Amps & Offsets: Going Green on Tour
February 15th, 2007
Like many musicians, Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird will be going on tour across the country this Spring in support of his latest album, playing twenty-two dates in a little under six weeks. But instead of the typical rock star rider (M&Ms separated by color, perhaps) Mr. Bird is taking his tour green, trying to turn every concert into a carbon-neutral event.
Andrew Bird is buying offsets for all his lights and gear, asking for eco-friendly food backstage, and driving a biodiesel tour bus from town to town. Concertgoers can do their part by buying special merchandise at the venue, with all proceeds going to offset carbon emissions from fan transportation.
Bird’s efforts are being supported by the nonprofit group Reverb, an environmental group founded in 2004 by Lauren Sullivan and her husband, Guster guitarist Adam Gardner. Reverb’s goal has two parts: “educating, inspiring and activating music fans while “greening†artists’ tours and the music industry at large.” Every little step…
Link to Andrew Bird’s site
Link to Reverb
Popularity: 6% [?]
February 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
...and in case you haven’t heard, Al Gore is taking his climate tour on the road with a concert that’s due to dwarf Live Aid and Live8!
http://www.vestaldesign.com/blog/2005/06/live-8.html
Gore Concert:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ebad1e4a-b719-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html
February 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Ok, this “offsets” thing bothers me a bit. It’s kind of like when I used to consider my cycling as an “environmental activity”. But really, I was just going for a ride that ended up back at my house. I wasn’t doing anything, just taking a trip that had the same outcome as if I’d done nothing.
Same with offsets. All it does at best is reduce the guilt level to zero. And worse, he’s still doing some damage to the environment through his travel and setup, and paying someone else to clean up the mess.
Now, if this guy was donating all his profits to climate change research or offsets in addition to what he used, then he might be making an impact.
But, you say, “It’s better than nothing!” No. It is exactly nothing—at best.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Bob, I think you’re right in that a lot of the talk about offsets is just that: talk. But it seems to me that Andrew Bird is taking some things that would normally be negative towards the environment (like driving his tour bus or powering his amps) and trying to make them – at worst – a ‘neutral.’
Andrew Bird is a musician, so he doesn’t have a choice whether to go on tour – that’s his job. So being carbon neutral is his way of changing his job to be more environmentally friendly, just like how you have the option to bike to work or recycle paper.
If nothing else, he’s getting the word out to his audience, which can’t be said for most media these days.
February 26th, 2007 at 11:10 am
A recent NY Times article tackles the question, “Carbon credits – useless indulgences for those unwilling to actually change their behavior?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/business/worldbusiness/20carbon.html
(read it while it’s still hot and free on NYT)
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:29 pm
More interesting stuff from both sides:
These carbon offsets shift back the demand curve for dirty power but they also shift out the supply curve for power as a whole…Competition from wind power forces down the price of the monopolistic dirty power company (electricity?), which means that other people buy more of it. The quantity of dirty power consumed might well go up rather than down.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/02/do_carbon_offse.html