonbury was working on photo voltaic, storage and vegetable oil turbines to assist cut back its carbon footprint, there’s nonetheless a really lengthy solution to go.
Large Assault introduced the commissioning of the Tyndall Centre for Local weather Change Analysis to map the complete carbon footprint of typical tour cycles. This may even spotlight the three important areas of CO2 technology – band journey and manufacturing, viewers transport, and venue – and findings can be shared with different touring acts, promoters and competition/venue house owners with the intention to enable for a major reductions in emissions. The purpose is to boost consciousness of the difficulty, within the hope for change.
Plastic
It’s obvious to anybody who attends a music competition or live performance that they produce an enormous quantity of plastic waste. Whether or not that be when the lights go up on the finish of a gig and everybody filters out of the venue, tripping over the lots of of plastic cups left behind, or the ocean of barely-used tents left behind on the finish of a weekend’s tenting.
After we order a drink at a gig, we regularly obtain it in a disposable plastic cup. I get it. It’s handy, it’s efficient, safer than glass and it saves the venue from a mammoth washing up job. Nonetheless, consider what number of hundreds of those plastic cups each venue the world over is dispensing each single week. The identical stands for festivals, though they’re disposing of excess of simply plastic cups. Some examples of the single-use plastic objects which can be swept up on the finish of a music competition embody plastic bottles, straws, meals trays, glitter, shampoo bottles and even tents.
Many festivals are beginning to make a aware effort to cut back their plastic waste, by switching from bottled water to cans, plastic cutlery to picket, and banning single-use tents. Glastonbury have additionally laid out a strict set of inexperienced insurance policies to make sure that the 210,000 competition goers they entice are respecting their atmosphere. Regardless of many of those steps being efficient in lowering plastic waste, the fact is that switching one disposable merchandise for an additional remains to be dangerous to the atmosphere. Though such objects could decompose at a quicker charge than plastic, many will inevitably nonetheless be going to landfill and, sadly, typically into our oceans after getting used simply as soon as.
I do know I spoke of clouds having silver-linings, and I promise I’m getting there.
Clouds and silver linings
Though all of the steps that bands and festivals are taking with the intention to assist to cut back the carbon footprint of the reside music trade are welcome, that is, in actuality, a problem that’s going to take years to deal with and it’ll contain much more than switching from plastic to paper straws.
Until one thing makes individuals pause, and take inventory.
Because the world has gone into lockdown, the clouds of air pollution and globe-warming gases have considerably decreased over some main cities throughout the planet. And with the momentary closure of companies, and postponement of a number of of the world’s largest festivals this 12 months, we are able to solely assume that this lower will proceed.
We are able to’t ignore the truth that the Coronavirus is inflicting an enormous degree of uncertainty for the financial system and the livelihoods of everybody concerned within the reside music trade, or the plight of these affected. However maybe we are able to additionally discover the silver-linings. As self-isolation has begun to clear the clouds of air pollution which encase the earth, we now have given our pretty planet an opportunity to breathe. As Music Declares Emergency states, there can be no music on a lifeless planet, and if we proceed to eat music the way in which we’re, we gained’t have for much longer to get pleasure from it.
As customers, we now have a duty to demand change, and be a part of it. The way forward for our planet is sort of actually within the arms of every one among us. Though the pandemic is permitting the planet to take a short lived breather, issues will return to some type of regular sooner or later, and we are able to take this second to consider what we would like that to be, somewhat than enable them to return to the simply the way in which they had been. Though it’s an issue that finally must be tackled by governments and massive, highly effective corporations, we must also all be making an attempt to make tiny adjustments wherever we are able to. If these giant corporations and governments see this demand, then we are able to solely hope that we are going to start to see it as a chance to implement optimistic change the world over.
