Soundtrack of the apocalypse: Climate change songs for a world on fire

Climate change songs are a sonic reflection of the chaos we face, with the state of the world inspiring some of the most exciting music around. Check out our picks for a climate change playlist below.

If there was ever an issue to spark anger, passion, urgency and despondency, the ongoing climate crisis is it. So it’s no wonder that climate change songs abound: when you’re urging action, when you’re lamenting a lost world, when you’re incandescent wi th rage at the powers that be, what better release than music?

Many climate change songs feature abrasive aesthetics reflecting anger and despair at environmental destruction. Others have softer messages, of hope or grief. All are powerful. When you put them all together, it’s amazing how many artists are shouting out about the crisis: a playlist of anthems for a world on fire. We’ve collated a playlist of climate change songs, running the gamut of protest, desperation, fear and rage, and capturing the anger felt at a preventable emergency.

A heated debate

Rising sea levels and melting ice caps are not a new issue: the ‘greenhouse effect’ and its impact on climate has been understood for decades. So it’s no surprise that not all climate change songs were written this century. But who would’ve thought Jimi Hendrix would foretell the climate crisis back in 1967? In Up from the Skies, the guitar legend imagines a future world visited by aliens:

I have lived here before, the days of ice

And of course this is why I’m so concerned

And I come back to find the stars misplaced

And the smell of a world that has burned

A smell of the world that has burned

Back in the present day, the new release from Nova Polaris also looks to a future where blue skies and clean air only exist as a distant memory:

Once upon a time there was snow

And the rivers flowed, slowly

Not so very long ago

Did we even know it could all go?

And just to make the point clearer, Nova Polaris wrote another climate change song literally about global warming: Burn.

But it’s good to remember that there may still be hope: the snow and ice aren’t completely gone just yet. Perhaps it’s not too late to give up hope – although Childish Gambino seems on the verge of doing that, in Feels Like Summer:

Oh, I hope we change

I really thought this world could change

But it seems like the same

Co-opting activist voices

Teen activist Greta Thunberg is known as the voice of climate action, so incorporating her words into climate change songs is a powerful way to make a political statement. And it’s been done by quite a variety of musicians over the past few years. The 1975 featured a speech by Thunberg in the 2019 version of their theme track, The 1975, opening with the words:

“We are right now in the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis. And we need to call it what it is. An emergency.”

Meanwhile, Fatboy Slim used excerpts from a UN speech by Thunberg in a catchy mashup the same year (and there’s also a metal remix, How Dare You, by G.T. of thrash favourites Soaka.) Alert Level by Ministry, released in 2020, also samples Thunberg and other activists, calling for action in the fight against climate change.

If the sampling is respectful and done in the spirit of the speech, it can help spread the message further: climate change songs like these provide a platform to amplify the calls to action and reach a wider audience. They can also help raise money for environmental causes: G.T.’s Greta remix How Dare You was released in aid of Greenpeace. Inspired by this, a percentage of sales of the new single Remember? by Nova Polaris will be donated to the WWF Climate Recovery Fund.

Environmental anthems to save the world

While climate change is a hot topic (pun intended), it’s not the only urgent environmental issue to be worthy of immortalisation in song. Environmental anthems for a world in peril include more than just climate change songs: bands are also penning lyrics about other pressing ecological issues.

“Poison Dream came about when I realised that every single place that I have ever lived has suffered from horrific water pollution,” said Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe. (The singer also penned a column in Kerrang! about the dangers of plastic in the oceans.)

Meanwhile, Gojira, whose Global Warming made it to our climate change playlist, also draw attention to the plight of the rainforests in Amazonia (2021) and pollution in Toxic Garbage Island. In the late 1980s, thrash bands entered the debate about climate change; two of the best examples being Testament’s Greenhouse Effect and Nuclear Assault’s Critical Mass.

The ultimate climate change songs playlist

Putting together a definitive playlist of climate change songs is always going to be controversial: we’re sure there are a few on our list that may spark debate. Why not let us know what you think in the comments? Song suggestions always welcome.

Remember? by Nova Polaris is out now, with 10% of all sales donated to the WWF Climate Recovery Fund.

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One response to “Soundtrack of the apocalypse: Climate change songs for a world on fire”

Catherine

May 4, 2024 at 10:12 pm

There’s a song by Jeff Lynne called Save Me Now that’s worth a listen. Sample lyric:

One day the earth woke up, said
Boy it’s getting hot
And remember all those trees I had
Well now there ain’t a lot

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