Update: This entry is from my column that originally appeared in the Northern Colorado entertainment magazine The Scene. While I'm not doing this column anymore, I'm still as involved as I can be in the Fort Collins area music scene in general.
This edition’s topic: The Glamorous Sound of Eco-touring
Today’s topic arises as the result of a well-intentioned, blonde dreadlocked
music fan who wobbly Birkenstocked up to me at a recent festival and asked,
“Hey, man, what is your band doing to keep your tours green? I mean do you guys
buy offsets to help with the carbon footprint?” “No, we don’t,” I said
immediately. She looked shocked. Well, shocked, and a little bloodshot, and
somewhat disappointed. I tried to explain.
Regarding the mucho-hyped carbon offsets, I feel compelled to put things into
a pragmatic perspective. A little background: The idea of carbon offsets is not
brand new (but maybe not familiar to everyone). Per Wikipedia, “In the …
voluntary market, individuals, companies, or governments purchase carbon offsets
to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electricity
use, and other sources.” You buy an “offset,” and with that money, you support
some ecologically P.C. groovy project like a solar or wind farm. (Is it just me
or is this a little bit like going to an O2 bar to offset the lung damage done
by smoking a pack and a half of Camel Lights a day? Basically, you are just
fining yourself for touring.) But don’t get me wrong. Bands who buy carbon
offsets are doing something important for the greater good, and I commend them
for doing so. At least it’s honest, for it acknowledges that our industry
pollutes (most do). Dave Matthews, Phish, The Dead, they’re all buying offsets
and sponsoring clean energy, and I am proud that they are. Bear in mind though,
that they do this in part to inspire others, not just musicians, but fans who
are insurance adjusters and company CFOs. The point of these bands using their
fame “for good” is to remind everyone that our travels make an impact.
Unfortunately my band (and in actuality the vast majority of bands) just
don’t tour at the level of Dave or The Dead. Some of our friends are still
crossing the map with two giant buses (at 6-8 MPG), one for band and one for
gear. They SHOULD be buying carbon offsets. When they do, it’s because they can
afford to. We tour nationally at a much more modest level. Trying to make a
profit during this recession, Cracker tours in a single Sprinter van that gets
over 20MPG even with a heavy gear trailer. When we arrive in a city after a 5 to
8 hour drive every day, our legs and asses are asleep and we have had almost NO
sleep, but may I point out, we are leaving a much smaller eco-footprint. We
recycle. Some of us are vegetarians. We play “sustainable living” fairs, and as
individuals we give money to green charities when we can and still afford to
keep going. But our business requires that we travel. CD sales are a fraction of
what they used to be for EVERY band, so survival equals touring. A
videoconference or podcast of a show just doesn’t give our fans that
vibrating-through-the-floorboards, smell of the beer that just got dumped on the
guy next to them, live in-concert feeling. We can really only pollute less by
touring less, and by not making a living and not bringing our live show to the
fans that sustain us. So until Ben and Jerry’s gives us our own flavor (Cracker
Surprise with Whiskey, Milk & Honey?), or the industry reinvents itself in a
big way, we will keep doing the many little things we hope will add up to
helping sustain the earth, just as we hope our fans will do, even if we can’t
publicly boast that our exhaust paid for an entire wind farm in Wyoming.
To learn about the many ways bands can tour more responsibly, and how fans
can help, one great site is reverbrock.org (started by the folks from Guster). A
final fact, from the Dogwood Alliance website, says that 80% of a concert’s
carbon footprint comes from fans’ commutes. Hey dreadlock girl, wherever you
are, I trust you walked or carpooled to that festival. Or perhaps you bought a
carbon offset instead of that extra bag of “herb.” My only advice to friends and
readers is this: do everything you can to fight global warming and social ills,
but don’t waste time feeling guilty about things that are out of your hands. If
you are doing your part, you are ahead of many who just don’t care.
Footnote: My wife and personal editor would like me to point out that we
know Wikipedia is not a “real” source, but, this is not a New York Times column,
either. This is college-town entertainment publishing, and Uncle Johnny is just
fine with that, over and out.
