The Great Glastonbury Greenwash

With a giant Greenpeace banner strewn across the stage, Paul McCartney delightedly introduced his Saturday night special guests and gave anecdotes on their short notice air flights. Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen were only onstage for a couple of songs in The Beatles’ headliner set; that this passes with so little commentary only shows how weak and toothless the drive to reduce anthropogenic climate change really is. Aviation is of course understood to be a huge emitter of greenhouse gases. Grohl explained. “Well I started on Wednesday, then the flight got cancelled, back to the airport Thursday and then the flight got cancelled, but I swear I would never miss being on stage with you right now.” Sir Paul enthused. “These two guys flew in especially for this tonight.” As with David Attenborough in 2019, earlier in the day Greta Thunberg had been wheeled out for a little eco-conscience slot, as always warning the audience of the perils that are due if we don’t mend our ways. Then it was back on with the entertainment as a various assortment of international artists performed to an international audience. No more parties were pooped nor personal desires challenged. Flying is just an accepted and aspirational norm for the heaving billions. Greta getting the masses to pay lip service to climate change McCartney is no stranger to climate activism himself, urging the Climate Conference attendees to adopt plant-based diet treaties. A fair point given that other than our choices around reproduction (each new human multiplies our impacts) switching to a plant-based diet is the most effective personal choice. McCartney could never ditch the milk products though, the eternal veggie. Which leads us to the site itself, Glastonbury takes place on the acreage of Michael Eavis, a dairy farmer. The land is used for cow exploitation the rest of the year and farming cows is time and again shown to be an inefficient usage of land, calories and a key source of food based emissions alongside meat. Eavis releases feelgood videos to Youtube about the happy cows and where they go to during the festival. Unsurprisingly he doesn’t suggest the slaughterhouse or separation of mother and calf as possible destinations and outcomes. The kids aren’t alright. Let the Glasto cleanup begin… One musical artist has been brave enough to point out the hypocritical and harmful industry that takes place at good ol’ ‘Glasto’. Morrissey blew the whistle on his being blocked from performing The Smiths track Meat Is Murder with its video of standard practice on the big screen. He went on to state that milk production is even more cruel than meat and highlight how environmentally damaging it is. In 2011, I played Glastonbury and attempted to sing the song Meat Is Murder. Behind me, a screen that usually shows the many evils of factory farming remained blank. Dairy cows are not allowed to not be in lactation because then their milk production decreases and they do not produce enough milk to justify the cost of their board and lodgings. Therefore, cows are repeatedly raped and raped and raped … which Michael Eavis presumably thinks is a great way to make sentient beings happy. Does Michael Eavis at his Glastonbury Farm accommodate any cows at all that do not yield money his way? I doubt it. Off with their heads! Does Michael Eavis care about the insane environmental damage caused by dairy farming? I doubt it. To hell with the environment! People who do not care about animal rights usually do not care about human rights. It naturally follows. I saw only the one social media poster draw attention to McCartney’s oh-so casual talk of flying in his cameo guests. A response came in saying that this constituted “carbon shaming”. I am familiar with many of the “shaming” tropes but this one was new to me. I replied that we should be so lucky to shame anyone and that a whole lot of “carbon shaming” is going to be required if the ambitious and non-binding net zero targets are ever going to be met.