When you turn on your radio most likely you will hear music. A lot of the songs you hear surely are insignificant. Most of them are about the usual issues like love & hate and who is the biggest pimp or has the lowest lowrider… But sometimes you will stumble upon a song that contains more than just blah blah. We are talking about popular music refering to climate change and how humans have an impact on the environment. Here's a short list that definitely needs to be extended. So if you know a song that matches this list, add a comment and let everyone know!

The first song we would like to present is from some time in the 80s by a band called Tower of Power. The idea is pretty easy to get: Stop driving that much, oil won't be available forever: "There's only so much oil in the ground / Sooner or later there won't be much around / Tell that to your kids while you're driving downtown / That there's only so much oil in the ground"

Punkrock of course is the class A music for controversial issues and Bad Religion is the band if we are talking about fairness, human rights and, obviously, climate change.

Cake on the other hand are more plain and simple:

"Car after bus after car after truck / After this my lungs will be so f*** up…"

Depeche Mode, the synthi-gods of ancient music times have written a song that is quite catchy as well. It says: "The landscape is changing, the landscape is crying / Thousand of acres of forest are dying…" Sounds pathetic in a way but who cares if the message is delivered right, right?

And last but not least the old but still heavy Heavy Metal band Megadeth has a heart for biodiversity. The song "Countdown to extinction" is a call to save the animals of our planet (because they can't take revenge for themselves). We don't know if the WWF would like this kind of music very much. Anyway, here's a quote from the lyrics: "Endangered species, caged in fright / Shot in cold blood, no chance to fight…" The song goes on with a martial (and metal-like) description of mankind: "You pull the hammer without a care / Squeeze the trigger that makes you Man…" Hell, yeah!

Do you know more songs like these? Do let us know! 🙂 You can add a comment right here with YouTube links to your favorite climate song or video.

green.tv has launched a music channel that features songs that are green meaning that they have the educational message of saving our environment. In the early 80s MTV kicked off with a metaphorical jab against radio – a video of the song 'Video killed the radio star' by the Buggles. MTV's product – "Music goes TV"  – proved highly successful. It seems that green.tv now wants to inititiate another twist to the story: music TV goes green. And the video above is supposed to get the ball rolling.

Swedish producer and DJ, Eric Prydz, did a remix of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall' focusing on the 'education' part of the lyrics. The tune's called 'Proper Education' and it has a strong green message: switch off appliances, change light bulbs for energy efficient alternatives and put a brick into your toilet cistern (so it fills up faster and uses less water). Besides, the tune is quite catchy.

Markus Bruggaier is a man on a mission. As a horn player with Berlin's Staatskapelle, one of Europe's great orchestras, he makes a living from catering for the refined tastes of others. In concerts every other night of the week. Like all art, it comes at a price. But particularly in music it's more than just the cost of a ticket. The makers of musical instruments require hard woods, much of which still come from sources that are at best  questionable, he says.

"In Madagascar dozens of hectares of rosewood trees are logged every day. Much of it goes to China but also the US and other countries – e.g. to produce guitars. Some 10 million are made every year."

In addition, while the issue of climate change in general has started to inform a lot of the activities of artists in other areas, classical musicians in particular have remained a little too aloof from it, in Bruggaier's view. An unacceptable state of affairs, thought Bruggaier and a handful of colleagues of the Staatskapelle. In autumn of 2009 they decided to put the issue on the agenda of their orchestra and convinced most of their fellow musicians of the need to do something. The result is the Orchester des Wandels – the Orchestra of Change.

Last Sunday they played their first concert in 2011 with all proceeds pledged to go to WWF forest conservation projects in India's Himalayan Northern states of  Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. All musicians put in their free time to play the concert – including world renowned conductor Zubin Mehta. Hailing from India himself, the maestro said, he was moved to tears, when the orchestra first approached him about playing the concert.

The orchestra welcome donations for their efforts and invite other musicians and orchestras to join.

Watch their kick-off concert last year. A truly elevating experience – literally, just watch to the end:

Read more about the Orchester des Wandels here.