Anthems for the Anthropocene

Climate change has arrived and we are living through this crisis now. We feel its impacts in our health, our environment, our infrastructure, and our economy. It has implications for just about every facet of our daily lives. A warming climate means more summer heat, rising sea levels, more extreme weather, and threats to human, animal, and plant communities around the world. The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally: Black and brown communities and the Global South bear the heaviest burdens even as their economies contribute far fewer greenhouse gas emissions per capita compared to the Global North.

We need to muster all of our available tools to address this crisis: science, engineering, policy, diplomacy, communication, and, not least of all, artistic expression.

We have learned that simply knowing climate change is accelerating is not enough to spur effective action, and that we must find ways to convey the urgency of climate action that reach our families, friends, and neighbors on a deeply personal level. Music has long been a way of inspiring reflection, action, and change. Can it generate climate action? We think it can.