Kicking off a revolution

14 August 2011 - 05:30 By Tiara Walters
Green Life
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Carbon-free campaign backed by The Parlotones aims to raise awareness

As part of the growing movement of musos to take up green causes, SA rock band The Parlotones have thrown their weight behind "Carbon-free", a new campaign that is fighting climate change with the planting of thousands of indigenous trees.

Launched last year by sustainability entrepreneurs Carbonworx in partnership with the SABC, the campaign has already planted 60 000 trees in the Eastern Cape. It has also been loudly trumpeted by The Parlotones at a series of Carbon-free concerts this year, the latest of which took place in Cape Town last weekend. But have the cult rockers really made a difference or are they simply hitching a ride on the funky green gravy train? We pinned down frontman Kahn Morbee.

What's your biggest environmental bugbear, apart from climate change?

Obviously the rhino is getting all the attention, but that's not the only species that is nearing extinction. There are thousands of species that are being wiped out because of human actions and for me that's very sad. One of the things that makes South Africa appealing on the world stage is that we have an abundance of wildlife and plantlife in their natural habitat. But who knows how much of what we take for granted now might be gone in 20 or 30 years' time?

These days there's a lot of commercial benefit to be gained from associating oneself with climate change - an issue that has become fashionable of late. So how about defending a less trendy cause, like South Africa's highly threatened but not-so-attractive bearded vulture?

The green thing wasn't something we were that aware of until we were approached to do the Live Earth concert at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg in 2007, so it's not like we hopped on the bandwagon. We were asked to play the show and, in doing that, we also watched a whole bunch of climate-change documentaries and we were like, yowzers, this is a real problem. As for the lesser-supported causes, you can't fight every cause, and maybe we should say that if the rhinos are getting all the attention at the moment, that is probably a cause we can combat because of the fact that it is getting so much attention right now. Once that's resolved, we can move on to the next thing. But foremost we're entertainers, we're not here to take up half your viewing time at a concert to preach.

But why support the Carbon-free campaign? Is a less well-known cause - one that does not have celebrities clamouring to support it - not in a greater need of your kind of high-profile support?

Well, you know, a lot of the time we are approached. After Live Earth, the Earth Hour organisers approached us and the guys from the Carbon-free campaign obviously saw that we had already been involved in these issues. It's something that found us.

How have your Carbon-free concerts helped the fight against climate change?

A lot of people believe that the concerts themselves are green, or carbon-free. It's just about creating an awareness. And that's all we're trying to do: creating an awareness that you can calculate your carbon footprint through the Carbon-free campaign, and sponsor a tree for a small fee. But it's very difficult to ascertain whether or not the concerts have been a raging success. It's not like we can ask every fan as they walk out the door, "Have you planted your tree?" All we can do is hope that a certain percentage of our audience's mindset has changed.

You've also supported other green causes. How have you made a difference here?

Yes, we've done Earth Hour, for instance, trying to create an awareness virally on Facebook by posting videos that reminded people what the cause was about and what they needed to do. We were on tour in England and switched off our lights an hour prior to South African time so that we could post a reminder, urging people to switch off their lights as the clock turned in South Africa - and a lot of people responded to that. And the proceeds of the Facebook broadcast of (rock-theatre production) Dragonflies and Astronauts went to Rhino Force, an anti-rhino-poaching initiative. We've also been selling the Rhino Force beaded bracelets at our Carbon-free concerts.

High-profile musicians travel a lot. What's your carbon footprint and have you tried offsetting it?

Carbonworx are busy working out our footprint as a band. It's quite an intricate process - they look at the number of gigs we do, and incorporate the short-haul as well as long-haul flights. Based on the figure that comes out of that they will then plant a number of indigenous trees on our behalf. This will be an ongoing thing - something that is being worked out for the first time this year, with trees planted annually on our behalf from here on out.

Have you adjusted your lifestyle to be nicer to the planet?

Yes, certainly, as much as I can. I started with simple things like not using plastic bags and changing to low-energy lights. I'll also be installing a solar geyser soon. Another thing we do as a band, is support the "Meat-free Monday" campaign by not eating any meat on Mondays. This is also an environmental thing because, generally, livestock are responsible for a lot of greenhouse emissions.

Do you recycle?

Yes, when I am at home - also bearing in mind that I'm hardly at home - I separate my plastic, glass and paper and there is a service in my area that does come and collect it. - Visit the Carbon-free campaign's website at www.carbonworx.co.za in order to calculate your carbon footprint and purchase trees that will offset your impact on the atmosphere.

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