Artists drive the beat for climate change

PARIS, France – Musicians are beginning to act, react and take action on climate change.

 

Nitya Lila, a young and energetic artist, says marrying music and art in tackling climate change issues are a powerful way of raising public awareness and for world leaders to take urgent climate action.

 

“I believe in the universal power of music to help communicate our message on the urgent need for climate action,” said Nitya Lila, who made it in Paris when she joined the People’s Pilgrimage from Rome to Paris.

 

 

She and other pilgrims walked more than 1,500 kilometers with climate activist Naderev ‘Yeb’ Sano. They reached Paris on November 29, just in time for the gathering of world leaders from 190 nations that will craft the new, universal climate change deal.

 

“Paris is not the end of our pilgrimage,” Nitya Lila said. “ We are thinking of going beyond the COP21(climate summit) event here in Paris and to go to other areas where climate impacts are felt to rally people into a collective action for saving our planet. It is our only home and that of our future children.“

 

Outside the conference halls, Nitya Lila, Sano and youth members of international interfaith groups re-staged their 60-day journey from Rome to Paris at the Green Zone in the Le Bourget conference site. She was also with the same group with Sano who walked for 40 days from Manila to Tacloban City in Leyte, the ground zero of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 in commemoration of the families affected by the disaster.

 

 

It was a joyous gathering indeed. They were singing a Filipino song entitled, “Tayo, Tayo” meaning “Together, We Stand.”

 

 

Nitya Lila took inspiration in writing the lyrics of the song from her experience when she and her family were left homeless and barely surviving after typhoon Ketsana hit Manila in 2009. Almost the whole of Manila was submerged in that typhoon.

 

“I walk not only for myself but for the victims of climate injustice, especially from developing countries and regions vulnerable to climate impacts. ,” Nitya Lila told Philippine Environews. “When I walk, I represent more than myself. I represent my young nephews and nieces who will grow in a future that relies on the decisions we wil make today,” she said.

 

Listen to Nityalila sing the “Tayo, Tayo” (Together, We Stand) song of the climate pilgrims in this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83BjU8-4jQ

 

 

story, photos and video: Anna Valmero; editing by Imelda Abano