An Experiment with Climate Karaoke

This was originally posted in the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Chicago Substack. Follow them here if you want the skinny on local climate action!

Photo by Aleksi Partanen on Unsplash

When I used to think of karaoke, I thought of tiki drinks, a public stage, and the heartbreak of (500) Days of Summer. But that was before I did private room karaoke.

Gone were the jeering crowds and performance anxiety. Instead, I found friendship and showtunes – and a lot of flashing lights. So, inevitably, I thought: I have to do this with Citizens’ Climate Lobby Chicago. Enter climate karaoke.

On January 22^nd, nearly fifteen of us gathered at Lincoln Karaoke in Chicago with one mission, to sing songs related – however tangentially – to climate change. Wind, rain, heat, or snow, the song sheet was completely open to interpretation. And, boy, did CCL Chicago deliver. A few examples:

• Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do (complete with re-written lyrics like “all I wanna do is have a livable climate for us all”)

• Smash Mouth’s All Star (they were talking about melting ice caps all the way back in 1999)

• Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road (we imagined the Boss was driving an EV across America’s sprawling highways)

• The Weather Girls It’s Raining Men (sung in a beautiful falsetto by local group leader, Alex, in return for a handsome donation to Citizens’ Climate)

• And so many more…

In the end, some thirty songs made it onto the call sheet, complete with solos, duets, and “group sings.” (The room came with four mics that could be passed around to cover everyone). Most importantly, amidst the cheering and song choice surprises, I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in months.

Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash

Now, you might be thinking: what does singing karaoke have to do with climate action? While it may seem frivolous, I’d argue that fun is the fuel driving the rest of our work. In fact, as researchers found in Oxford University’s Community Development Journal last year, building friendships through shared experiences – even belting out 90’s songs – is what makes community organizations strong.

There are times when we do incredibly serious and vital work. After all, lobby is in our name. Twice a year, we hold hundreds of meetings with members of Congress to advocate for good climate policy. We’re also at dozens of events locally each year: tabling at Eco Fest and Sun Day, attending volunteer fairs, and giving presentations at local libraries.

But after being a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Chicago for nearly five years, I can say with conviction that it’s the friendships that sustain me. I’ve learned from these friendships, grown in my commitment to bipartisan bridge building, and found an endless well of hope to face our climate challenges.

I suspect too, that it is when we’re out in the community having fun that we best advertise our mission. Beyond the tabling and teaching, we’ve done so many things to put us in contact with our fellow Chicagoans:

• Working at community gardens like Just Roots and Ginkgo Gardens

• Hosting movie nights at the Davis Theater in Lincoln Square (including one coming up on February 26^th!)

• Volunteering at food pantries like The Friendship Center and Pilsen Food Pantry (and if climate change isn’t a food security issue, I don’t know what is!)

Every time we give back, build community, and find each other, we’ve planted one more seed in our grass roots network. We’ve given Chicago a chance to see that climate action is about hope not doom. And as we build the political will to make durable change, these relationships will help move us forward on the path to a livable climate for us all (cue Sheryl Crow).

I hope if you read this, you’ll decide to join us! Check out the CCL Community and visit our meetup page to see all of our upcoming events. You’ll also see why thousands have decided to join our network of citizen activists. I can’t predict exactly what our climate future looks like, but I can promise we’ll have fun doing it!