Music and creative organizations in the UK and Europe are modern industries. Therefore they have their place to play in fighting the climate crisis. In this series we may steer a little away from music and cultural issues sometimes but the focus of what we write about will be how the creative sector can combat our impending environmental crisis.
Now, I don’t want to assume too much… but if you’re reading this you’re probably one of the wealthiest people in the world.
If you earn more than £12,000 a year (just over minimum wage for a 18-20 year old in the UK) then you’re in the top 7.5% of wealthiest people in the world. That £18,000 a year graduate job that your friend just got puts them into the top 2.5% (this is according to 2008 world bank data, check for yourself here). When you pass around £25,000 a year you become part of the 1%. When we talk about the 1%, we are talking about ourselves and our consumption habits, if not now then in five or ten years’ time if we’re lucky.
Now you might be the sort of person who says “Yeah but there’s people far worse than me out there, how can my actions affect the environment when it’s the big corporations that are doing all the damage?” Those big corporations are there to serve your needs. Your holiday in Malaga, your meat, your car. Unless you’re reading this from Angola or a hut in Nepal (if so then hello, welcome, lovely to have you) then your actions are more likely than almost anyone else’s to make a difference.
With that said the onus is on us to examine all aspects of our consumption so that we can curb the most damaging aspects of our behavior. This won’t be a series telling you that the world is doomed and that there’s no hope but instead we hope to highlight problems and suggest solutions that will help us to continue enjoying the things that we love so much.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be examining band T-shirt culture, international touring and more in an effort to make us all more ethical music consumers without punishing those looking to make a living off their art. If you have any ideas of things we should be writing about, get in touch!
Obviously we’re not the only people to be writing about this, this series was inspired by numerous sources which we would love to share – for example resident advisor are doing a wonderful series on dance music that I would highly recommend you check out now you’ve finished this article (first article here)