On the UN’s World Day for Glaciers, Climate Basecamp, a leading climate communications initiative, invites you to watch an inspiring performance of hope by world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The footage, released today (Friday 21 March), was first presented to a small audience at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in January. “Performing Hope for the Glaciers” moved audience members to tears with a captivating performance against the spell-binding backdrop of the Swiss Alps.
Yo-Yo Ma performed three pieces amid freezing conditions and heavy snow on the famous ‘magic mountain’. The Grammy-winning musician was ‘Performing Hope for the Glaciers’, a campaign led by Climate Basecamp, an initiative borne out of the non-profit organization Arctic Basecamp.
The idea behind Performing Hope is to send a message that the world must avoid a requiem for the world’s glaciers due to escalating climate change, and instead use the window of hope which still exists and make rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
"The performing arts combine knowledge and the human experience, which moves us so deeply in a way that science or language can never quite do. So for me, the performing arts is the perfect antidote to the climate crisis that we're facing right now" said Professor Gail Whiteman, Executive Director of Arctic Basecamp and co-founder of Climate Basecamp as well as Hoffmann Impact Professor for Accelerating Action on Climate and Nature at the University of Exeter.
"Climate action is not happening fast enough. We’re going to need to boost action faster, but that’s simply not happening, and in such a world it’s easy to feel hopeless. But we can’t do that. What we need to do is find hope, and what better way to do that than with the performing arts.”
Yo-Yo Ma turned his back on the audience to face the sublime mountain backdrop as he opened the performance with Mi’kmaq Honor Song by George Paul, a piece taught to him by Jeremy Dutcher, a singer, anthropologist and First Nations Canadian.
"It’s a song of gratitude. Every time I play it, I thank the mountains, the sun, the moon, the trees, the water, and I feel better" he said.
He followed up with JS Bach’s Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello, Prelude, which he explained was about ‘rebuilding for nature’ and the first piece he ever learned, when he was just four years old.
During the finale, Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen, audience members were visibly moved and, as snow continued to fall, many rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
He explained that the piece “was written during one of the darkest times in history, in the midst of World War II. We had not at that time recovered from the great depression, in 1939, yet somehow people were able to conjure up hope."
You can watch the full performance at www.performinghope.org or on Climate Basecamp’s YouTube and social channels.
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For media inquiries and further information, please contact: Helen Clay, Communications Director, Arctic Basecamp, helen@arcticbasecamp.org
About Arctic Basecamp: Arctic Basecamp Foundation is a non-profit science communication organization. Its focus is on communicating the global climate risks from polar change. On a mission to “speak science to power", the foundation aims to expand the global reach of its advocacy and research on how polar risks are amplifying the global climate crisis. Arctic Basecamp has a presence at many world-reaching events each year, including a flagship event since 2017 alongside the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos, at which Arctic Basecamp scientists and collaborators set up a real Arctic science tent, camp there, and run impactful events on the repercussions of climate change: arcticbasecamp.org / globalclimaterisks.org
Arctic Basecamp’s ‘sister’ organisation, Climate Basecamp, speaks science to culture. Find out more about Climate Basecamp and Performing Hope, the antidote to climate anxiety: climatebasecamp.org
