| GREEN ROCK
Must the planet suffer because we enjoy music?
These days many performers are paying lip service to the global warning cause and taking part in public awareness campaigns and benefit concerts, but what practical steps are they really taking? Live Earth was the highest-profile event in recent times, but all over the world there are smaller fund and consciousness-raising events incorporating music that push the environmental cause. Often though, paradoxically these concerts contribute to the very problems that they are designed to alleviate. On a day-to-day level live and recorded music pollutes and consumes the planet’s resources; of course the audience members at live gigs would all otherwise be consuming and polluting elsewhere, but the size of the music carbon footprint that concerts leave is still disproportionately huge.
Most concerts are ablaze with electricity, air-conditioning, lights and amplification - a fossil-fuel fest of over-consumption. Then there are the un-recycled posters, handbills, plastic cups and T shirts amongst other bin-able products; add to that the equipment truck fuel, the airplane journeys and other carbon footprints that contribute to the planet’s plight which make live shows an expensive indulgence and a guilty pleasure.
In the past, vinyl records were made from petroleum by-products and were housed in un-recycled paper packaging, CDs are made of un-biodegradable polycarbonate plastic and aluminium, the jewel cases of polystyrene, the booklets of un-recycled paper; the recyclable digipak a novelty rather than the rule. Downloads are obviously less environmentally destructive, but you still need a computer made of plastic, metal or aluminium containing any number of non-recyclable chemicals and toxins to download or play the music; and of course electricity.
Aside from the use of recycling and bio-fuels, carbon off-sets are the only alternative until electricity is readily available from other sources. The Rolling Stones were the first band to claim to undertake a carbon-neutral tour in 2003, its organisers calculated that one tree should be grown for each 60 concert-goers and as a result thousands of trees were planted in Skye and Inverness. In 2001, a tree was planted for every Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd CD sold, soon after, Coldplay followed suit with their 2002 release A Rush of Blood to the Head and 2005's X&Y.
Since then The Vans Warped Tour has employed a solar-powered stage, saved 81,000 disposable plates by using washable dishware and utensils for bands and crew and avoids 50,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions by using varying blends of bio-diesel in the tour's nine big-rigs and 17 buses. Dave Matthews Band buys renewable-energy credits to offset energy use from amps onstage, as well as trucking, travel, and hotel stays for current mega tours – as well as retroactively over the last 15 years. Sub Pop Records recently committed to buying enough renewable-energy credits to offset 100% of the company's energy use. Pearl Jam is now using 100% bio-diesel in all tour production trucks and is donating $100,000 to nine organizations doing climate-change-reform activities, while shooting for net-zero emissions from tours and business. Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young and The Indigo Girls are all prominent bio-diesel burners.
However, Radiohead's Thom Yorke recently told The Guardian, "I would consider refusing to tour on environmental grounds, if nothing started happening to change the way the touring operates." The band does not buy offsets, according to the Guardian, "because they are not convinced of the environmental benefits of such schemes, which claim to make activities carbon-neutral by planting trees or investing in renewable energy projects." Last year, the group employed carbon analysts to assess the impact of their tours and decided the next one would set an example in an industry famed for its conspicuous consumption.
Friends of the Earth say that the group has minimised its carbon pollution by "using energy-efficient lighting, transporting equipment by train or boat rather than by plane and by using recyclable materials". Although it’s been estimated that 50,000 trees would need to be planted and maintained for 100 years in order to offset the amount of CO2 produced by the Hail to the Thief album and tour.
There are now organizations and activist groups that have been set up to assist musicians to make their tours more environmentally effective and to raise the issue with audiences at their concerts. They consult with promoters on recycling, conservation and minimizing the environmental impact of concerts and festivals, The Byron Bay Festival is a good example of such an event at least making the effort to be environmentally aware.
It’s a shame that our experience of live and recorded music has become a pleasure that is very often environmentally unfriendly and destructive, but hopefully technology and awareness will increase over coming years and make it less indulgent and selfish.
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