Music Groups Try Making Performances Better for the Environment

Music Groups Try Making Performances Better for the Environment

The music group Coldplay plans to use their fans' energy to help provide power for their musical performances and to help the environment.

The band has promised to use methods that are sustainable. This includes using energy that does not add carbon gases to the atmosphere. The band hopes to cut the amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, released by its business activities by 50 percent.

The music stars have added special dance floors and energy-storing exercise bicycles to their latest world tour. The goal is to get fans to help power the show as they dance or spin by producing electricity.

Bassist Guy Berryman suggested music fans will be more likely to accept changes to the concert experience if it is "a kind of opportunity to do something fun."

Each special dance floor, called a kinetic¹ dance floor, can support many people. The floor creates electricity when people move on it. The band even has competitions before its performances to find out which group of fans can create the most power.

Each of the bikes can create an average of 200 watts² of energy, captured in batteries that run parts of the show.

"Being green...is a good business model. That's what we'd like to show," said Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin.

Entertainment industry

Coldplay is just one music act working to reduce the effects of its tour on the Earth's climate.

Other famous musicians and bands are also taking such steps, including Billie Eilish, Harry³ Styles, The Lumineers, Dave Matthews Band, Shawn Mendes, Maroon⁴ 5, John Mayer, Lorde, The Chicks, and The 1975.

The music artists are part of an effort by the entertainment industry — from sports teams to toy manufacturers — to reduce carbon gas emissions⁵.

Adam Gardner is with Reverb, a nonprofit group that helps bands make their concerts better for the environment. He is not involved with Coldplay's tour.

But Gardner said, "The relationship that musicians have with millions of their fans is unlike any other relationship of any other public figure. It can be a walking, talking example."

Musicians are providing more plant-based food choices. They are not using single-use plastic containers. And they are trying to change the transportation they and their fans use.

Eilish has promised to eliminate an estimated 35,000 single-use water bottles from her tour. She also only serves vegetarian⁶ food, or food without meat, backstage. The band Massive⁷ Attack is traveling by train.

Shawn Mendes has promised to reduce his tour's effects on the environment and cut emissions by 50 percent for each show. He says he will use sustainable materials in tour clothing, stay at hotels that promise to cut emissions, and not use single-use plastic. He has even promised to use sustainable aircraft fuel.

‘It makes us feel part of a community'

Coldplay has taken other steps to reduce the environmental effects of its tour.

The "Music of the Spheres" tour stage uses recycled steel. The band hopes to deploy⁸ the world's first tour battery system, made from 40 repurposed BMW electric car batteries. The hope is to power the entire show with batteries.

"We are very blessed that we have the resources to be able to do it because it's very expensive to try these things for the first time," said Martin. "We're so privileged that we're in a position where we can change."

Martin suggested that all of these changes are meant to bring a sense of belonging to music fans.

"Everything in our show is really designed to bring everyone into the same group, singing together and wearing the wristbands. And this is just an extension of that. It makes us feel alive. It makes us feel part of a community," he said.

Words in This Story

sustainable—adj. involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources

figure –n. a person

backstage –n. behind the stage of a theater

privileged—adj. having special rights or advantages that most people do not have

wristband –n. a thin piece of material that is worn on the arm near the hand

extension –n. something (such as an interest or activity) that develops from something else — + of

1 kinetic   

adj.运动的；动力学的

参考例句：

• There exist many sources of energy both potential and kinetic.存在着许多势能和动能的能源。
• The kinetic theory of gases is the best known example.气体动力学理论就是最有名的例子。

2 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

3 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

4 maroon   

v.困住，使（人）处于孤独无助之境；n.逃亡黑奴；孤立的人；酱紫色，褐红色；adj.酱紫色的，褐红色的

参考例句：

• Five couples were marooned in their caravans when the River Avon broke its banks.埃文河决堤的时候，有5对夫妇被困在了他们的房车里。
• Robinson Crusoe has been marooned on a desert island for 26 years.鲁滨逊在荒岛上被困了26年。

5 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

6 vegetarian   

n.素食者；adj.素食的

参考例句：

• She got used gradually to the vegetarian diet.她逐渐习惯吃素食。
• I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.我不知道你是个素食者。

7 massive   

adj.巨大的，大规模的，大量的，大范围的

参考例句：

• A massive sea search has failed to find any survivors.经过大规模的海上搜救仍未找到幸存者。
• He drank a massive amount of alcohol.他喝了大量的烈酒。

8 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。