What follows is the Editor’s Note to our new zine, written at the tail-end of 2021.
Amongst the cavalcade of shit going on in the world right now, there remains one overarching anxiety that weighs heavily over each and every day. The effects of man-made climate change and the ensuing environmental catastrophes are a constant looming threat sure to affect our lives drastically at some point in the not-too-distant future. Whether we’re already past a point of no return is up for debate, but what’s absolutely certain is that people will and already are dying as a result of global warming.
Ten of the hottest years on record have come in the last two decades, and current predictions have us on course to raise the global average temperature by 3° Celsius. Scientists predict that just 2° would spell disaster. Researchers investigating the link between extreme weather and mortality at Monash in Australia and China’s Shandong University have even suggested that almost 10% of global deaths can be attributed to abnormally hot or cold temperatures – as many as 5 million global deaths a year.
But despite how vital this issue is, it continues to receive little more than lip service from those with the power to enact any real change, whilst the richest in society continue to destroy the planet in their unending quest for power and wealth. Between Covid, cultural debates and major political upheavals, climate change is often pushed down the pecking order, the threat seeming almost too vast and too constant to properly tackle. This zine, then, aims to bring it into focus, and explore the ways that heavy music (and in one piece, video games) can be a tool of resistance and, as it often has, shine a light on shit that needs addressing.
Art is never a replacement for direct action, and we encourage all readers to join the fight against climate change in any way they can, but it is through art that we experience the world, envisage alternative futures and form community. At times this zine will be bleak, at others it might offer just a glimmer of hope. Between the nature photography, the poetry and the in-depth interviews and thinkpieces, we hope it reminds you of the world’s beauty and why we should do everything in our power to protect it.
Click here to order The Environmentalism Issue now. All profits to Survival International.
