DAVID BLACKMON: MIT And Coldplay Are Worried About Your Carbon Footprint

Every week brings a new raft of inane and absurd studies related to climate change, and this past week was no exception. The most absurd such study that came across the newswires in recent days is one from the MIT Climate Machine detailing the carbon emissions footprint of – wait for it –  music concerts and festivals.

Yes, concert goers: MIT, in conjunction with the pop group Coldplay, Warner Music Group, Live Nation, and Hope Solutions, is deathly concerned about the emissions you and your fellow music lovers generate when you go see Taylor Swift, Jelly Roll, or this Bad Bunny guy who will perform at halftime of this year’s Super Bowl. Come to think of it, the Super Bowl itself no doubt generates an enormous carbon footprint: Can’t wait to see MIT’s attempt to define the percentage of it that can be attributed to Mr. Bunny.

None of this is surprising: It’s just par for the course in western academia today thanks to all the billions of dollars that flood from a massive web of corporations like Warner Music Group, dark money NGOs, and leftwing billionaire foundations to the schools, specifically earmarked for any study, report, white paper, or sternly worded memo that supports the climate alarm narrative. We could criticize leadership at MIT for participating in this sort of narrative boosting, but the truth is that it is just one of hundreds of American universities that are in on the scheme.

Thus, we get scholarly reports like this one, whose accompanying press release boasts “analyzes data from over 80,000 events across the U.S. and the U.K., capturing greenhouse gas emissions across all major impact areas including trucking, energy, food and beverage consumption, water, waste, fan travel, artist and crew travel, accommodation, and freight.” The release later adds, “Grounded in rigorous peer-reviewed research, industry reports, and advanced analysis, the findings offer an unprecedented, data-driven view of live music’s environmental impact.”

So, what are those rigorous, peer-reviewed findings? Welp, fans, it turns out your own travel to and from the concerts is the biggest source of shame, accounting for 77% of total concert-related emissions in the U.K. and 62% in the United States. Don’t you feel bad about yourselves now? Maybe you should consider limiting your consumption of your favorite artist’s songs to popping in the earbuds and activating that Spotify app.