For This Veteran Rocker, Making An Environmental Impact Is A Way Of Life

by Cortney Harding

Many artists are becoming more active in promoting green issues, but you seem to be one of the few who actually go a step beyond and connect environmental issues to issues of poverty and war. How do you see the relationships between these causes?
For me, it all stems from the need to promote justice. I called my organization Axis of Justice because I didn't want to focus on only one issue. The connections can be drawn because they are present in so many places; for instance, poor urban neighborhoods have higher asthma rates. When a city wants to build a dump or get rid of radioactive waste, they don't put it in the nice part of town. Even materials that are supposed to be environmentally friendly can be harmful to poor communities. Biodiesel, for example, uses up farmland that could otherwise be used to grow food for starving people.

How did you first get involved in green issues?
I've been a supporter of Greenpeace and the Sierra Club for years. I have a place in New Zealand, and I was really impressed with a Greenpeace action that took place down there recently. Greenpeace folks boarded a Japanese whaling ship to try to shut it down, and in the midst of the conflict, both ships ran out of fuel. When a rescue ship came, the Greenpeace people tried to disconnect the fuel lines to the whaling ship, even though it meant they'd be stuck as well. It was kind of crazy, but sometimes you have to be ballsy and put yourself out.

Do you ever worry that you are just preaching to the choir and the people who are driving around in Hummers and living in McMansions are just ignoring the message?
I sat next to an oil executive on the flight to Austin, and he started talking to me about how absurd it was that every day when he drives to work, the highways are full but trams and buses are empty. I think people are starting to hear what environmentalists are saying. "An Inconvenient Truth" was a huge wake-up call for a lot of people.

Have you ever been confronted with having to eat costs to be greener? Have you paid extra upfront for organic merch or greener touring? If so, how much?
Absolutely. Awareness always has a built-in economic cost, though in some cases green materials have become more competitive as far as pricing. We pay more for our merch items so that we can be sure that they are made with equitable labor and ecological practices. As far as investments [go], going green means that the return on your investment is less than investing in the corporate world, at least for now. This does not mean that you can't be profitable and conscious. It just means that there is a real-life cost to being more aware; hybrid cars cost more than non-hybrid cars of the same make, for example. It would be great to encourage large industries to reverse this policy. For example, if car companies made hybrids the same price as regular cars, more hybrids would be sold and that would have a positive effect on pollution.

What is the dynamic of those business decisions? Do you see a payoff further down the road or just eat the cost because being good to the planet matters more?
The payoff for those decisions is not somewhere in the future, it's now. I feel better about the way I live now and that's my payoff. I do things because it's the right thing to do now. I don't know what the future brings. In reality, the future never really exists. It's a design of the logical mind.

This is all great, but I'm wondering how you justify being part of an industry that produces so much waste every years. You've sold more than 10 million CDs, and many of those were in plastic containers that had to be shipped to stores.

Basically, we're all hypocrites unless we go out and live off the land. That way of living is a model for me, because I think those people are clued in about climate change and the way we're going to have to alter our lives. I spend a lot of [2007 solo album "Elect the Dead"] talking about the end of civilization, and I don't mean an apocalypse. I think that we are going to have to come to terms with the fact that the way we live now will not exist in 50 years, period.

Along those same lines, you have been touring for this record, and while you have carbon offset programs in place, you are still using a lot of resources and putting a lot of goods out there. How do you reconcile that with your belief system?
Again, I realize I am a hypocrite by going on the road and doing this. I've had an idea for a long time, which might sound a little crazy, but I really want to look into holographic touring. I think we could reduce our need to travel if we could project ourselves into meetings and concerts. We have the technology, and we're not using it right now.

For instance, I have a studio next to my house and a live performance room in the studio. I could broadcast a show in real time and could interact with the audience as if we were in the same room. After all, it's not like the audience can touch me, anyway [laughs]. It would open up a whole new world for touring-shows wouldn't have to be limited to bars or clubs. There would be no travel costs, so bands with very little money could play shows, and tickets would cost less.