In the research conducted after the pandemic period, the effects of the DJs’ activities on nature and climate are examined.
The famous German company, Clean Scene, known for their enviromental sensitivity, has published a report about the impact of DJs, events and organizations on nature during their tours. Based on the data started from 2019 before the pandemic , Clean Scene aims to contribute to the solution for alternative environmentalist future scenarios for the dance music industry by drawing attention to the impacts that DJs left behind.
The report, consisted of 20 pages, titled “Last Night a DJ Took a Flight“, reveals that before the pandemic, many DJs travel internationally for their club and festival programs on a weekly basis and change two or three countries over the course of a weekend.
Some striking statistics from the report are listed as follows. Clean Scene based its data on top 1000 DJ rankings from 2019, and based on an estimate that those DJs made roughly 51,000 flights during the year. This means approximately 117,000,000 kilometers of road traveled, 3,200,000 liters of fuel and 35,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission. According to this report, the carbon dioxide emission stated is equal to the one-year electricity consumption of 20,000 houses and the three-day electricity consumption of 8,000 festivals, as well as the oscillation resulting from the production of 25,000,000 records. While the annual average carbon dioxide emission caused by a DJ touring international programs is calculated as 35 tons, it is shared that this amount of carbon footprint is 17 times higher than the annual scale of 2 tons for humans.
Another astonishing data revealed by Clean Scene is the difference between the carbon footprint of the 100 DJs who toured the most in the first 1000 and the 100 DJs who toured the least; while the individual average of the annual carbon footprint of the DJs in the top 100 is 88 tons, it is striking that the individual average of the least 100 DJs who toured at least just remained at 3.3 tons. Here, too, the annual projected carbon emission is 44 times higher for DJs in the top 100 and 1.5 times more for DJs in the last 100.
As there is no accusing statement of the artists in the report, the structure of the development in the industry that facilitates touring is considered as a whole, and it is emphasized that a collective action plan is needed to make the dance music ecosystem more environmentally sustainable.
What Should Be Done?
The report also has some recommedations. One of them is train travel instead of plane. Since the report has a centered on Europe, although this proposal has the potential to work in geographies where countries such as Europe are close to each other and rail systems are developed, it is possible in locations such as South America, Africa and Asia and in overseas travel plans, may be out of the occasion.
Another important point is that distant travels should not be planned for a single performance; for instance, when you travel from London to Los Angeles, it may create difference to schedule the stage in more than one club / festival to cover a relatively wide time period. Furthermore, the abolishment of “embargo” practices that prevent international DJs from performing elsewhere within certain geographical boundaries or certain time periods may make a freedom for DJs to free their schedules in their local areas. It is also important for the organizers in the countries to make moves that will put forward local DJs.
You can have a glance on the full report, here.
