Today, 19 May, marks the UK’s Overshoot Day – the point where if the world consumed as much as we currently do, it would use all the natural resources it could generate in 12 months.
More than 80% of people worldwide live in countries demanding more from nature than their ecosystems can create, leading to huge consequences in environmental sustainability and climate change.
Metal at Edge Hill Station are calling on arts organisations, artists and people of Liverpool to take an active role in fighting climate change, and are dedicating the next 12 months to environmentally focused arts, learning projects and a new sustainability network.
Project Earth Liverpool at Light Night – 21 May 2021
Commissioned as part of Liverpool Light Night, musician Love Ssega presents Project Earth Liverpool: The Cut-out Opera, an escapist family adventure inspired by and named after Andrew Kiwanaka’s comic about awakening climate activism in young people. Expect a lively mix of hip hop and R&B inspired hooks, and a call to arms to think about the small changes we can make in our lives together that could make a huge impact on our planet.
Project Earth Liverpool premieres as part of Light Night’s online events from 5pm.
Shift Network
Metal have announced the launch of Shift, a sustainability network for cultural organisations in the Liverpool City Region. Shift will lead on bringing together venues, institutions and arts producers, to collaboratively respond to the challenges of driving down the carbon footprint of staging exhibitions, performances and events, moving away from environmentally damaging working methods to promote carbon offsetting and reduction.
The network has over twenty organisations in Liverpool pledging to improve their environmental sustainability, and will be shortly announcing its first quarterly general meeting. To join and sign Shift’s pledge, see here.
Nine Earths
In partnership with artist group D:Fuse, Nine Earths is an audiovisual project commissioned by the British Council, presented online 24 hours a day for 4 weeks, in the run up to the Cop26 Summit. Nine Earths explores how our lifestyle choices unwittingly contribute to the destruction of our one planet, tracing consumer habits around the world and examining how many planets worth of resources various countries need to sustain their carbon usage.
During the live broadcast, Nine Earths will host 2 live events, bringing together our global partners and project participants, to give audiences a deeper insight of the shared worries, hopes, research and the creative ideas for positive change.
Rivers of the World
Rivers of the World is an environmental learning project linking schools around the world through the study of rivers. The project brings together Key Stage 3 pupils from Liverpool and arts facilitators to create collaborative artworks, while establishing a creative exchange with school children in Zimbabwe, to explore the meaning of rivers in local and international city contexts.
The project encourages the international exchange of creative ideas and environmental learning, providing young people with the opportunity to collaborate with professional artists, explore creative and STEM career paths, connect with students participating in the Rivers of the World project in other countries and see their artwork exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.
Follow Metal Liverpool on social media to hear more about these projects, as well as the rest of the programme.