Turns out that Thom Yorke, the lead singer of the mega-alternative band Radiohead, is a bit of an envirowonk himself. Last week, Yorke took the stage with European Union environmental commissioner Starvos Dimas of Greece to kick off Friends of the Earth’s European Big Ask Campaign, an effort to curb emissions across the EU.
The campaign seeks to mimic the United Kingdom’s climate change bill, the first such national legislation to set binding cuts of greenhouse gases. Goals for the Big Ask are 30 percent reductions in emissions in 17 European countries—each has it own page on which users can take action—by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050.
Beyond the Big Ask Campaign, Yorke is putting his money where is guitar is. He also promised last week that Radiohead would forego tour dates in Glastonbury because the city lacks a public transportation system. Yorke also says he’s installing a geothermal system to generate clean power at his house.
If all Yorke’s efforts are successful, maybe he can avoid having to plant any fake plastic trees.
Yeah, OK, we can be the change that we want to see in the world. But unless powerful people in powerful positions want to be that change as well, nothing's going to change.
So now, finally, there's a place where you can go for news and analysis of politics from an environmental perspective.
