Pandodyssey™ Panda Blog

This is a blog devoted to Giant Panda enthusiasts, environmental wanna-bes and peace loving funimals, world-wide.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

he's no creep, nor a loser

Radiohead's Thom Yorke recently spoke to the guardian against the recent slew of environmental incentives linked with musicians on tour-- not because he's against the environment (he isn't) but because he's not sure how much good these incentives actually do to offset the environmental damage created by these tours.

"He said: "The way that tours are structured now and the way it works is a ridiculous consumption of energy ... I would consider refusing to tour on environmental grounds, if nothing started happening to change the way the touring operates."

Unlike bands such as the Rolling Stones and Coldplay, Radiohead do not offset the carbon emissions caused by their tours, because they are not convinced of the environmental benefits of such schemes, which claim to make activities carbon-neutral by planting trees or investing in renewable energy projects.

Speaking to the Guardian yesterday as part of a climate change campaign by Friends of the Earth, Yorke said: "I think it's a necessary part of what I do, to tour or play live, but I find it unacceptable, what the consequences of that are.

"Some of our best ever shows have been in the US, but there's 80,000 people there and they've all been sitting in traffic jams for five or six hours with their engines running to get there, which is bollocks."

"bollocks" teehee.

Yorke makes an excellent point: in addition to offsetting the damage we create, we all also have a duty to fully explore any way we can prevent the damage from occurring in the first place. Sometimes we get all caught up in the media drama and fad culture of what's hot and now in environmental circles that we forget why we're here in the first place. Yorke voices what a lot of us feel -- while offsets are a vital and necessary part of incentivizing the world to start thinking environmentally, let's not forget that offsets are only a band-aid, and not a solution in and of itself.

PSA: Radiohead and/or reggae fans, if you've never heard easy star allstar's version of "Ok, Computer" you should.

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