The Sound of Climate Change

"Say goodbye to lethargy, save the world with this melody," (Save the World - Bernadette La Hengst & Nick Nuttall)

"If we come together, try our very best, the sun can power the world, the wind the rest," (Kangarooz - Luke Wallace)

These are both lines from songs about climate change. 

Climate change songs have never really caught on, as noted by the BBC in this mornings article. The article was inspired by the recently released 'Love Song to the Earth', which has been released to try and engage the public in the up and coming COP21 talks, which I'll be doing a post about closer to the time. The song aims to raise some publicity for the talks, and get people pressurising leaders to change. Public pressure is key to getting the energy generation mix to create a sustainable society, as unfortunately fossil fuels are cheaper (if they weren't, we wouldn't be having this debate). 

The song certainly has the potential to get people talking, because it features the likes of Paul McCartney, Sean Paul, Fergie, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Leona Lewis,  Natasha Bedingfield and Colbie Caillate, not because of the lyrics, my favourite (worst) of which are from Mr Sean Paul himself:

"Mama Earth is in a crazy mess, it's time for us to do our best, from deep sea straight up to Everest,"

"Six billion people all want plentiness, some people think this is harmless, but if we continue there'll only be emptiness."

Anyway, hopefully it will get people talking before the COP21, below is the new song:

Anthropocene Visual

In addition to my last post, I found this video visualising the last 250 years and the impact of humans around the world, enjoy!

The Power of Humans: The Anthropocene

Source

In producing the energy over the past few centuries humans have altered the Earth; from atmospheric warming to layers of plastic being added to geologies. This has prompted the term Anthropocene. Such is humans impact on the Earth we have potentially created a new geological epoch. The term was originally coined by Paul Crutzen, and a history of its use is provided by National Geographic.

Source

Crutzen's Geology of Mankind indicates the Anthropocene started three centuries ago supplementing the current the Holocene - the epoch of the last 10,000-12,000years. There are alternative views, with William Ruddiman suggesting that the anthropocene started 8000years ago with mass deforestation. However, Crutzen's depiction of the Anthropocene is more widely accepted, and is summarised in this extract:

"During the past three centuries, the human population has increased tenfold to more than 6 billion and is expected to reach 10 billion in this century. The methane-producing cattle population has risen to 1.4 billion. About 30–50% of the planet's land surface is exploited by humans. Tropical rainforests disappear at a fast pace, releasing carbon dioxide and strongly increasing species extinction. Dam building and river diversion have become commonplace. More than half of all accessible fresh water is used by mankind. Fisheries remove more than 25% of the primary production in upwelling ocean regions and 35% in the temperate continental shelf. Energy use has grown 16-fold during the twentieth century, causing 160 million tonnes of atmospheric sulphur dioxide emissions per year, more than twice the sum of its natural emissions. More nitrogen fertilizer is applied in agriculture than is fixed naturally in all terrestrial ecosystems; nitric oxide production by the burning of fossil fuel and biomass also overrides natural emissions. Fossil-fuel burning and agriculture have caused substantial increases in the concentrations of 'greenhouse' gases — carbon dioxide by 30% and methane by more than 100% — reaching their highest levels over the past 400 millennia, with more to follow."

Humans have already had a massive impact on the Earth, and when investing in future electricity production we need to consider the extent to which we alter the Earth's natural state, and the consequences of it.