Music as a Vehicle for Climate Change Communication: The ClimateMusic Project

Abstract

Climate change is often communicated in a scientific manner that fails to capture lay audiences emotionally, resulting in a lack of motivation to take action. Studies show that narrative is an effective strategy for engaging the emotional response to scientific information that is necessary to encourage community participation and action. Music can reliably express, modulate, and induce emotional states, and, as a temporal art form, may be a particularly effective vehicle for conveying narrative. This chapter reviews the evidence for music-based approaches to emotional engagement, information delivery, psychological well-being and social cohesion, and their application in climate change communication. The authors discuss the methodologies used in The ClimateMusic Projects compositions and performances, as well as their outreach projects and partnerships. Lastly, the authors examine future opportunities in climate communication, including potential funding sources.

ClimateMusic: Purpose and Goals

The ClimateMusic Project, a cross-disciplinary collaborative spanning the arts, science, technology, and public policy, aims to present music informed by climate science as a stimulus and space for listeners to process feelings of anxiety about the future, grief, and guilt about the past and the present and to transform negative feelings into positive actions. Within its compositions—including Climate, Icarus in Flight, What if We?, Audyssey, and Voice of the Animals (Fig. 1)—The ClimateMusic Project has highlighted two different scenarios: one where humanity continues “business as usual”—with insufficient further action to tackle climate change—and an alternative scenario where the world takes quick and significant action to reduce emissions in the first half of this century. The second path centers on the solutions aspect of climate change and can make people feel more confident in their ability to bring about change. In What if We? composed by Wendy Loomis, the “business as usual” scenario is sonified as “strident, loud and chunky” with a C minor chord structure; in contrast, the sonified mitigation scenario is played in major key rounds of B♭, A, and B, in a gospel-like sound. Loomis says it is “lightly syncopated [to represent] the possibility of change [...] a touch of hope is felt” (The ClimateMusic Project, 2019). The sonic difference between the two scenarios is significant and allows people to hear and feel the impact of our choices on our continued existence.

Fig. 1

A visual slide from Wendy Loomis’ piece, What if We?

The ClimateMusic Project defines ClimateMusic as music that is directly informed by widely accepted, peer-reviewed climate science (ClimateMusic, 2022). It is fully rooted in the domain of the arts, but informed by reference data sets pertaining to climate science and reflected in the music composition. It has a didactic aim of communicating aspects of the science that underlie the urgency of the climate crisis. It has an artistic aim of captivating its intended audience with expressive music in different genres and therefore seeks out a diverse array of musicians in order to reach people with the types of music that resonate with them the most. This balance between didactic and artistic components is a defining characteristic of ClimateMusic and distinguishes it from purely data-driven works that sonically display climate information. The idea is to create compelling, relatable music that sparks new insight and conversations around the potential for individual and collective action to make a difference on climate change in the short amount of time that there is to tackle the issue.

The purpose of ClimateMusic is to deliver information about climate change in an emotionally engaging way. Its goal is to connect communities through music, providing inspiration, a space for reflection, and a supportive environment with opportunities for learning and action. The ClimateMusic Project leverages the universal appreciation of music to communicate scientific information, inviting audiences to engage with the crisis both analytically and emotionally. ClimateMusic utilizes the expectation-based underpinnings of musical expression to promote future-oriented thinking, encouraging listeners not only to imagine but to feel future scenarios, and inviting them to respond accordingly. In this way, listeners become emotionally invested in the continuation of the music and, correspondingly, in the future climate scenarios that shape the music. In delivering live performances of original music both in person and online through streaming platforms, The ClimateMusic Project unites people across the globe in experiencing new music informed by climate science, inviting audiences to learn and take action together through collaboration with science advisors and the provision of action pathways.

Information about the dangers of global warming is widely available and yet action toward mitigation remains insufficient. Results from public surveys show that, although the majority of Americans understand that global warming is happening and that it is mostly human-caused (Leiserowitz et al., 2021), far fewer are taking direct action to mitigate that risk (Carman et al., 2021). Moreover, public support for the immediate and transformational actions required is limited: According to a public survey by the Pew Research Center (Tyson et al., 2021), the majority of Americans oppose phasing out the production of new gasoline cars and trucks by 2035, and only a third of Americans support phasing out fossil fuels entirely.

Current methods of climate change communication are failing to motivate action appropriate to the scale and immediacy of the crisis. There is a growing awareness in the scientific community that quantitative information and objective analysis often fail to engage public interest and that new approaches are required to communicate in a way that is effective and meaningful (Downs, 2014; Marshall, 2014; Slovic & Slovic, 2015). This chapter reviews the evidence for music-based approaches to better communicate the risks posed by climate change in order to mobilize action and their application in The ClimateMusic Project. Since the efficacy of music-based approaches to climate change communication has not yet been studied, this chapter reviews the experimental evidence from more well-researched areas, such as music interventions for health, well-being, and learning. The authors discuss the methodologies used for communicating in ClimateMusic compositions and performances, and their outreach projects, partnerships, and impact. Finally, the authors examine future opportunities for music in climate communication, including potential funding sources and interdisciplinary projects.

Why Music?

Artistic mediums such as music have become an increasingly popular method of communicating science. Humans take in an extraordinary amount of information each day. Our neural mechanisms that allow us to process our environment evolved in the life-and-death conditions of our ancestors. For our brains, “information is meaningful [to us] insofar as it evokes emotion” (Martinez-Conde & Macknik, 2017, p. 8128). Humans have an intrinsic response to music, and its emotional impact can connect with audiences who do not regularly engage with scientific reports and information. Music is also a well-tested method of uniting disparate groups of people for a single cause (Reese, 2015). ClimateMusic gives complicated climate science an emotional boost to make the climate crisis—and the solutions needed to mitigate it—a more intimate, relatable, and pressing issue.

Historically, social movements have integrated their new values and ideals into popular culture in order to gain traction and attract new supporters. For example, music was a key tool in the push toward racial integration during the US Civil Rights Movement. Andrew Young, the former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, explained: “[Political activists] knew how little chance they stood of gaining people’s trust if they presented themselves as straight out organizers: people were too afraid to respond to that approach. So they organized gospel groups and hit the road.” (Reese, 2015). Soul, gospel, and R&B groups such as The Staple Singers wrote songs that appealed to a mainstream audience while working in strategic messages of solidarity and racial justice for those in the know.

In the Vietnam War era of the 1960s and 1970s, explicit protest music hit the mainstream with anti-war songs like “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” by Navy veteran Country Joe MacDonald, and “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” by Phil Ochs. While these songs raised awareness across everyday American households, they also served as a lifeline to soldiers on the battlefield. Listening via cassettes, underground radio stations, or around the campfire, protest music helped them to deal with the violence they had seen, and many veterans say it was an imperative part of their healing process back home. As author Michael Kramer notes, this music was “a sonic framework for thinking, feeling, discussing and dancing out the vexing problems of democratic togetherness and individual liberation” (Bradley, 2018).

Music and Emotional Engagement

Emotional engagement is essential to communicating meaningful information that can be used in judgment and decision-making (Slovic & Slovic, 2015, p. 28). Climate change is often communicated in a scientific manner that invites analytical processing, but fails to engage audiences emotionally. In his book Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, George Marshall (2014, p. 50) has argued that climate change communication fails to engage affective processing and as a result fails to motivate action:

The divide between the rational brain and the emotional brain is embedded in the historical boundaries between science, the arts, and religion, and it is a particular risk for an issue that originates strongly in just one cultural domain—as climate change does with science—that finds it hard to engage our entire cognition. The view held by every specialist I spoke to is that we have still not found a way to effectively engage our emotional brains in climate change (Marshall, 2014, p. 50).

Music is often used to induce moods and to modulate and regulate emotional states. Music can provoke powerful emotions as well as physiological reactions in listeners including crying, thrills or chills, goosebumps (feeling as though one’s hair is standing on end), and changes in hormone levels, heart rate, and other physiological parameters. Music is common to all known cultures and societies worldwide and has been since prehistory; thus, it is regularly used to support customs and behavioral contexts such as festivities and religious activities. There is evidence to suggest that psychological responses to music may be universal (Mehr et al., 2019) and that these responses to music are not significantly affected by age or formal training (Bigand et al., 2005; Hevner, 1935; Terwogt & Van Grinsven, 1991). As an accessible and enjoyable medium that can transcend cultural barriers and be understood by audiences of all ages, levels of training, and exposure, music may have the potential to enhance climate change communication by boosting audience engagement and emotional response.

Music and Narrative

Climate change communication typically delineates future scenarios in order to educate the public about the impact of current behaviors. George Marshall (2014, 63) has warned that, in the case of climate change, “The lack of a definite beginning, end, or deadline requires that we create our own timeline.” Due to the complex and impending nature of the threat, climate change communication may benefit from a narrative approach to support information delivery and promote emotional engagement and future-oriented thinking. Narrative can help humans process complex information by personalizing the data and engaging the emotional response necessary to motivate action (Slovic & Slovic, 2015). Sociologist Julie Downs has recommended the use of narrative methods to communicate scientific information:

Narrative can captivate the audience, driving anticipation for plot resolution, thus becoming a self-motivating vehicle for information delivery. This quality gives narrative considerable power to explain complex phenomena and causal processes, and to create and reinforce memory traces for better recall and application over time (Downs, 2014).

Narrative approaches are gaining traction in public health communication to motivate and support health-promoting behavioral change (Downs et al., 2004; Hinyard & Kreuter, 2007; McCall et al., 2019; Rieger et al., 2018). Use of story-telling and narrative approaches compared to statistical evidence alone has shown positive outcomes in studies on safer sex communication, patient education about medication, cancer screening and prevention, and vaccination rates (Donné et al., 2017; Downs et al., 2004; Hopfer, 2012; Larkey et al., 2009; Mazor et al., 2007) and has been shown to be especially effective in disadvantaged and minority populations (Larkey et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2016).

As a temporal art form, music relies on listener anticipation and the disruption and realization of expectations as a means for expression and as such is uniquely well-positioned to convey narrative (Huron, 2006). Music psychologist David Huron (2006, p. 361–366) theorizes that emotional responses to music act as “motivational amplifiers,” inviting listeners to form expectations about the continuation of the music with the result that they feel emotionally invested in its continuation. Musical devices shape and manipulate listener expectations for expressive effects, such as harmonic tension and resolution, syncopation, cadential formulae, and large-scale tonal and motivic structures. Anticipation of musical pleasure in response to these expectations can stimulate dopaminergic activity, eliciting a pleasurable response and motivating the listener to want and pursue more of that musical experience (Ferreri et al., 2015).

Music and Learning

In the past, the concept of general intelligence (IQ) reigned popular as a theory that humans have a broad and measurable mental capacity that predicts cognitive ability. However, recent theories such as Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences argue that humans actually possess multiple (eight or more) relatively autonomous entry points into a subject. Among these eight intelligences is music, providing a strong case for integrating sound into the learning process.

Music has been used as a tool to draw attention to significant data points. Data sonification helps scientists find abnormalities that may be harder to pick up on in spreadsheets of data. In 2018, Stanford’s Experimental Physics Lab turned solar data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory into sound, allowing scientists to study different aspects of the sun like solar flares or coronal mass ejections that are not visible to the eye (Atkinson & Sosby, 2018). Scientists from MIT have sonified the COVID-19 spike protein by assigning each amino acid to a particular note on a musical scale and accounting for other characteristics with volume and duration changes. This sonic format, the researchers explained, helped to identify places in the protein to which antibodies or drugs could potentially bind (Venugopal, 2020). These sonification projects and others have been featured on music streaming platforms, podcasts, and popular science websites, demonstrating the potential of sound as an engaging and accessible science communication tool (Hermann et al., 2011).

There is evidence to suggest that music may enhance memory and facilitate information retention. Music may activate the dopaminergic mesolimbic system, with potentially beneficial effects on memory, attention, executive functioning, mood, and motivation (Sihvonen et al., 2017). Music is frequently employed as a memory-enhancing tool in early educational settings through nursery rhymes and songs. In a 2015 study, students from kindergarten to high school age were exposed to both educational music videos and non-music materials. The participants reported a higher enjoyment of the music-based information, suggesting that memories may be stronger if encoded in an emotional state (Crowther et al., 2016).

Many studies have also shown that music-based tools may enhance language learning. A study of 109 university students enrolled in a language course found that the use of Spanish-language music video facilitated engagement and narrative immersion, resulting in statistically higher levels of learning, thematic comprehension, and enjoyment (Benitez-Galbraith & Galbraith, 2019). A study with 22 participants found that adding musical information significantly improved language acquisition. The authors concluded that the learning process was supported by the motivational and structuring properties of music, and recommended simultaneous engagement of emotional and analytical processes to achieve optimum learning (Schön et al., 2008). A study on 22 young adults showed that background music improved episodic memory performance (Ferreri et al., 2015). Another study found that participant-selected music improved information retention, with a positive correlation between emotional arousal and enhanced recall, indicating the importance of audience preference to effective information delivery (Carr & Rickard, 2016). Although there is no consensus on whether music directly improves information retention, the positive emotional connection could lead to more thoughtful reflection and boost engagement with the subject.

Music and Well-Being

A key challenge in climate communication is the overwhelmingly negative nature of the subject. As psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe has suggested, “too much unacknowledged anxiety is one of the most important obstacles to our effective engagement with climate change” (2013, p. 9). Therapists have reported seeing more and more people with ecological grief, described as the anguish felt from experienced or anticipated ecological losses from climate change (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018; Whitcomb, 2021). Music can be particularly effective in addressing feelings of ecological grief and anxiety because of its power to induce, modulate, and regulate emotional states. Scientists hypothesize that listening to sad music may evoke prosocial emotions that encourage sharing feelings with others (Eeerola et al., 2018). Indeed, music can even bring people to tears, but instead of being stressful, researchers believe this can induce physiological calming or catharsis (Mori & Iwanaga, 2017).

Art must provide a scaffolding for processing eco-grief and imagining a way forward outside of climate catastrophe. Although the effects of music interventions on climate-related psychiatric conditions have not yet been studied, evidence suggests that music may improve mental health outcomes for patients suffering from grief, depression, and anxiety. Music plays an important part in mourning and death rituals in many cultures and has been associated with positive memories of the dead (Viper et al., 2020). Evidence suggests that participants receiving music therapy show a greater decrease in grief symptoms compared to those receiving standard care (Iliya, 2015; Yun & Gallant, 2010). Meta-analysis of studies into the effects of music therapy on depression has shown that music therapy in conjunction with treatment as usual is more effective than treatment as usual alone for both clinician-rated depressive symptoms and patient-reported depressive symptoms and may decrease anxiety levels and improve functioning levels (Aalbers et al., 2017). There is also evidence to suggest that music-listening without the support of a music therapy professional may improve mental health outcomes. Meta-analysis has also shown moderate-quality evidence that listening to music may improve sleep quality in adults with insomnia and alleviate anxiety and depression in a variety of clinical contexts (Bradt & Dileo, 2014; Bradt et al., 2013; Jespersen et al., 2015).

Music as a Community Skill

As an experience that brings together large numbers of people with varied values and life experiences, live music performances provide ideal conditions for establishing social norms and supporting behavioral change. In this way, music functions not only as a performance art, but as a community skill that can bring people together to encourage socially positive behavior and improve social cohesion.

Evidence suggests that emotional engagement resulting from a musical stimulus can promote altruistic behavior. An experiment found that students were more likely to give aid after listening to music that they had selected to evoke a strong emotional response (Fukui & Toyoshima, 2014). Another experiment on students found that listening to soothing music promoted helpful behavior in comparison to stimulating music, aversive music, or no music at all (Fried & Berkowitz, 1979). A study on workplace behavior similarly found that listening to happy music significantly improved cooperative behavior among employees compared to unhappy music and no music at all (Kniffin et al., 2017).

Rhythmic synchronization through shared active or passive musical activity may be important in facilitating self-other merging and promoting social bonding. Functional MRI studies suggest that music-listening may activate a mirror-function mechanism, whereby the listener mimics internally not only the expression perceived in the music, but also the perceived action behind the musical stimulus, engaging a similar or equivalent motor network to that of the performer (Molnar-Szakacs & Overy, 2006). It is thought that this shared representation of sung or played musical experiences by performer and perceiver may facilitate emotional response, communication, empathy, and expression of intentions, without any active participation required on the part of the listener.

Music and Climate Action

There is a growing canon of art that reflects our existing ecological crisis; between the genre of dystopian climate fiction (or “cli-fi”) and musical expressions from rock to hip-hop to classical, many artists are reacting to the consequences of climate change. But what is equally important yet vastly underused is the ability of pop culture to shift our society’s values toward stewardship, regeneration, and that which author Favianna Rodriguez (2020, p. 121–127) has described as “building a cultural strategy.”

Several artists have successfully used music to convey the urgency of climate change through emotional lyrics and instrumentation. The Hip-Hop Caucus, a nonprofit that organizes young people toward action using pop culture, has created a new soundtrack to the climate movement with their “Think 100%” campaign: “Eschewing the gentle folk sounds of typical environmental anthems, we bring Hip Hop, R&B, and pop to bend the climate genre while feeding our souls with the power of music” (Think 100% Music, n.d.). Another young hip-hop artist, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, is well known for his participation in the landmark Juliana v. United States of America case, which argued that the government had knowingly violated the plaintiffs’ rights to life through the promotion of fossil fuel combustion (Our Children’s Trust, 2021). His music, released with his sibling Tonantzin Martinez under the name Earth Guardians, carries strong themes of earth stewardship and indigenous rights to the land (Eyen, 2017).

There are several examples of analogous projects of science-driven climate music. In 2013, University of Minnesota student Daniel Crawford and geography professor Dr. Scott St. George composed a cello piece using 133 years of global temperature data. This piece, called Song for Our Warming Planet, highlights rising temperature through a rapidly increasing pitch. “We’re trying to add another tool to that toolbox, to communicate these ideas to people who might get more out of this than maps, graphs or numbers,” says Crawford (Yeo, 2013). The duo released another piece in 2015 called Planetary Bands, Warming Planet; building on the first composition, this newer piece uses different stringed instruments to represent temperature records in different planetary zones.

At Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Director and Composer Chris Chafe has created several environment-based data sonifications, including his project Smog Music, which uses air quality levels from global urban centers to create an electronic soundscape (Hart, 2010). He has also collaborated with graduate students at UC Berkeley to create an untitled piece that sonifies 1200 years of global temperatures and CO₂ concentration levels. Dr. Lauren Oakes and Dr. Nik Sawe wrote a conceptually similar composition using research on the decline of Alaskan cedar trees. Their 3-min piece, which sonified data on over 2000 conifer trees, opened avenues to a larger audience beyond academic journal readers (Kahn, 2016).

Other science institutions are also starting to partner with arts-based groups. In 2018, an exhibit called “Sounding Climate” debuted at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado (Gardiner, 2019). And in 2020, the World Bank partnered with seismologist and musician Dr. Lucy Jones on her initiative with Haitian artist Tafa Mi Soleil called “Creating Change Through Music: Understanding Risk” (Climate Music Initiative, 2020). Tafa Mi Soleil composed a song about hurricane preparedness, with lyrics such as “Prevention is better than cure...protect your families, protect your homes….my friends, watch out, streams may flood.” She explains, “We Haitians have a very close relationship with music. Even if we are going through tough times, we’ll be singing...I think the message we want to share spreads so much faster through music (Climate Music Initiative, 2020).”

Another noteworthy recent project is the collaboration of composer Jamie Perrera and filmmakers Leah Borromea and Katharine Round on Climate Symphony. The piece originated in a journalism competition to tell climate stories through a new medium, and they hope to alter the composition using localized data for live audiences around the world. The symphony is meant to be performed in a dome-shaped venue, where short film clips of the natural world are projected to play alongside the music. Borromeo says they hope the piece can also serve as a fact-checking method against climate change disinformation: “We want to create a formal record [that’s] revealing. You’re looking at it, and listening to it, and you find that [the music sounds] distorted. It’s all distorted” (Simon-Lewis, 2017 para. 9). It is harder to deceive someone about the gravity of climate change when, through the medium of music, listeners can hear and feel it clearly for themselves.

As climate change becomes an increasingly pressing issue, people may turn to art for solace, calls to action, and even solutions. In the past, some musicians have turned to broad, anthemic “save the planet” tunes. While there is a time and place for this approach, it can be difficult for songs with vague messages to spur the type of behavioral change that is needed. In an episode of the podcast Switched on Pop, Nathan Sloane and Charlie Harding (2021) explain why a more detailed song about climate change that takes a stronger stance may resonate with listeners even more effectively:

Successful music about the environment uses contemporary culture in the lyrics and instrumentation to grab people’s attention and make them want to invest in a collective re-imagining of the future. Artists can offer a reflection on who we are and what we desire. These songs are working on more of a natural, intimate level rather than a sermon (Sloane & Harding, 2021).

Both science-inspired and culture-inspired approaches can bring in new audiences in the fight against climate change. With these examples in mind, it is clear that the opportunities for science and art collaborations on climate content will continue to grow as more businesses, art organizations, and governments make addressing climate change a core issue.

ClimateMusic Methodologies: Creating ClimateMusic

ClimateMusic is created through an active collaboration between a composer and a small team of scientists and experts in public policy and engagement. The science advisory team includes renowned scientists who are leaders in their fields, affiliated with top academic institutions and key participants in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate assessments. These distinguished scientists donate their time to the project because they see the value in using new and creative tools to communicate the science in a way that inspires; as science advisor Dr. Andrew Jones (2021) has explained, “we need more than just...scientific information in order to understand and act appropriately in response to something as complex as climate change [and to do so requires] our whole human selves, our imaginations, our emotions, our values, and our communities and culture.” The frequent and active interaction between science advisory team members and individual composers during each project is the key ingredient in creating music that achieves both didactic and artistic aims.

Roles

The role of the ClimateMusic team, including the science team and public engagement experts, in relation to the composer is to (Fig. 2):

• Co-define the story’s (defined below) thematic focus and narrative

• Educate the composer on the science underlying the story

• Provide reference resources about the science

• Offer feedback throughout the process, and help calibrate the scientific references as integrated into each piece as necessary

Fig. 2

An idealized illustration of the ClimateMusic process for creating new music. (Image source: The ClimateMusic Project)

The role of the composer is to

• Co-define the story’s thematic focus and narrative

• Become familiar with the basic scientific insights reflected in the story (with the support of the science team)

• Refer to the reference materials and integrate the scientists’ feedback at specific milestones during the compositional process

The expectation is that, within the scientific framework defined by each story, the composer has a maximum of creative freedom. This emphasis on the artist’s unique expressive voice is what makes ClimateMusic familiar and approachable to audiences.

Composer and Scientist Selection

Because ClimateMusic requires music to be composed within a set framework, it looks for artists who regard working under some constraints as an interesting creative challenge. Composer Erik Ian Walker has described his motivation to work with The ClimateMusic Project as a “desire [...] to bring the data to life as sound [...] bringing home the reality of the climate crisis in a way that nothing else could do” (Email message to Stephan Crawford on August 4, 2021). The composers do not require scientific aptitude, but an openness to learning about climate science is necessary. Experience with cross-disciplinary collaborations, e.g., in theater, dance, and film, is also important, since the process involves sharing ideas and working productively with people who may not have experience with music composition. Perhaps surprisingly, a strong interest in or active engagement on climate change—while certainly welcome—is not a prerequisite for the composers. An openness to working with the science team and absorbing its insights is sufficient and in practice has tended to leave each composer with a heightened awareness of the issue and the foundation to become an effective advocate. Walker has described his work on the project as “easily the most intriguing collaboration I’ve ever been involved with.”

I was already very aware of the dire situation we find ourselves in, but in working on the piece, I gained a deep respect for those in the sciences that work with this every day, year in and out. It is difficult to cope with it as a daily reality—as an artist, it was a challenge to not get overwhelmed at times. [...] I have often worked with the concept that music is but a veneer in front of what is chaos and noise, a chaos that is really just under the surface. Composing Climate was the ultimate opportunity to realize this lifelong thread that I have explored. It was a culminating piece to the central theme of my composing life (Email message to Stephan Crawford on August 4, 2021).

Scientists working on ClimateMusic collaborations do not need to have experience with music, though The ClimateMusic Project has recruited several who are themselves accomplished musicians. The chief qualifiers are relevant subject matter expertise and a willingness to participate in a unique creative cross-disciplinary collaboration. Ideally, they also possess the ability to communicate complex scientific concepts effectively to a lay audience. The scientists on The ClimateMusic Project team have tended to be self-selecting, i.e., they recognize that there is a critical need to communicate climate science in fresh ways that resonate with a broad public, and they are willing to devote time and energy toward this goal.

Stories

Stories in this context are not fictional accounts of climate change, but rather written descriptions of aspects of climate science that serve as starting points for new music. The story is the thread that weaves together the key scientific narrative being communicated and is buttressed by peer-reviewed data. Stories are varied in subject matter, which has so far included the physical science underlying climate change, human drivers of the crisis, how climate change affects sea level rise, energy solutions, and natural landscapes and biodiversity. Additional stories under development are energy access and ecosystem cycles. As varied as these stories are, they share three common denominators:

• They underline the urgency of the climate crisis.

• They address aspects of the climate crisis that are critical for the public to understand.

• They demonstrate the opportunities and potential for taking action to limit the severity of the climate crisis.

Each story includes a written description and accompanying data sets from relevant peer-reviewed studies, which are included in the story “package” as reference material. The composer can access the data in raw and graphical formats and also as sonifications. Both historical data sets and future scenarios created through powerful climate models are included.

Stories are created through a consultative process that includes subject matter experts in the sciences, public policy, and (usually) the collaborating artist. Once a story is produced, it can be used by any number of collaborating artists.

Story Preparation

The first step once a story has been defined is to provide the composer with a written summary and supporting materials. The science team completes this task, which includes identifying and accessing relevant peer-reviewed studies and data sets. In some cases, the data sets must be converted into a human-readable format and then further formatted to allow for an intuitive understanding for non-scientists, e.g., via visual and audio data displays. The ClimateMusic Project draws only from peer-reviewed sources and to date has relied mainly on studies associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This includes studies that explore possible future outcomes that are based on different mitigation and adaptation scenarios.

The Science Briefing

Before the composer begins work, they receive a briefing on the science underlying the story. This is an opportunity for the composer to ask questions and for the science team to emphasize key insights and take-aways. The level of detail presented depends on the composer’s level of interest and familiarity with scientific information. At a minimum, the briefing is intended to provide enough insight for the composer to be able to begin to formulate broad ideas for the composition.

Feedback and Calibration

Multiple opportunities for the ClimateMusic team to provide feedback to the composer during the process of composing are at the core of each collaboration. These are typically scheduled as either in-person or virtual meetings, augmented by follow-on email communication. They provide an opportunity for the composer to ask questions and for the science team to help the composer interpret the scientific references at an appropriate scale in the music.

Documentation (Apollo)

The creation of each ClimateMusic composition is documented according to a process template referred to internally as “Apollo,” which serves three purposes. First, by templating certain functions, e.g., data identification, access, and preparation, Apollo introduces a standardized work process that is designed to reduce duplication of effort as each new composition is launched. Second, it documents precisely how the scientific story is reflected within the music, which is critical given The ClimateMusic Project’s science-oriented and public-facing mission. Finally, it provides a detailed resource that allows team members who may not have worked on a given composition to speak about it authoritatively in public.

Compositional Approach

A composer will take one of two compositional approaches

• Constructive Approach: In this case, the composer works with the science team from the start to discover ideas from the story and its supporting data that then develop into the composition.

• Deconstructive Approach: With this approach, the initial process of composition is completed independently of the science team. The composer then works with the science team to explore the musical consequences of “colliding” all or part of the score with the data.

In addition to being quite different creative pathways, the approach chosen also has workflow implications, since, in the case of a deconstructive approach, active collaboration would commence only after the composer has sketched out initial ideas for the music. These categories are not rigid, and in practice, a composition may include elements (e.g., movements) stemming from both approaches.

Techniques for Reflecting the Science Within the Music

To date, The ClimateMusic Project has applied three techniques for reflecting the science and data within the music: parameter mapping, audification, and information integrated into spoken word elements or lyrics. Others have written extensively on parameter mapping and audification (e.g., Hermann et al., 2011), and consequently, this section is limited to describing each technique as The ClimateMusic Project team has applied it, and specific limitations it has identified in each technique.

Parameter Mapping

This technique relates data parameters to specific music characteristics or elements. These music analogs, e.g., characteristics such as tempo or pitch, track changes in the data over time as measured against a reference value. For example, in his string quartet Icarus in Flight, composer Richard Festinger relates global population data to the density of musical events. As the population numbers increase over time, the music begins to sound proportionally “crowded” and also gives the impression of increasing speed.

Parameter mapping is a versatile technique that leaves a composer considerable scope for the creative definition and application of mappings comparable to the roles assigned in a theatrical play. Obvious mappings might link data to musical characteristics such as pitch, tempo, or dynamics, but can also include anything that is countable on the score, e.g., the relative proportion of specific instrument types playing at any given point in time. One could imagine, for example, a mapping in which data on the number of invasive species established in a geographic area over time is represented through a proportional intrusion of a horn section into music for a string quartet.

Mapping design is important to determine the effectiveness of the music in conveying the scientific story (see Hermann et al., 2011, 385–388). Four design elements are noted here. First, the optimal number of mappings must be considered. Human ability to discern discrete elements in a soundscape is impressive, but it is not infinite (Hermann et al., 2011, 3 and 373). The maximum number of mappings used in ClimateMusic compositions has been four. This decision is not based on science, but rather has been based on an intuitive assessment of the number of mappings that will be easily discernible by most people and that are sufficient to convey key insights from each scientific story. This discernment is enhanced by the second critical design factor, which is how well each mapping analog can be distinguished from the others. Each musical feature should have a distinct timbre or other quality that is easy for an audience to identify. For example, in Icarus in Flight, Festinger selects analogs that are easily distinguishable and also work well together artistically to give the music a compelling tension and texture (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

Graphic showing the mapping design of Icarus in Flight

For Festinger, “The challenge in composing Icarus in Flight was one of helping induce the listener to experience, through musico-dramatic means, the trajectory of three important human drivers of climate change over a span of 200 years.” Festinger describes his compositional process below:

The curves traced by the data sets are in general exponential in shape, and not conducive to musical processes, which typically have much more complex shapes, and wave-like characteristic[s], with successive peaks and troughs arranged to create a hierarchy of climactic moments designed for an overall integrated dramatic impact. For this reason, the strategy was adopted of mapping the data sets (population growth, carbon emissions and transformation of land use) to relatively non-specific musical elements (in this case, density, frequency range, and timbral distribution respectively), so as to govern the formal profile of the composition as a whole, without determining local musical details of melodic, harmonic or rhythmic materials (Email message to Stephan Crawford, August 20, 2021.)

Festinger’s work presents a third critical design element, that of “polarity,” or the direction of movement selected for each musical feature (see Hermann et al., 2011, 385). Carbon emissions are mapped to frequency range, in this case both rising and falling, beginning from the middle of the register, so that as the piece progresses, rising data values for carbon emissions trigger notes that are increasingly higher and lower in pitch. Mapping an increase in a data value to an increase in a musical feature’s value seems to be intuitive. For example, mapping an increase in the value of carbon emissions data to an increase in tempo intuitively seems more effective than mapping this increase to a decrease in tempo. However, whether the polarity of a mapping is effective or not is highly context-dependent, and there are few absolutes. Festinger’s bipolar mapping for carbon emissions results in very high and very low note frequencies by the end of the composition, representing carbon emissions in the late twenty-first century under a low mitigation scenario. Since music mainly occupies the mid-range frequencies, the extremes of register here create a powerful effect and communicate an urgent sense of alarm.

A key limitation—but also a strength—of this technique is the issue of how to scale the movement in the musical analogs in a way that accurately expresses the meaning in the data, not merely the individual data values themselves. For Festinger, this represented another core challenge to the compositional process:

Tracking the evolution of the data sets to evolve in correct proportion over the duration of the composition requires detailed pre-compositional planning in which the total duration is broken into a succession of modules each representing roughly five years of historical (or projected) time, and each module assigned a density, frequency range, and timbral distribution commensurate with the corresponding range of data points. Thus, the large-scale profile of the piece will convey, through the data mapping, the overall progression of the three time series, while invention of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic materials, as well as the local flux and flow of high and low points in the music, is designed subjectively to evoke an emotive response in the listener appropriate to the ecological and societal implications of the data sets (Email message to Stephan Crawford, August 20, 2021).

The ClimateMusic Project’s application of parameter mapping in new music development is tempered by active input from each project’s consulting team of scientists. Especially with respect to communicating possible future scenarios, this introduces an element of informed subjectivity into the music: No one can say with precision what a four-degree warmer world would be like, but enough is known to understand that it would be very different from the world that humans have experienced until now. The scientist’s role is to help the composer express an appropriate dynamism and magnitude of change in order to express the broader and deeper meaning in the raw numbers. Some may interpret this element of subjectivity as a limitation, but it is also a strength, because it allows a lay audience to perceive deeper meaning than would be possible, for example, by looking at a visual graph.

Audification

This technique involves the “direct translation of data waveform into sound” (Kramer, 1994, cited in Hermann et al., p. 301). It can be thought of as the sonic equivalent of a visual graph. As such, The ClimateMusic Project has found it to be less versatile than parameter mapping in bringing the deeper meaning in the data to life for non-scientists. Nevertheless, it has applied this technique to good effect in one of its portfolio compositions. In What If We…?, composer Wendy Loomis embeds and contrasts two audifications of sea level rise data representing two possible future scenarios, a “business as usual” scenario in which little is done to rein in carbon emissions during this century and an aggressive mitigation scenario. The audifications are introduced consecutively and constitute an element of the bass line, upon which Loomis weaves harmony and melody. The audification of the “business as usual” scenario is at first only subtly audible, but over the course of about 90 s becomes a rhythmically driving element that is perceived by the listener as being increasingly alarming—indeed, threatening—as it overwhelms other elements in the music.

Lyrics and Spoken Word

Creating a sung or spoken element that includes scientific content is another technique for communicating scientific insights in the music, especially when audification or parameter mapping is not feasible, or when it can augment these techniques. In the composition What If We…?, Loomis chose to integrate spoken fictional but scientifically defensible news headlines from the year 2045. The headlines were created by drawing from the conclusions of studies on the future impact and effects of sea level rise and through direct input from The ClimateMusic Project’s science advisors.

Visuals

In addition, each ClimateMusic composition is paired with synchronized visuals, typically including data references such as animations. This visual element is intended to support the audience’s understanding of how the music conveys the scientific story by providing visual cues. For example, Climate, by composer Erik Ian Walker, explores the effect of carbon emissions on near-earth atmospheric temperature and the earth’s energy balance over 450 years, from 1800 to 2250. The accompanying visuals present a chronology of historical events in the United States and possible future city and landscapes, which serve to anchor the audience in time. Superimposed over these video images are data animations that track the movement of the data as referenced in the music in real time (Fig. 4). The visual element is intended to be supportive, not the main feature of the audience experience.

Fig. 4

A 2017 performance of Climate by Erik Ian Walker at the San Francisco Performing Arts Centre with accompanying data visuals

New Horizons

To date, The ClimateMusic Project has focused on refining its current approach to creating ClimateMusic. There remain, however, fertile areas of inquiry that could significantly enhance the realization of its mission.

Additional Sonification Techniques

The field of sonification continues to develop, and there are additional techniques, such as model-based sonification (see Hermann et al., 2011, p. 399–425), that may yet find their way into The ClimateMusic Project’s portfolio. Further innovation could yield entirely new approaches and techniques.

Interactive Music

The introduction of interactive elements in the music could enhance the audience’s ability to connect with and retain the insights in the scientific stories. During The ClimateMusic Project’s 2018 collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, composer Emily Pitt created an interactive soundscape entitled 2100, in which the audience was able to influence how the composition played out via an app connected in real time that allowed the audience to make decisions that affected the representation of carbon emissions in the piece. For The ClimateMusic Project, collaboration with such institutions is an ideal environment in which to identify new approaches and innovations. The integration of interactive elements in ClimateMusic offers the prospect of strengthening personal insight gained through the music by each audience member, effectively converting the experience into one that is even more active.

The ClimateMusic Project has been working to introduce additional interactive elements to the performance program, including a series of action items designed to complement the musical program and to boost emotional engagement and willingness to act. In a 2021 concert, Live! From Vienna and San Francisco: A Musical Call for Climate Action, The ClimateMusic Project trialed the use of a word cloud generator following the performance of a ClimateMusic composition, in order to visually display audience responses across the globe in a single image. Later, in the program, the audience was encouraged to make an action pledge, dedicated to a loved one, and to invite several of their friends to do the same. These direct engagement activities will remain a key component of future engagements—both at live performances and virtual presentations.

Augmented/Virtual Reality

In 2017, The ClimateMusic Project collaborated with a senior scientist from the Fuji Xerox Lab in Palo Alto, California, to explore the use of virtual reality (VR) to augment and enhance the ClimateMusic audience experience. The outcome was presented in public at a Project Showcase in San Francisco in 2017. Using an experimental platform called MUSE (Fig. 5), it allowed individual audience members to experience the sensation of being transported onto the imaginary control deck of a starship, complete with display screens, controls, and windows looking toward the earth from space.

Fig. 5

MUSE demo at The ClimateMusic Project’s Showcase, December 2017 San Francisco Performing Arts Center. (Photo credit: Tim Guydish)

From this deck, visitors could experience the music of The ClimateMusic Project’s affiliated composition Climate, by composer Erik Ian Walker, while viewing visualizations of the climate data underlying the composition—CO₂ levels, near-earth atmospheric temperature, and the earth’s energy balance. Visitors had the ability to choose among visualizations, including 3D animated graphs and even a dancer whose movements produced streaming particle trails in which color and density reflected data values. In VR, the visitor could also dance and see particles streaming from their dancing. This promising exploration of new technological horizons was paused due to the still limited accessibility of the necessary technology infrastructure at public venues and also due to a strategic decision to focus on other competing priorities.

ClimateMusic in the Community

Citing a pivotal policy paper written by the Greater London Arts Association (GLAA) in the 1980s, Rod Brooks (1988, p.7) has described community arts as “an Arts activity [that is] defined by its method of work and aims, rather than by its art form,” working within communities “in order to articulate, engage and address the needs, experience and aspirations of its communities”. ClimateMusic encompasses a wide range of musical styles and does not describe a specific art form or genre, but rather a social purpose, to motivate climate action, and the methods employed to achieve that purpose as outlined above. As such, it is fundamentally a community art practice.

Community Engagement: Performing ClimateMusic

Community engagement is essential to the performance of ClimateMusic. Performances typically include three elements: an introduction to set the context, the performance itself, and a post-performance audience engagement segment. The ClimateMusic Project invites audiences to engage with and ask questions of its science advisors and composers. Both live and virtual performances provide multiple opportunities for reinforcing and elaborating on the scientific story featured in each composition. The introduction, typically delivered by a scientist, is a brief (3 to 5-min) statement that sets the context for the concert by conveying the rationale for communicating scientific insights through music and how the science is reflected in the music to be performed. The post-concert audience engagement segment allows the audience to pose questions and to share new insights and impressions. This segment typically includes the participation of a scientist with expertise in the story conveyed, the composer, and one or more representatives of climate action organizations whenever possible.

Each performance segment plays a critical role in maximizing the potential for newfound audience insight and emotional energy to be converted into individual engagement and action. Engaging the audience in dialog after the music stops is a powerful way to help the audience process the experience. For example, during this interaction at a 2015 concert of Erik Ian Walker’s Climate, one woman recounted how the experience of the music and visuals allowed her to connect the course of climate change—which had seemed an abstract concept to her—to her family’s own history: Over the arc of 30 min, she was able to compare the “feel” of the music from the time she was born to that of the time her granddaughter might be born. The ClimateMusic Project personalizes the issue in this way to invite audiences to understand and reflect upon their personal stake in the issues raised, and their agency to affect the outcome, with the aim to motivate and provide opportunities for action.

The music stimulates emotional energy in audiences and a motivation to ask questions, learn, and act. At this writing, The ClimateMusic Project is building additional collateral resources around each composition to offer audiences easy access to further information about the underlying science and ways to engage. Because the science is complex and may involve concepts that require further explanation, the opportunity for audiences to explore the issues further helps to reinforce the message and allows audiences to learn more about the science and pathways to action. Follow-up discussion allows The ClimateMusic Project to delve into the details of each piece of music’s creative process and methodology. Audiences may ask questions ranging from “How do we know how much CO₂ was in the atmosphere in the 1800s?” to “What is the tipping point for the planet?” The science advisors, all professional educators, provide insight into the science and share their perspectives on using music as a tool to communicate and to build community.

Partner Organizations

The ClimateMusic Project’s objective is to ratchet up action so that those not yet active can learn more and begin to act, those somewhat active can learn what more they can do, and those highly involved are invited to amplify their activism by onboarding friends and family. In addition to collaboration with science advisors and composers, the Project invites partner organizations to discuss pathways for action. Engaging partner organizations provides audience members at different levels of knowledge and active engagement with a range of options to get involved, by learning more about their own carbon footprint and what they can do to reduce it (The Global Footprint Network); by helping people connect with communities already addressing climate change (Interfaith Power & Light); by working to draw down carbon through scientifically framed global projects (Cool Effect); by helping communities fund renewable energy systems to reduce their impact and save money (Re-Volv); and by working to make their city a showcase for urban planning (San Francisco Department of the Environment). Each partner also encourages civic engagement at the voting booth and with elected officials.

While The ClimateMusic Project has a few defined partners, the group encourages audience members to engage with any of the many other community organizations active on climate issues locally, nationally, and globally. The aim is to provide opportunities for audiences to channel the emotional energy, insight, and motivation gained from the musical experience into personal action that meets their interests and helps the planet.

Community Participation: Play for the Planet

Outside of the concerts that make up the core of the ClimateMusic program, The ClimateMusic Project has facilitated community music-making both in educational institutions and in the broader community.

As Lee Higgins has described, community music “challenge[s] us to dream of a politics of, and for, a musical future that is marked with active and meaningful participation” (174). This principle was central to ClimateMusic’s 2018 series Play for the Planet, an official affiliate event of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS). GCAS, co-chaired by California governor Jerry Brown, Michael Bloomberg, Patricia Espinosa, Anand Mahindra, and Xie Zhenhua, took place in San Francisco in September 2018 and, as stated by the organizers, “brought together leaders and people from around the world to ‘Take Ambition to the Next Level.’”

Play for the Planet was a departure from The ClimateMusic Project’s standard performances. In order to demonstrate how performers can influence and drive action, Play for the Planet created an environment that offered musicians and artists a chance to share their non-scientific artistic expressions of climate change. Those expressions were powerful, for both audiences and performers, some of whom newly appreciated their ability to have an impact on a critical issue. Action at all levels is critical, and just like the official Summit delegates, the public and the artistic community has a vital role to play.

Play for the Planet featured more than twenty performers challenged to answer the question “What do you think the future will sound like, or what do you want it to sound like?” The performers, included Andrew Revkin, Strategic Adviser for Environmental and Science Journalism at National Geographic Society; Rafael Jesús González, Berkeley Poet Laureate; COPUS, a San Francisco-based jazz and spoken word group; The Creative Liberation Network, an Oakland-based art, music, and educational organization; Nick Platoff, Associate Principal Trombonist for the San Francisco Symphony; and Guinevere Q, a slam rock and spoken word artist. In addition, artist and philosopher Carter Brooks provided an ice installation that slowly melted throughout the day—a concrete representation of humanity’s current situation on earth. The ClimateMusic Project was able to give members of the public a taste of an original ClimateMusic composition, Climate, as composer Erik Ian Walker performed a short excerpt of this beautiful and haunting piece. Audience members were also invited to interact with world-renowned scientists including Dr. William Collins, Head of the Climate Readiness Institute at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and senior advisor to The ClimateMusic Project, and Alison Marklein, a post-doc researcher at LBNL. A few of The ClimateMusic Project’s solutions partners—Cool Effect, RE-volv, and SF Environment—were available to discuss ways that the public can act on climate.

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, The ClimateMusic Project relaunched the Play for the Planet initiative virtually with a global reach, both in September 2020, as an official event of Climate Week NYC, and in April 2021, for Earth Day. These virtual series saw artists from around the world respond to the question “What do you want the future to sound like?” and introduce their favorite environmental nonprofits or highlight The ClimateMusic Project’s partner organizations in order to motivate action and engagement. Submissions were shared on The ClimateMusic Project website and social media channels including YouTube, providing hope and a sense of community and shared purpose during a particularly challenging and isolating time.

Collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

The ClimateMusic Project has an ongoing collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Technology and Applied Composition program (Fig. 6). This joint effort provides a spring cohort of young composers with the opportunity to create their own science-guided music under the guidance of program’s Professor Taurin Barrera and one or more scientist-musicians from The ClimateMusic Project. The student pieces have been performed for live audiences at venues around San Francisco including at the Conservatory’s music halls and at the Exploratorium science museum. The ClimateMusic Project hopes to build upon the program developed with the Conservatory to facilitate the creation of ClimateMusic in classrooms. An aim for the future is to create a curriculum that reflects a multidisciplinary approach to science communication that educational institutions can adopt around the globe.

Fig. 6

Science briefing delivered by a scientist from The ClimateMusic Project via Zoom for student composers in the Technology and Applied Composition program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2023

The Future of ClimateMusic

Funding has been difficult to secure as an organization that does not fit squarely in the realm of art or science. While some of the funding barriers faced by The ClimateMusic Project are a result of needing more dedicated staff to seek out requisite opportunities, other obstacles are due to the nature of funding organizations and the grant process. Many traditional funding organizations have indicated that they require a certain level of previous funding and proof of funding past success. Because The ClimateMusic Project does not always align with a specific project category, it is often regarded by art funders as a science or educational organization and by science funders as an art organization, which can lead to a reluctance to fund a project that does not have a clear classification. Funders tend to be conservative and risk-averse when in fact what is needed is bold experimentation with new ways to reach people—especially those that integrate multiple disciplines, given that the climate crisis cannot be understood or solved from any single disciplinary silo. Current funding dynamics are inadequate to address the climate crisis.

Data from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) show that funding for not-for-profit art organizations has been largely dependent on earned income (40.7%), from sources such as ticket sales (National Endowment for the Arts, 2012). The ClimateMusic Project has aimed to keep ticket prices low to maximize audience numbers, and so it has not been possible to rely upon a performance revenue model. The NEA also reflects contributed income from all sources in the amount of 44.9%. That would include funds from corporations, public entities, individuals, and foundations. Conversations with non-for-profit art organizations in similar circumstances have indicated that this is a common problem with groups not affiliated with educational or scientific institutions. The broader community can help to incubate projects like The ClimateMusic Project in order to encourage a general understanding that these initiatives do help build knowledge and motivate necessary action on complex societal issues such as climate change. The Project presents a nascent opportunity for funders who have the foresight to incubate these multidisciplinary endeavors that break silos and reach audiences eager to learn and make a difference.