Warren Senders, a well-respected orator, Hindustani musician and teacher from the Boston area is passionate not just about Indian music but about raising awareness about Climate Change issues affecting planet Earth.  He has taken an active role in bringing musicians and music lovers from different countries, ethnicities and backgrounds to enjoy music and to discuss the dangers and problems of climate change by arranging World Music concerts in Boston.

On the evening of Saturday, November 7, music from America, Albania and India came together along with a discussion on climate change at The Community Church in Boston. A string trio opened the show and featured original compositions by three women musicians, violinists Mimi Rabson, Helen Sherrah-Davies and cellist Junko Fujiwara. “Music is magic. It can soothe, it can incite and it can heal. We hope to do all this in our presentation” said Mimi Rabson at the beginning of the recital. The musicians then presented compositions that were inspired by things that happen in their daily lives such as interactions with students and observation of a pet cat. The light-hearted jokes combined with a serious attitude towards creating music made the recital fun for everyone.

In the Indian music segment, a Hindustani vocal recital by Shuchita Rao featuring two khayals and a tarana in Raag Bhoopali followed by a khayal in Raag Charukesi and a Kabir Bhajan were presented to the audience. The compositions were meditative in nature and Christopher Pereji on harmonium and Rajesh Pai on tabla provided sensitive accompaniment with plenty of creative touches that enhanced the overall rendition.

The concluding musical offering by flautist Geni Skendo’s ensemble “The Astronauts of Albania” blended Eastern European traditions with daring improvisation. A seven feet tall silver bass contrabass flute was a magnificient looking instrument which Geni played with the cool confidence of a master musician. Ben Levin on guitar, Aaron Edgecomb on Western drums, Umar Zakaria on bass and guest violinist Olsa Papandili contributed wonderful energy to the offering.

Emily, a volunteer of 350MA.org, a local environmental advocacy group led a discussion on climate change issues followed by an eloquent speech by Warren Senders. “Through the World Music concerts, we have been bringing together diverse musical traditions in the service of raising awareness about climate change. The traditions presented today were not just patterns of sound. They were different kinds of wisdom encoded in sound. There is wisdom about the passage of time and what it means. There is wisdom about relationships of our efforts as humans to find beauty in the natural world. There is wisdom among all other things, in how to get along with another as human beings because we cannot make music with people without getting along.” Said Warren Senders.

Shuchita Rao spoke to Warren Senders about his work in raising awareness about the problems of climate change.

For how long have you used the idea of organizing World music concerts to raise awareness of climate change issues? Have the concerts been successful in terms of spreading awareness and raising money towards the cause?

I first put on a "Playing For The Planet" concert in 2009, on the "International Day of Climate Action" sponsored by 350.org on October 24 of that year.  We had six separate artists, including the Balkan and Mediterranean singing of Sue Robbins and her ensemble Libana, and the West African music and dance of the Agbekor Society.  Since then we have presented two concerts every year, in the spring and fall.  Participating artists include great jazz singers like Dominique Eade, the middle-Eastern violin styles of Beth Bahia Cohen, the Latin-American songs of Mili Bermejo, and both Hindustani and Carnatic music from a variety of fine artists including yourself, Durga Krishnan, Amit Kavathekar, Pravin Sitaram, and Tara Bangalore.  These concerts have been generally well-attended and have raised thousands of dollars for the environmental advocacy group 350MA.org.  Equally important is that they have fostered a sense of community amongst the artists who have often felt more deeply involved in the issue of climate change as a consequence.

Besides organizing concerts, how else have you used your background as a musician to get people to discuss climate change issues and to affect change?

At any concert I give I make a point of taking a minute between items to remind the audience that the beautiful music we love is the product of a complex civilization — which in turn depends on everybody having enough food and enough water to live comfortably.  I go on to say that all this is threatened by rapid changes in climate.  If we want to save all the beautiful songs that we humans have created over our time on Earth, we need to take action.  

I also maintain an ongoing project called "The Climate Message" (theclimatemessage.com) which asks musicians from every country in the world to record short video clips showcasing moments of musical beauty along with the simple message that climate change is real and it's time to take action.  Thus far we have accumulated over 200 video clips from places as distant as Columbia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, India, Sweden and Ghana.  There is so much beautiful music in the world and if we wish to preserve it for our children's children's children, we need to act without delay.

We all know that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing our planet.  Why has there been so much of human ignorance and avoidance in dealing with the reality?

Climate change is caused by an increase in the heat trapped in the lower atmosphere because of a well-understood phenomenon called the Greenhouse Effect, which was first discussed in the late 1800s and scientifically demonstrated several decades later.  It's essentially the same thing that happens to your car when you leave it parked in the sun on a hot day: the light comes in through the windows, gets converted to heat, and cannot escape through the glass (don't ever leave your dog in the car on days like that!).  Despite the fact that this is completely uncontroversial science, our politicians and corporations have shied away from dealing with its implications, because our politics, culture, and economic systems are built around the short term — and the climate has always been something that could be "left until later."  In 1965, Lyndon Johnson discussed climate change and the implications of increased atmospheric CO2...and everyone agreed that sooner or later, something would have to be done about it.  But there were so many other seemingly more pressing issues.

We human beings are not very good at thinking about things which are a long way away in space or time.  The misfortunes of people in distant places don't seem real to us; the sorrows and joys of generations past or future are less real to us than the artificial families we see in movies or on television.  So it has been easy to ignore the problems of our remote descendants.  Now, of course, we are realizing to our horror that the people whose lives will be disrupted by the changing climate are not twenty generations in the future, but our children and their children — but it is easier to ignore the problem than to give up our many conveniences.

Evidence has now emerged showing that scientists employed by Exxon in the 1970s confirmed not only the reality of climate change driven by CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption, but the catastrophic impacts it was likely to have on our civilization (and yes, they used the word "catastrophic").  But because taking steps to address the problem would have reduced their profit margins, Exxon executives chose to bury the results, which are only now coming to light.  If we had begun the transition to a renewable energy economy in the 1960s, the problem would be much less severe today.

What are some things ordinary citizens can do about reducing global warming? What practical measures do you take in your daily life that could benefit the cause?

Every person needs to do several things as part of the fight against this planetary problem.

First is to spend time learning about it.  Ignorance has caused us enough harm already!  Websites like realclimate.org offer discussion and information presented and critiqued by working climatologists.  Organizations like 350.org are dedicated to spreading awareness and combating the disinformation spread by news groups like FOX and climate-change denialists like Anthony Watts and Richard Lindzen — not to mention the anti-science politicians in the increasingly extremist Republican party.  It is imperative that we face the problem instead of assuming that others will handle it.  Spend some time every day studying the facts of climate change.  It's not fun, but it's crucial.

Second is to make a commitment to take some form of daily action to educate others or to build the case for action.  Call or write your local, state, and federal elected representatives!  Be aware of the impact of your investment strategies and be prepared to divest your own investments in fossil fuel corporations; they may be profitable in the short term, but this is no longer a good reason to keep them in your portfolio, any more than investing in Krugerrands during the time of apartheid was morally defensible.  Advocate for environmental responsibility at your workplace and in your children's schools.  

Third is to start reducing your own consumption of fossil fuels.  Drive less.  Carpool.  Take shorter showers.  Run your dishwasher only when it's full.  Recycle fanatically, and avoid disposable items whenever possible.  Investigate the purchase of carbon offsets when you travel, or to help negate the carbon footprint of your own life.  If you've got a big house, you're spending a lot of money on heat during the winter, and even a couple of degrees lower on the thermostat can make a difference.  Don't buy bottled water.  Remember that a century ago, "consumption" was the name of a disease!

In my own life, I approach the problem like this:

I have been dedicated to learning about climate change and its potential to damage our civilization for almost a decade now.  I have read many books (I specifically recommend the writing of Bill McKibben and James Hansen) and talked with climate scientists about their work.  Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" is still relevant and accurate — although newer science suggests that Gore underestimated both the severity and the speed of the dangers!

For four years I wrote daily letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines all over the world.  Each day I put in about an hour, finding an article or column somewhere that demanded a response.  My letters were published in many outlets, ranging from Time Magazine and USA Today to newspapers like the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and many others.  I was also published internationally in places including Greenland, Taiwan, Ireland, Pakistan, and the Solomon Islands!  Nowadays I take a sign that says in large letters, "CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL" and stand at a heavily-trafficked intersection for an hour every weekday morning.  This is what the Quakers call a "Practice of Conscience," and I have found that my life is incomplete unless I do this every day.

I drive as little as possible and fly rarely — and purchase carbon offsets for any air travel.  We grow almost all of our own vegetables in our garden, and store them for the winter.  We are very careful about new purchases and make a point of examining everything we're thinking of buying from an environmental standpoint.  We have installed solar cells on our rooftop, and during the winter we make a point of sealing our house tightly to avoid energy losses through leaks (a home energy audit is a very good idea!).  

None of this is enough by itself; the problem is far bigger than any one individual's capacity to affect change.  But as Gandhiji said, “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

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