Redefining Our Relationship To The Natural World The climate crisis can be overwhelming. It’s easy to feel paralyzed. In our first EcoEcho concert of the 25/26 season, we explore not only technically feasible climate solutions, but also the opportunity to redefine our relationship to the natural world and the underlying assumptions that have brought us to the brink of climate and ecological catastrophe.
The concert will feature live performances of two ClimateMusic compositions, Audyssey and Voice of the Animals, followed by an in-depth conversation including a climate scientist and audience engagement. There will also be a special live youth choir performance of The Be Cool Song byOakland Interfaith Youth Choir at the end of the event.
The I Wanna Be Cool music video will be shown every day at Earthx2025, a 5-day environmental conference in Dallas, TX | April 21-25, 2025. In 2023 the EarthX conference had 177,000 visitors hosted by nearly 400 exhibitors and sponsors. Pete Kronowitt @petethetroubadour and Brant Miller @brantnedmiller will be at the event to introduce the videl and will be performing the song along with their original material. We are so excited for this opportunity to share The Be Cool Song and would like to thank @earthxorg !
The music video will also air on EarthXtra, as well as their social platforms. EarthXtra is a global for-profit TV network dedicated to promoting the environment and sustainability which reaches an audience of over 60 million homes globally available on major cable providers and streaming services including Amazon FireTV, Philo, Plex, Vizio and their international TV distributor through DirectTV, Amazon and other networks.
We are very excited that one of our original compositions, “What if we?” by the amazing @copusmusic opened the International Ocean Film Festival on FRIDAY, APRIL 11, at the Cowell Theatre SF as a live performance. The piece was composed by Wendy Loomis with poetics by Royal Kent in collaboration with the ClimateMusic Project. Visit here for more on What if We…? and visit here for more on the International Film Festival.
Ten years ago this month we launched The ClimateMusic Project, and back then we could not have imagined how far and wide this journey would take us!
Watch our 10 Year Anniversary Video on ur YouTube channel below.
In the coming few months we’ll be heading to Florida, Texas, and Illinois for concerts and events, and we’ll also be back home in San Francisco for a couple of not-to-be-missed shows as well! Check out our events page frequently for updates and details!
ClimateMusic provides a familiar entry point for people from all walks of life to access scientifically accurate and emotionally felt information about the climate emergency–and to access resources for further learning and–most importantly–active engagement.
If you are in a financial position to do so, please support our work with a donation by clicking on the button in the top right.
With gratitude, and looking ahead towards a better future for all,
Composed by Theodore Wiprud with soloist Elissa Cassini and visuals by Camilla Tassi, Violin Concerto No. 2: on the brink, explores the vicious cycles that have brought us to the brink and the virtuous cycles that could yet pull us back.
You can watch the premiere of performed at The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, on the SDPB Specials. The performance was recorded live in the Mary W. Sommervold Hall at the Washington Pavilion on January 25, 2025.
The work begins at about 9 minutes in.
Learn more about the premiere from the composer here.
With a community of 4 continents, over 2500 kids, award winning artists, team of passionate climate advocates and our newly released video produced by Emmy nominated Imaginary Forces. Our campaign will hype your talents on all of our social media accounts, community newsletters, and related climate networks!
We know how much talent is out there and how hard it is to break through. We know how overwhelming the climate crisis can feel. But we also know that together there’s not one single thing that we can’t do. Follow us on social media for any updates!
LET’S BE COOL – TOGETHER!
The Rules:
Record a video version of our climate anthem “I Wanna Be Cool” in any style or genre on your phone
Upload and tag us on our Instagram and/or TikTok accounts by April 28
And wait to see if you are selected to win $250. That’s it!
Featuring Jefferson Starship’s Cathy Richardson, singer/songwriter/activist AY Young, six-time Grammy nominee John McCutcheon, former Bob Dylan violinist Scarlet Rivera, and ‘The Voice’’s Raine Stern, plus over 2,500 youth from four continents.
New York, NY (September 23, 2024) – Today, Music Declares Emergency US and The ClimateMusic Project launched the Be Cool! Campaign to inspire meaningful climate action and mobilize global youth to combat the world’s worsening ecological crisis.
The campaign kicked off with the release of the song and music video for “I Wanna Be Cool” at the NYC Green School Conference. The pop anthem, composed by award-winning songwriters Will Kimbrough and Brant Miller, was created in collaboration with distinguished climate scientists to call attention to the widespread impacts of climate change. In addition to Will Kimbrough, the song features contributions from eight preeminent artists — including Jefferson Starship lead singer Cathy Richardson, singer/songwriter/activist AY Young, six-time Grammy nominee John McCutcheon, former Bob Dylan violinist Scarlet Rivera, and former “The Voice” contestant Raine Stern — as well as more than 2,500 youth from four continents.
“We want ‘I Wanna Be Cool’ to be a modern-day ‘We Are the World’ for climate action,” said Pete Kronowitt, Music Declares Emergency US Board Member. “From the initial songwriting workshop in 2022, to the submission of dozens of backing tracks by global youth choirs, to the pro-bono work by Imaginary Forces to produce the music video, the creation of ‘I Wanna Be Cool,’ has been an incredibly collaborative effort and represents how collective our world’s approach to combatting climate change must be.”
The Be Cool! Campaign promotes three global areas of action — civic engagement, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and climate education — and encourages participants and viewers to engage with the following non-profit partner organizations to mitigate the growing climate crisis:
Headcount, to boost young voter registration and turnout to advance climate-conscious candidates and policies;
Rewiring America, to electrify and reduce the use of fossil fuels in homes, schools, and other community facilities;
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded and the 10 hottest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade. And based on data from the United Nations Development Programme’s 2024 Peoples’ Climate Vote survey, more than half of those polled under 18 are “more worried” about climate change than they were the year prior.
“It’s past time to mobilize in defense of our planet and advocate for sustainable environmental policies,” said Fran Schulberg, The ClimateMusic Project Executive Producer. “The music industry can do a great deal to promote environmental stewardship and inspire collective action, and Music Declares Emergency US and the ClimateMusic Project are proud to leverage the emotional power of music to foster this positive change.”
To learn more about the Be Cool! Campaign and take action to address the global climate emergency, visit https://climatemusic.org/BeCool/
To schedule interviews with those involved with the campaign — including Will Kimbrough, Brant Miller, Pete Kronowitt, and Fran Schulberg — please contact Emily Troisi at press.us@musicdeclares.net.
###
About Music Declares Emergency US:MDE US is a collective of music industry professionals, artists, and organizations collaborating with grassroots climate partners to reduce industry contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. MDE Chapters worldwide have collected over 8,000 signatures supporting a declaration calling for an immediate governmental response to protect all life on Earth. Signatories include Annie Lennox, Arcade Fire, Billie Eilish, Bon Iver, Chicano Batman, Major Lazer, Bootsy Collins, The 1975, Fantastic Negrito, Juanes, Massive Attack, Machel Montano, Pretenders, Tegan and Sara, Tom Morello, KT Tunstall, Brian Eno, Tycho, and Tom Odell. Starting in the UK in 2019, MDE currently has 16 active national chapters. The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time, and the power of music should spearhead the movement to create a safer, fairer, more sustainable world. The climate crisis is about science, not politics. There is #NOMUSICONADEADPLANET.
About The ClimateMusic Project: The ClimateMusic Project brings together renowned scientists and world-class musicians to create music and visual experiences to motivate action to address climate change. Since launching in 2015, it has reached many thousands of people worldwide, partnering on programs with global institutions such as The National Academy of Sciences, The World Economic Forum, and The World Bank. It has also garnered extensive international media coverage, including profiles by The New York Times and by the BBC.
Imagine you just recorded yourself singing a world changing song… Imagine thousands of singers from five continents doing the same… Imagine all those singers inspiring each other to take action…Now THAT would be even cooler than cool!
Greetings fabulous Be Cool community!Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Sven, I’m a musician, writer, climate activist, and a new member of the ClimateMusic team.Stephan, Fran, Pete, and I were sitting together recently when they shared some of the amazing clips that have been sent in. I was blown away by the energy, talent, and commitment you all have brought to this song and the idea behind it, from the talented young singers to all the teachers and choir directors to the entire BeCool! network and partners. No, really! Check out a small sampling of the musical contributions our team has assembled into a teaser video to give you a little taste of just how inspiring you all are!We couldn’t fit everyone in, but we’ll have more to share as we keep adding them to the mix.Could this possibly be any cooler?Now that you or your group has helped to lend your voice to an anthem for the age of climate change, how do we harness the inspiration of this moment into lasting climate action?There is, of course, the important task of recruiting more song participants by spreading the word to more young folks, teachers, choir directors, and music lovers in your lives. There’s still time and we’d love to have more voices filling the BeCool! soundwaves, so talk to your people about participating!But beyond the song, what are the next steps we can take to transform this creative energy into meaningful climate action? Things like civic engagement, cutting carbon emissions, and sharing facts about the climate emergency with our communities?Well, in my personal experience, the best way to start mobilizing collective action is to first connect with and learn about each other.It’s always easier and more fun to do things together than to do them alone. All of you already have the powerful shared experience of collaborating on the same song. Most of you have another shared experience of already being active in your local communities on a range of environmental causes.Clean Yamuna River campaign by students of Little Flowers Secondary School in Delhi, India.We’re all in this together!So… let’s start to connect by sharing something about your climate advocacy with everyone.Maybe it’s a photo of your group doing a local community action like the students from Little Flowers Secondary School in Delhi in the photo above.Perhaps it’s a story or a poem about something you or your students care about, a video introduction, or an audio interview.Perhaps it’s a message you’d like to share with your fellow BeCool participants about what it meant to record your or your choir’s voice or what kind of climate action you or your group dream of taking.Or something uniquely yours we can’t even think of!You can send your materials to BeCoolSong@gmail.com or just reply to this email. We’ll collect all your contributions, create a community page, post to social media, and add to the BeCool! Campaign page.We’d also love to hear from you if you’d be interested in further engagement with your BeCool peers in the future, through joining an online community space, gatherings via video conference, or any other possible ways to stay connected.Teachers and choir directors: Feel free to share this invitation with parents and family of your talented singers as well as other folks in your community who might like to be part of this. Anyone can sign up here to be on this list and stay updated on BeCool! networking.Looking forward to connecting cool climate actions!PS: If you are in the US, please join HeadCount and the Be Cool! Campaign for a one-hour voter registration webinar!Be Cool Campaign – Digital Voter Registration TrainingTuesday, Apr 9th 2024, 7:30 pm EDTIn this conversation, you will learn the in’s and out’s about important tips, tricks and resources necessary to hold a voter registration drive in your community.Register now(click the “volunteer” button on the event page)
As the Be Cool! Campaign is gaining global momentum, we’re excited to showcase some of the inspiring work the participants are engaged in.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Nigerian musicians and climate activists Esuku Idowu Aghogho (aka Climateman) and Nnaji Precious. Thanks to their organizing and directing, over 1000 kids in Nigeria have now been recorded singing on the Be Cool song!
Idowu and Precious, in partnership with the Green Waka Project, are about to launch an exciting new initiative in Nigeria: Be Cool Kids Club! Students joining Be Cool Kids Club will learn how to use music and other forms of art to offer answers to the global climate crisis.
ClimateMusic communications coordinator Charlotte Saunders recently spoke with Idowu and Precious about their vision. Check out Part 1 & Part 2 of the interview.
“I co-created Be Cool Kids Club because I want Nigerian kids to be the ones to spread the message of climate change.”
– Esuku Idowu Aghogho
Music can bring together young voices to inspire environmental stewardship and increase awareness of the climatic crisis.
Idowu and Precious’ work with these kids through a global campaign they call “Earth Advocate and Green Voice” perfectly aligns with the Be Cool campaign’s push for accelerated climate action. For example, the duo are currently training some of the kids for a special performance of I Wanna Be Cool that they hope will serve as a dramatic presentation at international climate events.
Be Cool Kids Club advocacy tackles the issues that matter!
Idowu and Precious are planning to work with solar energy organizations to encourage and create ways to install micro solar grids in schools, particularly in rural communities where electricity supply is highly limited. To accomplish this, they are urging all solar energy providers in the country to support Be Cool Kids Club by offering energy-efficient gadgets that will make it possible for kids to have a top-notch education.
“We hope that Be Cool Kids Club will become a global brand that celebrates young people who use music to encourage climate action.”
– Esuku Idowu Aghogho & Nnaji Precious
Want to share how cool YOU are?
We’d love to hear about your climate actions!
Do you have something to share about any activities you, your family, friends or community are doing to help address climate change?
You can send your ideas and/or materials to BeCoolSong@gmail.comor just reply to this email.
To get inspired and see what everyone is up to, follow us on Facebookor Instagram.
If you know people who might like to hear about the BeCool! community’s efforts, they can sign up for this list here.
We are thrilled to report that there are now over 1200 kids (and a few big kids) from five continents and ten countries who have had their voices recorded singing “I wanna be cool”!
How cool is that? Thanks to all of your efforts to organize and uplift these talented young artists, the Be Cool! Campaign is inspiring climate action through music before the finished project is even launched.
After spotlighting the Be Cool! Kids Club in Nigeria in our last newsletter, we’d like to introduce you today to another amazing community of Be Cool! superstars: the students and teachers ofHigh School West and Accompsett Elementary School in Smithtown, New York.
Playing on instruments they made from trash while singing “I wanna be cool, how about you?“, these remarkable young activists have not only been singing but living the line “together there’s not one single thing we couldn’t do.”
Check out this video and read on below for more details on how this inspiring collaboration came together:
“The very idea that one voice is tiny (like one action is tiny) but many voices (many actions) combine to make a powerful force to be reckoned with, that’s just a perfect metaphor for exactly what we want students to take away from everything we teach.“
– Ly Williams, High School West Science Teacher
How do you come up with the idea to make instruments from the waste collected during beach cleanups?
Enter Ly (Kimberly) Williams, science teacher at High School West and creative amoeba when it comes to engaging her students in taking care of the Earth. As an Oceanography teacher, Ly is very passionate about keeping garbage out of the waste stream.
“We find A LOT of stuff during our beach cleanups that is perfectly reusable, and I am always trying to keep that stuff out of the waste stream, if possible,” she says, adding, “I HATE waste!”
Ly remembers how she and her Oceanography students were super-inspired by a Take Action Global presentation of single and small groups of students across the globe singing in unison with an opera singer. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how their voices were being raised up together, and how I could fit that into my own curriculum.”
Brainstorming with a few friends as well as her colleague Tim Needles who wrote the book STEAM Power, she finally landed on the idea to make instruments out of trash, and to do it with their Elementary School friends.
“Making the instruments to accompany our song was fun: I enjoyed putting trash we collected from the beach to good use; working with and inspiring the little kids was really nice.“
– Abby, High School West 11th Grade Student
How do you get high school students to join forces with third graders to build recycled instruments and sing together?
With the help of some grant money Ly and her colleague Nicole Carone had secured for an Upcsulpt workshop, their students were able to learn how to turn ordinary materials into musical instruments. Artists Susan Buroker and Bri Sander showed them how to start thinking along the lines of upcycling their beach / “wishcycling” trash.
In another tribute to the collaborative spirit of the project, their colleagues in the school library’s Maker Space let them use their space when the high school students turn-keyed what they learned to their little guests. They also recorded the whole adventure, which you can see in the photos and video of the project. And of course, you will hear the High School West and Accompsett Elementary School students singing together on the refrain of “I Wanna Be Cool!“
“It was fun building and making the instruments with the elementary school children and when we got together to perform, I was surprised that we sounded better than I thought we would after such a short amount of time to practice.“
– Cooper, High School West 12th Grade Student
How can other schools and communities use music to connect kids to environmental problems and solutions?
According to Ly, environmental problems can sometimes seem too big to tackle and result in the feeling of helplessness instead of empowerment. So the idea of how every tiny voice/action is a powerful force in the company of many other tiny voices/actions is a perfect metaphor for students to take away as an important lesson.
A key ingredient to a successful collaboration is communication. Ly says she is ALWAYS letting friends & family know what they’re up to in her classes, so it makes brainstorming easier. She typically calls, texts, or emails something like, “I have this idea. What can you add? Who do you know? Is this nuts? Is this even do-able?” …and it usually becomes a really fun plan, “like this one did!”
“Things like this helped get me through the COVID lockdown with my sense of humanity!” Ly says only half-jokingly. “The second one actually makes me laugh and cry, I love it so much! And my students do too!”
Want to share how cool YOU are?
We’d love to hear about your climate actions!
Do you have something to share about any activities you, your family, friends or community are doing to help address climate change?
You can send your ideas and/or materials to BeCoolSong@gmail.comor just reply to this email.
To get inspired and see what everyone is up to, follow us on Facebookor Instagram.
If you know people who might like to hear about the BeCool! community’s efforts, they can sign up for this list here.
Clean Yamuna River campaign by students of Little Flowers Secondary School in Delhi, India.We’re all in this together!So… let’s start to connect by sharing something about your climate advocacy with everyone.Maybe it’s a photo of your group doing a local community action like the students from Little Flowers Secondary School in Delhi in the photo above.Perhaps it’s a story or a poem about something you or your students care about, a video introduction, or an audio interview.Perhaps it’s a message you’d like to share with your fellow BeCool participants about what it meant to record your or your choir’s voice or what kind of climate action you or your group dream of taking.Or something uniquely yours we can’t even think of!You can send your materials to 
PS: If you are in the US, please join HeadCount and the Be Cool! Campaign for a one-hour 
