I’ve long been a big fan of Pliable’s blog, On an Overgrown Path, but I was saddened to read his post today- “How Green Was My Concert?” 

Pliable asks if 

“shouldn’t we be more concerned about the greenhouse gases that are produced by a season like the 2007 BBC Proms?”  

He makes a couple of valid points, particularly about the value of having touring orchestras stay in town for more than one concert at a time. Certainly, the opportunity to present a number of concerts by a visiting orchestra benefits the audience the touring orchestra and the musical community. Everyone gets to know each other better, whether it is the audience and critics learning the breadth of strengths of the visiting orchestra or the orchestra getting to know the acoustics of the venue. However, I do respectfully disagree with Pliable’s notion that we somehow ought to be limiting international orchestra touring in the name of limiting climate change. 

The fact is, the Proms is part of the solution to the world’s problems. It is one of the most powerful agents of cultural exchange and enlightenment in the world today, a place where musicians and music lovers from all over the world come together in a vibrant environment, and is the most important example of high art as a vital, popular and relevant part of society anywhere in the world. Whatever it’s flaws, there is no other music festival on earth, in fact, no other cultural event on earth, that offers the standard of excellence, the accessibility to people from all economic backgrounds, the breadth of repertoire or the sheer fun in high art that the Proms does. 

The lunacy of the US government’s position on global warming could only be sustained in a world where there is an insufficient amount of cultural exchange and a low level of public discourse. There was once a time, when great nations remembered enough of the horrors of the world wars, when cultural exchange and dialogue was considered a vital part of making a sane and safe world for our children. Orchestral touring was not considered a vanity project for millionaire managers and conductors, but a central part of an international effort to foster understanding among nations and peoples. 

It’s popular, even a national pastime, here in Britain among music lovers to complain about the Proms, but as someone who grew up in a much larger country that has never been able to create a cultural institution like the Proms, I find it singularly upsetting. All this kind of perennial bellyaching does is give more ammunition to the hatchet men who would defund the BBC’s cultural programming altogether. Look at how music criticism has just disappeared from the American newspaper in two weeks. These institutions, which affect the lives of millions, are vulnerable. Record companies disappear, newspapers cease to be relevant, orchestras fold, festivals stop.  Please, Proms-bashers, consider shutting up. Please. Don’t slit music’s throat. Leave the “I love you so much I have to kill you plot” for the opera, not the press. 

The fact is that the carbon emissions of all the traveling orchestras appearing at the Proms in any year is only the tiniest fraction of the emissions of the millions of tourists coming to London each summer to see the great city, and go to the Proms. The carbon footprint of all the Proms musicians and attendees is only the tiniest fraction of what a single major rock tour generates over a summer. How about the FA Cup, the NBA, the NFL? Cancel the Olympics first, and we’ll talk. 

Daniel Wolff, over at Renewable Music, writes in his concurring opinion that 

“it’s not about ending tours or guest conducting gigs, but rather limiting both to a reasonable, and artistically defensible number in a time when information can travel cheaply, but flying an orchestra is an extravagance.”  

I would contend that we are already at that limit. Universities are having fewer guest speakers and lecturers, chamber music series are folding or cutting back. Recitals are a rarity. Letting Tiger Woods fly to golf tournaments on a private jet is an extravagance. Sending the Boston Symphony to the Proms is important for Boston, important for London and important for the health and development of the music world.

If society is serious about global warming, the single biggest step all nations could take is to build rail networks that people can use. If Britain wants to be world leader in reducing climate change, it should triple the number of scheduled rail services and cut all rail fares by three-quarters. Global warming is a huge problem- governments need to go after the huge polluters, not demolish the tools of global enlightenment that could help us build a saner society. 

I would contend that we are already at that limit. Universities are having fewer guest speakers and lecturers, chamber music series are folding or cutting back. Recitals are a rarity. Letting Tiger Woods fly to golf tournaments on a private jet is an extravagance. Sending the Boston Symphony to the Proms is important for Boston, important for London and important for the health and development of the music world. 

If society is serious about global warming, the single biggest step all nations could take is to build rail networks that people can use. If Britain wants to be world leader in reducing climate change, it should triple the number of scheduled rail services and cut all rail fares by three-quarters. Global warming is a huge problem- governments need to go after the huge polluters, not demolish the tools of global enlightenment that could help us build a saner society.