In light of the recent Global Climate Strike, and Greta Thunberg’s powerful speech to the UN today, I thought I’d share why I get so mad at anyone who insists the science isn’t settled that I often have to step back and turn off the radio/tv/website.
As part of my senior ecology capstone for my BS in biology, I had to write up a mock research proposal for something connected to a controversial topic (list provided by the professor). This would’ve been sometime in 2004-2005, since that’s when I was a senior. I chose climate change, and figured I’d do something that addressed the question of “is climate change happening.”
Like any good scientist, I started off with a review of the scientific research that had been done to date. What I found forced me to change my outlook. Every single paper I could find, going back as far as the literature databases went (which was back to the ‘80s for some of them) took as its starting point that the climate was changing, that CO2 levels were rising, and what science was interested in was not whether climate change was happening but a) how bad it would be and b) what would happen under ever-worsening climate scenarios.
I eventually wrote up a research proposal involving measuring the respiration rate of conifers under different CO2 levels, but that’s not important.
What IS important is that fifteen years ago, the science was in. It had been in for well over a decade at that point. The climate was changing, and I couldn’t find a single peer-reviewed paper that said it wasn’t.
And this was known. It was known before Greta Thunberg was even born.
So all the climate change deniers out there can go fuck themselves.
Greta Thunberg is amazing. She embodies all the rage and disappointment I have towards climate deniers and corrupt world leaders making excuses for inaction but she’s actually getting heard. She is an icon. She is doing what we all wish we could do and has found a way to demand her voice be listened to instead of yelling into the void of our Facebook friends lists hoping our conservative uncle/friend will grow up and realise the world needs to change.
Greta fighting against a constant onslaught of abuse and criticism from right wing politicians and media but is standing up for what’s right and the world is hearing her message. It isn’t some washed down diplomatic sentiment bent into a molded shape. She speaks honestly and openly. She speaks from the heart. She says what I want to say to world leaders minus the string of expletives.
Greta gives me hope for a better future. The youth of today are inspirational and are well equipped to become the leaders of tomorrow that we deserve.
scooter braun’s firm being backed by the carlyle group, a corporation that funds oil drilling, coal mining, and military contracting…. to the point that it actually profits off saudi arabia bombing yemen, where thousands of people have died and continue to die……. um…… is…. attrocious….. i don’t know what else to say, other than that scooper has blood money on his hands and he should rot in hell for it.
“Man, this fucking Scooter Braun shit, like what a piece of shit, right? You guys know about this dude? It just, like, broke my heart. I read Taylor’s statement, I was like, that sounds about right, ya know? Toxic, toxic dudes doing toxic bullshit in this toxic industry… What a fucking asshole. I thought that was illegal. To do a business turn behind the people who wrote the stuff, like, you can’t do it without their knowledge. There’s like a certain amount of time legally you have to, like, let the people know… Like there’s gotta be a precedent for that, not toxic masculinity, not these fucking idiots who are just ya know… He doesn’t sound like a very good person, does he? Do you stand with Taylor? Of course, I mean it’s just a fucking shitshow to learn how awful people can be, ya know? Just for a profit. P-R-O-F-I-T. Just for a monetary gain and maybe some clout. I don’t know what kind of clout they feel they deserve because it like, dude, you screwed over a young artist early on and know you were screwing them over. Everybody involved in that is a piece of shit, man.”
For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.
Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.
Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.
This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.
When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.
Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.
I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23.
