1.5 is still alive
Panos Caribbean has announced the release of a new theme song as part of its climate change campaign ‘#1point5tostayalive’.
The song is titled 1.5 is Still Alive, and features lyrics by Saint Lucian poet and dramatist Kendel Hippolyte and music by musician and humanitarian Taj Weekes, who coordinated the production on behalf of Panos Caribbean.
As with Panos’ previous releases, the three-minute-long track is voiced by several Caribbean artistes. It features Linda “Chocolate” Berthier, Bushman, Kenyatta Hill, Kendel Hippolyte, Zara McFarlane, Sidney Mills, Jafe Faulino, Razia Said, Aaron Silk and Taj Weekes. It is distributed by Jatta/VP Records, and is available online on YouTube and SoundCloud.
It starts: ‘How did we reach where we are? One per cent with the lies and power…’
Coinciding with the release of the song, Hippolyte has launched an appeal to artistes and other concerned citizens to make their voices heard in the fight against climate change. In Hippolyte’s words, “we cannot look at our children, and their children, and tell them we did nothing”.
The Paris Agreement signed at the 2015 climate change conference called on all countries “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase…to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial average”.
Global warming is on track to break the 1.5°C mark as early as 2040, and an increase of the average global temperature above 1.5°C will have disastrous impacts on the Caribbean and other vulnerable regions of the world.
