On the lookout for silver linings – Abigail Dunn |

Dwell Music Change Weblog

On this publish, Dwell Music Change pupil intern Abigail Dunn considers the environmental impression of music, and gives some private reflections on whether or not the present disaster offers a possibility to take inventory of how you can tackle this.

The Coronavirus pandemic is inflicting world devastation, with international locations internationally 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 after all been hit notably laborious, with the closure of venues not solely placing an finish to artists’ touring for the close to future, but in addition leaving the likes of the bar employees, safety, bookers and techs out of labor.

Within the UK, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has a minimum of acknowledged the challenges that grassroots venues, particularly, are going through and has assured a £330 billion package deal of help throughout this difficult time. This could solely, after all, 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 laborious to make sure that no musician falls via the cracks.

That is, then, an especially difficult and scary time for everybody throughout all facets of the reside music sector. However it’s a lengthy haul, so it’s necessary that we discover the silver-linings in addition to the clouds, to assist get us via 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 recent life over the previous few a long time. A 2010 research commissioned by Julie Bicycle confirmed that music consumption and manufacturing within the UK alone was liable 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 intention 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 setting.

Journey

It’s evident that fashionable modes of transportation equivalent to vehicles and planes have a massively damaging impact on our planet, emiting greenhouse gasses which contribute to damaging local weather change. Huge, established artists flying from nation to nation and driving between cities in large tour buses to carry out their music to the world is part of this. In reality, reside live shows and performances have been proven to generate 405,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasoline emissions yearly. Nonetheless, a key challenge right here really 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 really proven to come back from viewers journey to the occasions. It’s festivals particularly which have the most important impression, as they are typically located outwith cities, with followers having to make their very own approach out to the extra distant places to see their favorite artists carry out. And with the growing reputation of visiting festivals overseas, this implies an growing variety of attendees Travelling by airplane to get to them. Sadly, this challenge is nearly unavoidable, as gig and pageant excursions have turn into an important supply of earnings for many artists, with streaming providers equivalent to Spotify and Apple Music not changing the previous revenues from bodily copies of music.

Nonetheless, bands equivalent 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 could 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 highway, it might’t finish the issue completely.

Vitality use

One other large contributor to the worldwide warming is the vitality consumption of the reside music occasion itself, with about 32% of greenhouse gasoline emissions being related to venue vitality use within the UK. Festivals shouldn’t be ignored of this, as they use large turbines to energy all the pieces onsite, from sound techniques and lights to meals stalls and portaloos. Though festivals equivalent to Wooden Competition in Oxfordshire are run completely on renewable vitality, and Glastonbury was operating on photo voltaic, storage and vegetable oil turbines to assist scale back its carbon footprint, there’s nonetheless a really lengthy strategy to go.

Huge Assault introduced the commissioning of the Tyndall Centre for Local weather Change Analysis to map the complete carbon footprint of typical tour cycles. This can even spotlight the three fundamental areas of CO2 Technology – band journey and manufacturing, viewers transport, and venue – and findings shall be shared with different touring acts, promoters and pageant/venue homeowners with the intention to permit for a big reductions in emissions. The intention is to lift consciousness of the difficulty, within the hope for change.

Plastic

It’s obvious to anybody who attends a music pageant or live performance that they produce a large 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.

Once 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 internationally 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 gadgets which are swept up on the finish of a music pageant 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 wood, and banning single-use tents. Glastonbury have additionally laid out a strict set of inexperienced insurance policies to make sure that the 210,000 pageant goers they entice are respecting their setting. Regardless of many of those steps being efficient in decreasing plastic waste, the truth is that switching one disposable merchandise for an additional continues to be dangerous to the setting. Though such gadgets could decompose at a sooner price than plastic, many will inevitably nonetheless be going to landfill and, sadly, usually 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 difficulty that’s going to take years to deal with and it’ll contain much more than switching from plastic to paper straws.

Except one thing makes folks 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 short-term 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 will’t ignore the truth that the Coronavirus is iNFLicting an enormous degree of uncertainty for the economic 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’ve got given our pretty planet an opportunity to breathe. As Music Declares Emergency states, there shall be no music on a useless planet, and if we proceed to eat music the way in which we’re, we received’t have for much longer to get pleasure from it.

As customers, we’ve got a accountability to demand change, and be a part of it. The way forward for our planet is sort of actually within the arms of each one among us. Though the pandemic is permitting the planet to take a brief breather, issues will return to some sort of regular sooner or later, and we are able to take this second to consider what we wish that to be, somewhat than permit 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 also needs to all be making an attempt to make tiny adjustments wherever we are able to. If these massive corporations and governments see this demand, then we are able to solely hope that we are going to start to see it as a possibility to implement optimistic change internationally.