‘Fast and strong’ music leaves carbon footprint
Music is recognized as a human feeling expression of feeling or sublimation. Talent is described as a gift. However, music somehow is also a ‘gift’ – fantastic, precious, noble, nice or funny (delete what is not appropriate) ... and more or less the gifts are also costly.
Two researchers asked about the cost of music. They are Kyle Devin from the Oslo University, in Norway and Matt Brennan from the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. In their project ‘The Cost of Music’ they, limited to the larger market, i.e. to the USA. They calculated the volume of music sales in the years that were at the peak of popularity of various media since the phonogram rollers to the dominant streaming of today.
And they calculated the environmental impact of these sales in two different aspects and discovered at last that the musical market has been polluting the world with plastics, but the problem of greenhouse gas emission remains. ‘And from this perspective, listening to recorded music does more harm to the environment today than in previous times of recording formats,’ Kyle Devine commented.
Festivals
First of all music festival can do everything possible to maintain the place in the same condition as it was before the event. The organizer of festival is rated (viewed, evaluated) differently than what was done years ago. It appears that you can build a brand on limiting the carbon footprint. When we came to know the numbers, the romantic myth of the summer festivals fell apart. The American Coachella Festival left behind 107 tons of waste on the day of the event. During one edition of Festival Bonnarro, Tennessee 100 tons of food was wasted. After half-acentury of legendary Woodstock Festival debut, archeologists began to investigate the rubbish left behind by the event.
Even after the most ‘green’, independent and non-commercial Festival in Roskilde, Denmark, the participants, ‘well-being children’ from Europe, leave their tents and numerous everyday objects on a mass scale including beds and armchairs, and then abandoned them after the show, so much so that the organizers prevented the entry of such items into the festival area.
The problem is even bigger because the participation of major shareholder – the business. It grows rapidly. When in 1970 on Michael Eavis’ farm in England was established the famous Glastonbury Festival, the price of the ticket included milk from local cows, if it was made alone.
Today it is an event for c-a 200 thousand people, offering concerts of a few hundreds of performers, with dishes coming from the world over that includes VIP service. There are special campsites with facilities, including helicopter landing pads. It facilitates the rich in terms of avoiding traffic jams. ‘To eliminate influence for environment we will have to liquidate the party’, says 83 years old Mr Eavis. He thinks today the whole sense is defended by two aspects: educational and charitable activities.
Both are important but segregating garbage is a matter of concern, of course. A widespread trend has become the elimination of plastic straws, a ban of disposable dishes and disposing of waste composters. Vegetarian catering is no more exotic, only the basic festival diet. The presence of educational slogans, are sometimes a bit strange as ‘Five minutes long shower uses so much water as production of fifty cans of the beer’ (Roskilde Festival).
Also the music festivals in Eastern Europe compete in that trend. Last year the European Award for Green Solutions went to Slovakian Pohoda Festival. The waste composters, biodegradable cutlery and plates, reusable cups for deposit, transport solutions: ‘Such solutions are of course more expensive, but costs in this area we couldn’t count like in average business’, says the spokesperson of the event. ‘This year we bring to the festival shops hip pants and backpacks from old tents’, she added.
In Katowice, the capital of Silesia, Poland organizes the most renowned in the country and Europe Off – Festival The event had a few nominations to the title of The Most Ecological European Festival. This year, except for biodegradable dishes or the menu, 80 vegetarian percent, the festival welcomed its guests through the entrance gate, made of sea containers.
They were used to collect plastic waste during the event. It was the work of siblings of young Silesian designers. Duet works as SOKKA, have been cooperating with the festival for years. Brother, Wojciech Sokołowski as a diplomat designed the project for Ferrari. Sister Katherine created a robot for heart surgery. Some Formula One riders drove in a helmet designed by them. They are young, operated all over the world, but at some point they decided to quit their company, instead of inventing more items, looking for a way to recycle the old ones.
Our view of musical concerts and festivals is not the same as before. It appeared that it is possible to build a brand on limiting the carbon footprint as Dave Matthews Band or Radiohead do. Other sample is Jack Johnson, probably the most ‘green’ among big stars of the music world. He is the owner of record studio on Hawaii, energy self-sufficient because of photovoltaic panels.
Ten years ago Johnson found out that he will not sell records and that there is no more sense to travel for concerts where organizers are not keen (or able) to answer his very stringent expectations regarding influence on environment. Today he accounts for every concert per liter of water used and one kilogram of emitted carbon dioxide! Following him and the ‘third sector’ organizations, implementing pro-ecological solutions, as Reverb or A Green Festival – others have begun to count.
Environment
When we speak about the music itself destroying the environment, is it a stupidity or provocation? Full of fantasy, the young researchers from the Mississippi State University asked themselves also this question. They were fans of repertoire of the group AC/ DC, especially song ‘Rock ’n Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution’. Initially the name excluded any supposedly to ‘be’s’. However the Americans decided to play that song to … soybean seedlings and small insect living on them.
It appeared that the ladybugs listening to the AC/DC music less willingly hunted aphids. This resulted in more pests, smaller amount of fertilizers and weaker plant growths! Disappointment of young researchers was great, than more than that similar ecosystems, ‘listening’ to country music plants were growing better but the number of aphids was evidently smaller (Probably ladybugs enjoyed much better the appetite, isn’t it?) It isn’t a joke. The article with research result was published in ‘Ecology and Evolution’ magazine and was dedicated to co-founder of AC/DC, Malcolm Young.
Inspired by my interest, my son, Tomas, Professor of Biology at California University, jokingly asked me to search how much more fast and strong music leaves carbon footprint than slow and delicate playing; it means Lento (slow) or Allegro agitato (fast agitated)? Than the most ecological music would be lullabies, isn’t it?
Jokes aside, Our Planet surviving is of big importance because (the real) danger is lurking if we do not take care of every detail which is able to turn back or even diminish and delay such a perspective, The next week the next part of ‘The Cost of Music’.
Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His email address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@ hotmail.com