Instead of blessing us with yet another banger, British band The 1975 have released a new single containing a very powerful and important message about climate change.
The track features 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg speaking over the band’s minimal background music: “We are right now in the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis. And we need to call it what it is. An emergency.”
“We must acknowledge that we do not have the situation under control and that we don’t have all the solutions yet. Unless those solutions mean that we simply stop doing certain things,” she continued.
“We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people. And now is not the time for speaking politely or focusing on what we can or cannot say. Now is the time to speak clearly.”
“…So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel,” she ended her moving speech.
Thunberg announced via social media that all profits from the release of the track will go to socio-political movement Extinction Rebellion.
The young activist addressed legislators at France’s parliament this week where she told them to “unite behind the science” of climate change, and said “you don’t have to listen to us, but you do have to listen to the science.”
Thunberg’s words couldn’t have come at a more pivotal time. According to BBC news, action will need to be taken in the next 18 months to deal with the global heating crisis, amongst other environment concerns. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that to keep the rise of global temperatures below 1.5C this century, we would need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030.
Clearly, we’re seriously running out of time, and every little action we take now is critical.