Music for Climate Action?
The Lasting Impact of Coldplay's Bike-Powered "Green" Tour
What a WEEK.
I for one am eager for for something a bit lighter…so, please enjoy a dive into the world of music activism on climate.
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Part of this substack is me wanting to have guest posts as often as I can - people from around the climate and outdoor communities that can shed light on interesting corners of the environment space. This week, we feature WTCTA co-conspirator, media production wizard and musician, Ryan Thrower. He dives into Coldplay’s recent tour, before which they famously pledged to reduce their touring emissions by 50%. In addition to including kinetic dance floors that capture and store energy, they also added stationary bikes for fans’ movement to power the show. But… did it make a difference? Ryan weighs in below.
In 2022, Coldplay embarked on their Music of the Spheres Tour. They announced an ambitious initiative to make their tours more sustainable, termed the "Green Tour." The band aimed to significantly reduce their carbon footprint by implementing various eco-friendly practices. This included using renewable energy sources for concerts, minimizing waste, and promoting sustainable transportation for fans. One of the things I found interesting about this was they set up stationary bikes at concerts to allow fans to pedal and generate electricity to power parts of the show. Perhaps the cynic in me questioned the validity of if this actually worked. Then I forgot about this entirely.
Recently, with Addie starting WTCTA and me slowly creating a role for myself at Footprints, climate change has been more at the forefront of my mind. And with that, the image of a bunch of bozos riding stationary bikes while Fix You plays has drifted in and out of my thoughts. Then it hit me. It doesn’t matter if they generated all of the power needed or none of the power needed to put on the show. This raised awareness. Also, it turns out in some cases it generated around 10% of the energy needed for the shows.
The Music of the Spheres tour has sold 8.8 million tickets. The fan engagement on sustainable energy practices and demonstrating creative solutions to climate problems will outlive them as their music gets progressively worse. Dang, how good were those first four albums, though.
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In other climate news this week, wondering what “COP” is? An explainer on the climate meeting starting today.