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Jesse Carmichael from the band Maroon 5 is a member of the Board of Directors at Alliance for Climate Education (ACE). He wrote a special pieces of music to go along with the many videos that young people sent into ACE demonstrating how they Do One Thing (DOT) to protect the climate.

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Maroon 5's Jesse Carmichael: Do One Thing to protect the climate - Our Climate Our Future

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Jesse Carmichael from the band Maroon 5 is a member of the Board of Directors at Alliance for Climate Education (ACE). He wrote a special pieces of music to go along with the many videos that young people sent into ACE demonstrating how they Do One Thing (DOT) to protect the climate.

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Prince Ea | 2015

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Flocabulary | 2019

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Climate & Climate Change Song | Educational Science Rap Curriculum

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Mike Likes Science | 2013

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What Does Climate Change Sound Like As Music?

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What Does Climate Change Sound Like As Music?

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Forbes

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What Does Climate Change Sound Like As Music?

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Climate change research can be daunting and depressing. To properly engage with it takes time, and short catchphrases, like "the Earth is warming" don't tell the full story of what's going on. How can climate researchers convey the urgency and importance of their message? Some of them have turned to music.

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Connect4Climate

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The Music4Climate initiative draws upon interest in climate change among musicians and songwriters.

What is more universal than music? Songs speak to our souls; they tell stories, they share sorrows and messages of hope. When musicians act to share their thoughts on climate change, they make their voices heard through melodies and harmonies - and bring people together in a way no other medium can.

Since the beginning, Connect4Climate has been engaging the music industry to use spread the climate message. In 2011, in partnership with Artists Project Earth, we launched the successful Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa CD that brought to life creative mixes of established and African artists.

With MTV we managed to feature some of the songs on Times Square, and in 2012 we hosted the Voices4Climate competition, also for music videos. It received over 1000 entries from all around the world and the prize ceremony at the World Bank, Right Here Right Now, was a compelling call by youth for climate action. At the Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day musicians came together with politicians and influencers to call for climate action in front of the White House in Washington DC.

No Doubt performed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day. Photo Credit: Leigh Vogel / Connect4Climate

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Music4Climate | Initiatives | Connect4Climate

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The Music4Climate initiative draws upon interest in climate change among musicians and songwriters. What is more universal than music? Songs speak to our souls; they tell stories, they share sorrows and messages of hope. When musicians act to share their thoughts on climate change, they make their voices heard through melodies and harmonies - and bring people together in a way no other medium can.

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Teachers Climate Guide

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Climate change affects humans and natural environments today and particularly in the future. Like any art form, music can change our approach to the changing world, communicate insight on climate change and help to process emotions. Therefore, music plays an important part in understanding climate change in-depth and building a climate-friendly world.

The Role of Music in Climate Change Action

Art can be seen as an activity that aims to critically observe and change our situation and fixed ideas about reality. Thus it's not surprising that environmental issues embedded in our society have become popular in socially and culturally engaged contemporary art. Art also discusses topics, values and meanings through emotions, unlike fact-driven natural sciences and engineering. Therefore, art has great potential to change our worldviews.

Like music in general, songs about climate change affect their listeners in many ways. In addition to the tune and lyrics, even the title may have an impact on the listening experience. Since environmental issues are collective basic experiences of modern times and constantly present in human consciousness and activities in one way or another, even subtle references to environmental themes may trigger thoughts and emotions in the listener. Experiencing lyrics or music doesn't happen in a vacuum but in the wider cultural and communal context. A critical approach to environmental issues can be activated and consciously adopted when listening or making music. Also the following facts may help to realize the role of music in raising active citizens taking action against climate change:

Music provides pleasure and meaningful experiences without high emissions.

Music encourages creativity and coping.

Music encourages cooperation

Improving musical skills increases perseverance and resilience which are also important in climate change mitigation.

Musicians as Environmentalists

Over many decades, musicians have communicated climate problems in their songs. Among famous songs inspired by environmental degradation are Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi and Michael Jackson's Earth Song. Climate change has inspired some songwriters, but there have not been huge hits about the topic, perhaps due to its complexity.

Musicians can inspire their fans to become active citizens by speaking out on climate change. For instance, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry and Pharrel Williams have discussed climate issues in interviews, blog posts and climate campaigns.

Music has also been used to communicate the latest climate science. In 2013, a cello piece entitled, A Song of Our Warming Planet, came out which illustrates changes in global temperature over 133 years. In 2015, it was followed by a composition for a string quartet that highlights the rapidly changing climate on different continents.

How Music Helps to Process Emotions

Music is a language of emotions, something humans have always used to express joys and sorrows. Like other art forms, music can affect us on an unconscious level and evoke unexpected emotions. Music can also help to process and solve complex emotions. Playing and improvising music transform emotions into tangible form. Playing and singing can be cathartic, a therapeutic experience.

There is no need to create a division between art and science subjects or the emotional and rational realms. In fact, art can be considered a branch of science - it can be, for instance, mathematical - and it's good to keep in mind that emotions and value judgements have impact on scientific research. However, it is an incontrovertible fact that art education promotes emotional intelligence, which also is needed in combat against climate change.[/su_spoiler]

Exercises

1. CLIMATE CHANGE SONG
Write a song about climate change.

2. CACOPHONY ORCHESTRA
Each student is given an instrument. Read aloud the following sentences while students explore emotional and musical responses to them. Here are some examples:

It is likely that the sea level will rise due to climate change.

All human beings have equal opportunities for taking action against climate change at work and home, and in politics.

Climate change shortens the winter snow season in cold countries.

Wind power has been growing fast in recent years around the world.

Climate change often triggers negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear and helplessness.

Grey herons have become a common species in Finland due to climate change.

Image Gallery

Singing in the Rain
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Paleface
Paleface | Photo: Saara Autere

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kuva: Mikael Ahlfors

Hurricane Earl
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These images can be reused under CC licence. Add any required credit for the photographer or company who own the copyright of the photo you use.
See copyright information and original photos in Flickr gallery.

Sources and additional information

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Climate Change and Music Climate change affects humans and natural environments today and particularly in the future. Like any art form, music can change our approach to the changing world, communicate insight on climate change and help to process emotions. Therefore, music plays an important part in understanding climate change in-depth and building a climate-friendly [Read more...]

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12 Essential Songs doe Fighting this Climate Crisis.

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12 Essential Songs doe Fighting this Climate Crisis.

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Global Citizen

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Climate change threatens the future stability of the planet. These artists are using their platform to sound the alarm. You can join us in taking action on related issues here.
The dystopian consequences of climate change are inescapable today. Fire tornadoes tear through California. Antarctica's "doomsday glacier" is melting faster and faster. Food chain-supporting organisms like krill are disappearing.

Yet efforts to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change are delayed, debated, and watered down. In some countries, efforts to stop greenhouse gas emissions have gone in the opposite direction.

The disconnect between awareness and action seems to get wider and wider each passing year. Perhaps that's one reason why an increasing number of artists are using climate change as a jumping-off point in their music.

Art has often served as a catalyst for change, swaying the public conscience to end conflicts and advance human rights. By taking their reflections on climate change into spaces as intimate as headphones and revolutionary as clubs, various artists are creating a collective call for climate action.

Here are 12 songs that can soundtrack the worsening climate crisis and spur the world into action.

1. "The 1975" - The 1975

This dreamy track feels like a quiet, mountaintop sunrise that doubles as a political manifesto. It features climate activist Greta Thunberg delivering a scathing critique of the status quo with her trademark serenity and clarity.

"We have to acknowledge that the older generations have failed," Thunberg says on the track. "All political movements in their present form have failed. But Homo sapiens have not yet failed. Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around.

"We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases, and either we do that, or we don't."

She ends with a rousing call to action as synthesizers shimmer.

"We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change, and it has to start today. So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel."

2. "Orca's Reprise" - Jayda G

House artist and marine biologist Jayda G layered the speech of orca whales into this lush, gorgeous arrangement.

As a violin rises in the background, bright keys dance along, and a synthesizer creates an oceanic space.

Listening to this song is a reminder of the world's infinite beauty and all that we stand to lose if we don't stop greenhouse gas emissions.

3. "4 Degrees" - ANOHNI

ANOHNI's moral fury is magnetic. In this song, she adopts the point of view of someone who doesn't worry about climate change and pushes it to a limit as a form of " reverse psychology."

Scientists warn that the world could warm by 4 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, a scenario that would usher in catastrophic environmental changes.

In her deep, soaring voice, ANOHNI croons, "It's only 4 degrees, it's only 4 degrees," over and over, capturing the widespread complacency that seems to exist around climate change.

The song gets much darker, illustrating today's world as a psychopathic arsonist:

"I wanna hear the dogs crying for water / I wanna see fish go belly-up in the sea / All those lemurs and all those tiny creatures / I wanna see them burn, it's only four degrees."

4. "Melt" - Kelly Lee Owens

In this propulsive club banger, house DJ Kelly Lee Owens samples a melting glacier while she distantly says, "Ice / The more you see."

"I wanted to create something that sounded hard, but with organic samples," Owns told Fact magazine. "I felt those were great representations of what's happening in the world, that every moment you're breathing and sleeping, this is ​taking place."

The climate crisis requires us to draw on the wisdom of nature as we imagine a new world.

What better way to dream big and transcend the constraints of the moment than on the dance floor?

5. "All the Good Girls to Hell" - Billie Eilish

This playful, disarming track from Billie Eilish toys with the idea of personal responsibility and climate change. As the warning signs of climate change become more extreme, the song seems to ask: What are you doing to change your behavior?

"Hills burn in California / My turn to ignore ya / Don't say I didn't warn ya," Eilish sings.

Eilish has become an outspoken advocate for climate change off and on the stage.

"Our earth is warming up and our oceans are rising," Eilish said in a viral video in 2019. "Extreme weather is wrecking millions of lives."

Most recently, Eilish teamed up with Global Citizen and HeadCount to encourage people in the US to check their voter registration status.

6. "Hands Off The Antarctic" - Thom Yorke

Celebrated Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke created a simple instrumental song with a pulsing, chilly beat to accompany footage of Antarctica as part of a Greenpeace campaign.

The song gathers an ominous weight as the insistent beat goes on, suggesting that something - an ice shelf, maybe - is about to collapse and break away into the ocean.

7. "Muddy Funster" - DJ Koze

As DJ Koze slowly builds the beat and background vocals, Kurt Wagner's voice breaks into the song like a pilot's onboarding message.

"I believe the climate is changing, yeah," Wagner wistfully says before the beat slips away and a deeper bass appears surrounded by ambient noise.

The song doesn't further interrogate the issue - sometimes there isn't much more that needs to be said.

8. "New Gods" - Grimes

On Grimes' latest album Miss Anthropocene, the electronic artist loosely explores the concepts of climate change, artificial intelligence, and apocalypse.

"New Gods" is an airy, brittle-sounding track that ponders the effects of consumerism on the planet.

9. "Running in the Grass" - Cut Copy

In their latest album Freeze, Melt, electro-pop group Cut Copy explores environmental anxiety from a metaphoric remove.

"Running in the Grass" follows a bright, jaunty beat that cuts against a darker chorus, when bandleader Dan Whitford sings, "You cut me down to the bone."

The phrase is a stark declaration that mirrors that ruthless physics of climate change.

10. "Cities Under Water" - Short Fictions

Indie rockers Short Fictions approach climate change with directness in their latest album Fates Worse Than Death.

The lyrics of "Cities Under Water" bring numerous symbols of the climate crisis into focus.

"I want to know, I want to know / who favors profit over sustainability and its tornadoes and cyclones, / record breaking heat?" the lyrics demand.

The song picks up tempo, slows down, and shifts through multiple moods as it touches on heat waves, disease, and flooded cities.

In the climax of the song, the lead singer screams, "I swear, I swear it's true."

11. "PARAD(w/m)E" - Sylvan Esso

Pop group Sylvan Esso giddily conjures up the collapse of civilization in "PARAD(w/m)E." In this fictional world, when the trees are all dead and the ocean dries up, people still gather to party.

"Yeah, there's nothing left to ruin, yeah, we finally got free / How's that for manifesting our destiny?" singer Amelia Meath suggests.

The sardonic pop song pokes fun at humanity's seemingly endless reserves of optimism.

12. "Manifest" - Andrew Bird

Singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has playfully considered existential issues, primarily those concerning the self, throughout his musical career. On his latest album My Finest Work Yet, he expands his scope to consider the environmental consequences of Western notions of economic growth.

"I'm coming to the edge of a rising ocean / Such commotion and fear / Keeping all our eyes on what's on the horizon / And all that we hold dear," he sings.

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12 Essential Songs for Fighting the Climate Crisis

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Climate change threatens the future stability of the planet. These artists are using their platform to sound the alarm. You can join us in taking action on related issues here. The dystopian consequences of climate change are inescapable today. Fire tornadoes tear through California. Antarctica's "doomsday glacier" is melting faster and faster.