Orchestra performs Mozart under wind turbines to mark Earth Overshoot Day
24 August 2020, 13:51
These musicians are using the power of music to inspire people to take action on climate change.
Stood beneath towering wind turbines in Cornwall, an orchestra gave a performance of Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 to mark Earth Overshoot Day on Saturday (22 August).
To mark the date, Orchestra for the Earth – a group made up of young musicians who are trying to encourage people to take action on climate change through their music – gave a performance at Delabole Wind Farm, the first commercial wind farm in the UK.
“I think music and the arts generally have a huge role to play in climate activism because music really gets to people’s hearts and people’s minds, in a way that other stuff can’t,” said John Warner, conductor of the Orchestra for the Earth.
“So we can really motivate people and move people to actually take action.”
Read more: Greta Thunberg’s powerful words on climate change set to music >
Orchestra plays under wind turbines to mark Earth Overshoot Day
The scenic outdoor concert was held as part of a project between the orchestra and the renewable energy company Good Energy, in the hopes of inspiring people to take action on the issue.
Another musician from the group – which performed socially-distanced (watch above) – added: “As musicians, we’re in a really privileged position to be able to do this for a living, so it’s kind of our duty, to use music as a tool to send a message about really important issues, like climate change.”
What is Earth Overshoot Day?
Earth Overshoot Day is the date when humans have used up all of the resources the planet can regenerate in one year, and this year, it landed on Saturday 22 August.
In other words, as of that Saturday, we have used every last bit of natural resource that Earth can provide to the human race’s consumption for the whole of 2020 – and now we’re essentially living on “ecological credit”.
Last year saw the earliest Earth Overshoot Day recorded so far – 29 July 2019.
