singing out for climate action

You might be looking for a new way to connect with people on the climate change issue?

A way that tackles the serious issues but at the same time enables people to come together with joy and energy for a common cause?

So Carbon Canaries is a SONG RESOURCE enabling people everywhere to sing out for climate action. There are 35 songs now!

As this site has been going for about 10 years (!) it is unfortunate that the material hasn’t dated, and the Extinction Rebellion songs are completely current. We need a loving, staunch, thought-disrupting and joyful way of compelling our governments and other institutions to Tell the Truth, Act Now and use the Deliberative Democratic process of Citizens’ Assemblies to lower the risk of social collapse. Business as usual is not an option. How do we stop doing that which causes harm? What do we start doing that builds resilience? Right now?

If a big part of that can be through song and communal singing there is evidence that shows we build a stronger, more uplifting movement. Use the tags to find XR songs.

There are some songsheets which you could print, bring to an action and 10 or 20 of you can just start singing. The songs are available online through any phone or iPad browser so anyone can find the song and sing along with you even if they don’t have a songsheet.

Groups can consist of a couple of mates out at the local shopping centre bursting into song, a bunch of XR folks wanting a song or two to entertain the security guards at their sit-in, or a more formal choir who want material that tackles the Climate Change issue. The songs are here, choose a couple, print them off and get singing.

Most of them are parodied by me, Jenny Fitzgibbon Sunshine Coast, and Paul Spencer,  Woolongong. Dermot Dorgan from Brisbane is in there a lot too. We three perform around the place and keep a better world in mind in our music. Some songs are gathered from the folk tradition. If you know a writer we haven’t attributed, please let us know.

This website contains:

Contact us about:

  • Flashmobs, busking, times you have used the songs. What worked and what didn’t
  • How to get people singing with you at events and spread information
  • Links to Creative Responses to Climate Change ideas – I will upload them onto the “Links to other climatey songs and creative stuff” page.
  • Carbon Canaries Starter Workshops – if I can get to your town, I will run a workshop for you and a bunch of people.

3 thoughts on “singing out for climate action”

    • Hi Greenbean
      Yes, chosen for their sensitivity to Carbon Monoxide. Their deaths saved the lives of miners who then got to know that there was CO in the air which would kill them too if they didn’t get out.
      No Canaries have been harmed in the writing of these songs and hopefully no humans will be harmed if we sing them and do other stuff too. Keep well and have fun yourself!
      Jenny

  2. Hi John, could you do that again please? Mentions on the Climate Council facebook page might help get the songs out and about more.
    I just had a very good couple of workshops at Woodford Folk festival with them and many of the activists who came said fun songs were just what the movement needed right now. Among othe rthings of course!
    Cheers and thanks
    Jenny

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