IQ Magazine: British band Massive Attack are calling on the government to introduce a plan to cut carbon emissions in the live music business.
It comes after the band commissioned the University of Manchester for a report on the issue using their tour data.
3 comments:
I found this article a tad ironic but comforting. It’s rare that you see a band come forward about better, cleaner energy sources considering it could greatly affect their performances and the venues they use. The reason I found it ironic is because bands use a lot of non-renewable energy sources for travel, lighting, sound, and just power in general. For that band to rally against the government for better funding towards cleaner energy seems like they could be putting themselves into a tricky situation, because of the risk that they might not be able to pull as much power for their shows or restrict the way they travel. But at the same time, it is very comforting for those same reasons. They are willing to put their comfort on the line to rally for better funding into renewable energy sources. ALSO, for them to push for government funding to the venues looking to upgrade to lower energy consumption equipment is very powerful. This may seem like a radical idea to some, but this should be standard governments to do, because in the end it would benefit everybody and especially the environment. This would be just the beginning of a lengthy process to switch over to cleaner energy, but this is an amazing start.
Massive Attack, a British band, commissioned the University of Manchester for a report on carbon emissions using data from their own tour data. Using the report, they created the ‘Roadmap To Super Low Carbon Live Music’, designed to support the sector’s reduction of emissions in line with the UN Paris Agreement. This is a step in the right direction, especially given that the UN Paris Agreement is a nonbinding climate agreement and that COP26 did not result in any tangible change--not surprising considering that COP, which is hosted by the UN, is usually sponsored by large polluters, such as Iberdrola. As the article states, companies which have large interests within the fossil fuel industry are getting subsidies from the government, but not clean battery technology, clean infrastructure or decarbonised food supply “for a live music sector that generates £4.6 billion for the economy every year & employs more than 200k dedicated people”. While it’s very progressive of Massive Attack to commission such report, as sad as it is, it’s unlikely that any substantial action to make the live music industry cleaner and greener will come out of the report.
This is a really interesting article, and honestly the first I've seen where an artist has stepped forward with their own plan that, as Logan mentions, actually risks their own performances and profits. We talked ad nauseum in TD3 about the fact that we run into the 'artistic' roadblock when it comes to making theatre greener. The biggest thing we can do to reduce scenery waste is to build smaller sets that come from stock, but the immediate pushback is that it goes against the artistic vision of the show. To see a band actually say, "we need to make concessions" is a breath of fresh air, and something much needed in this industry. The specific points are rather general, but nonetheless important. Things like public transit, environmentally friendly travel routes, limiting private jets and flights, and only going to venues that support environmental efforts can have a huge effect. Increasing government regulation is certainly one way to do this, since right now many of these efforts go against the interests of the band and producers. I'll be interested to see if and how this plays out.
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