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COLDPLAY COMBATS CO2

THE ENGLISH ROCK BAND Coldplay plans a sustainability-enhanced 2022 world tour, with a pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 50 percent compared with that of their 2016-2017 tour. Ben Beaumont-Thomas gives details in The Guardian, October 14, 2021. Here are tidbits gleaned from his article, together with my usual Internet sleuthing.

Coldplay Creds. Being the post-Stones Luddite that I am, I researched Coldplay in Wikipedia: “The band consists of vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and pianist Chris Martin; lead guitarist Jonny Buckland; bassist Guy Berryman; drummer Will Champion; and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University College London and began playing music together from 1996 to 1998, first calling themselves Pectoralz and then Starfish.”

“Coldplay,” Wikipedia notes, “have sold more than 100 millions albums worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling music artists.” Honors include a bunch of Brit, MTV Video, and MTV Europe Music Awards, plus seven Grammys. 

The group has earned cred for supporting social and political causes as well as charity projects. Good fellows, all around.

A Typical Tour Challenge. Ordinary rock tours (if I may generalize on such musical chaos) involve high-voltage performances in every sense. Traipsing around the world in private jets doesn’t exactly earn green points either.

Coldplay 2017, Lyon, France. Image from newsforkids.net

Coldplay has spent two years with environmental experts to formulate means of reducing this. 

Kinetic Floor and Solar Panels. Ben Beaumont-Thomas writes, “A ‘kinetic floor’ will be installed so that the energy created by fans during the show can be harnessed; solar panels will be installed on the floors, stage and elsewhere in open-air stadiums as soon as the band arrive, to generate power in the run-up to the show.”

“Battery and mains power,” Ben says, “will also be drawn from renewable sources. The stage itself will be built from reusable and sustainable materials including bamboo and recycled steel.”

Travel by Bio-Jet. “The route of the tour,” Ben continues, “has been designed to minimise flights, and the band will pay a surcharge for more sustainable air fuel.” 

The 2022 Tour. Coldplay’s 2022 “Music of the Spheres” will commence in San Jose, Costa Rica, on March 18, 2022. Then comes the Dominican Republic and three shows in Mexico. The U.S. begins with two California venues, followed by Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. Other U.S. shows are in Chicago, Washington, D.C., East Rutherford, N.J, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Tampa. 

The European portion of the tour includes Frankfurt, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, London, and Glasgow. 

The tour wraps with the Rock in Rio Festival, September 10, 2022.

Every Little Bit Helps. Coldplay’s Tour Website identifies its sustainability goals, among them a multitude of practices that help. For instance, Ben notes, “Fans who commit to low-carbon travel, proven via an app, will get discounts at the venues. At least one tree will be planted for every ticket sold, and the band will monitor how fans travel to the shows based on info volunteered to the app, calculate the emissions, and pledge to ‘drawdown’ those emissions through ‘rewilding and conservation.’ ”

Ben continues, “The light-up wristbands worn by fans— a key part of Coldplay’s shows—will be made of compostable materials and many will be reused, with production of the wristbands reduced by 80%. The confetti used will be biodegradable, and the band will ‘strive to eliminate the sale of single-use plastic water bottles.’ ”

The band said: “The planet is facing a climate crisis. So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward. We won’t get everything right, but we’re committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn.”

As already noted, it’s a start, and good fellows all around. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2021 

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