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Addressing Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Futures Through Creative Music Engagement

Page history last edited by Richard Beach 1 year, 7 months ago

Climate change is clearly a global crisis (Cook et al., 2016). The effects of the warming climate are felt in every part of the world, and current estimates show the effects of climate change will continue to worsen unless significant action is taken, particularly toward a post-carbon energy system (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2021).

While popular media often portray dystopian possibilities of continued climate crises, artists and the general public can offer more generative, hopeful, and optimistic possible futures through music. Some music educators have situated music creation as an opportunity for youth to address pressing social issues in schools and community settings; however, the potential for creating music to imagine possible futures has been, largely, overlooked. How might creating original music serve as a means for young people to explore their own perspectives on climate change and to imagine possible solar futures?

This chapter reports one project for two complementary purposes. First, the project illustrates one way young people can explore and express possible solar futures through creative musical engagement. The Weight of Light (WoL) project challenges high school students to both reason about and imagine possible future energy systems through creative music engagement. Second, the project provides provocation, inviting all educators to consider the roles they might play in supporting similar work in music education.

We describe two different approaches that high school music educators and students pursued in order to imagine and engage possible solar futures using creative musical engagement. Additionally, we highlight how the WoL project exemplifies the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). We build on these examples of music engagement and futures thinking to offer potential strategies, considerations, and lines of inquiry for educators interested in supporting young people in addressing climate change with and through music.

Links for This Chapter

http://unesco.org/en/education/sustainable-development

nnedi.com/books/noor/

lionsgate.com/movies/snowpiercer

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd6pWDl8nMg-NdmGBfOE-Il0O1A0LANKj

bettinalove.com/

maxinegreene.org/

djspooky.com/antarctica/

djspooky.com/terra-nova-sinfonia-antarctica/

drivestudios.tv/music/billie-eilish-good-girls-go-to-hell

listenable-records.bandcamp.com/track/global-warming

genius.com/12694014