David Bowie, Radiohead, Robert Plant Sign Climate Change Petition
David Bowie, Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Phil Selway, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Yoko Ono and Björk are among the dozens of artists in the creative community to sign an open letter addressed to the leadership of the upcoming Paris Climate Conference outlining significant changes to the United Nations’ climate change framework. Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit organization aimed at environmental sustainability, orchestrated the petition.
The open letter was written to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Christiana Figueres and Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister of France and president of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. “We are deeply concerned that our global economic and industrial systems are accelerating rates of extinction, desertification and soil depletion, degrading ecosystems, acidifying and littering our rivers and oceans, and resulting in a relentless rise in greenhouse gas emissions driving irreversible climate change,” the letter stated. “In short, we are overwhelming the planet’s life support systems.”
Among the changes the petition calls on are “an ambitious commitment to climate action, starting now, that will limit future global warming to below 2.0°C (3.6 °F) relative to pre-industrial levels” and “financial mechanisms to stimulate extensive infrastructure for poorer nations to support them in achieving their reduction commitments while permitting equitable development. The petition also seeks “a legally robust and accountable global climate governance framework and implementation strategy that we will be able to support.”
Sting, Damon Albarn, Chrissie Hynde, Jack Johnson, Leona Lewis, Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, Courtney Barnett, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, Dido and many more musicians, artists, writers and others involved in the creative field also signed the Julie’s Bicycle petition.
The Paris Climate Conference will begin November 30th and run through December 11th. Yorke, Patti Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea announced in July that they would take part in the Pathway to Paris concert at the city’s Le Trianon theater on December 4th. While the recent terror attacks in Paris have threatened the cancellation of many events revolving around the climate change conferences, Yorke pledged on Twitter, “Will be in Paris as planned on 4th & 5th December to put pressure on our glorious leaders at #COP21 -now or never!”