Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2019, Page 56

L IF E , T R AV EL & EN T ER TA INMEN T IN ICEL A ND
Issue 10 × 2019
June 21st—July 4th
www.grapevine.is
LAST WORDS
Musical
Pollution
Words: Cheryl K. Ang
Photo: Art Bicnick
When you think of pollutive industries, what
springs to mind? Oil, agriculture, shipping
and transport probably jump straight to the
top of the list. But what about music?
It may surprise you to know that the mu-
sic industry has a sizeable environmental
impact. A 2010 report found that the British
music industry produces, on average, 540,000
tonnes of carbon emissions annually, with
three-quarters due to live performances, and
a quarter due to recording and publishing.
Musicians have always travelled to play
shows, and audiences will travel to see them.
These activities generate what economists
call external costs, which are borne by a third
party. In live music, external costs are a debt
paid by the environment when audiences gen-
erate carbon emissions by flying or driving to
see an artist perform.
Businesses influence so much of the way
people live their lives that it seems that chang-
ing the way they run must surely be one of the
keys to solving the climate crisis. Profit-driven
businesses have for too long obsessed over
productivity and profit while failing to con-
sider their environmental external costs. The
climate crisis shows us the consequences of
this mentality now—these costs can be among
the most important ones to pay, and they will
be paid, if not by businesses then by someone
else.
I opened the search engine Ecosia today
to find a heartwarming announcement. “We
planted 80,000 trees to make this the green-
est music festival ever,” it said. The company
planted one tree for each festival-goer at
Paris’s We Love Green festival, which has
also banned single-use plastics, encourages
reusable water bottles and makes recycling
easy for festival-goers. All these steps prove
that businesses have the power to make ethi-
cal decisions, making environmentalism
easy and accessible without taking away
from the fun.
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