Blackpink: All Girl K-Pop Band With Billions Of Followers Speak Up On Climate Change

Last December, Blackpink, the all-girls K-Pop band millions of fans recorded a message showing their support for the climate, and recently the band-members were appointed as advocates to raise awareness for the global campaign against climate change, in conjunction with the 26th Climate Change Conference, set to take place in November 2021.

Recently, Blackpink members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa were invited to the British Embassy in Seoul where they were appointed as climate change advocates for the global campaign against climate change.

Six years ago, a UN conference on climate change in Paris was seen as a significant moment- countries around the world signed up to limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees celsius.

Just days after the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change back in December, Blackpink released a video in collaboration with the British Embassy in Seoul that was introduced through the Climate Ambition Summit 2020.

The video went up on Youtube, where the band is the most-subscribed musical group, female act, and Asian act, and saw the members of the band speak up on climate change, how it affects us all and that we need to do something about it.

An excerpt from the video: “Recently we have been hearing more and more news about climate change. We learned that our world is changing. Every year – we are seeing more extreme weather, things like heatwaves, droughts, and flooding. Part of the reason is that the earth is losing its natural habitats and it’s losing them fast. Back in 1997, 46% of the earth was made up of natural habitats. But now only 35% remains and more are disappearing every day. These habitats and the species living in them help control our climate, food, water, and even the air that we breathe.

But it is not too late. We can still decide to make it better. In November 2021, the U.K. will host the UN Climate Change Conference also known as COP26 where world leaders will come together to take action to protect our environment. Each and every one of us could make a difference and we need to act now. Climate change affects us all.”

They concluded the video by calling all their fans, known as BLINKs, to join them on this journey.

Every year – we are seeing more extreme weather, things like heatwaves, droughts, and flooding. Part of the reason is that the earth is losing its natural habitats and it’s losing them fast. Back in 1997, 46% of the earth was made up of natural habitats. But now only 35% remains and more are disappearing every day. These habitats and the species living in them help control our climate, food, water, and even the air that we breathe

Excerpt from the video

Following the release of the video, the band received a written letter from U.K. Prime Minster Boris Johnson, who invited the group to join the U.K. at the COP26 to raise awareness regarding climate change across the world.

With the 26th Climate Change conference set to take place this November in Glasgow, Scotland, and to call on the world’s attention to the climate crisis ahead of this date, the UN Climate Change has chosen the highest-charting female Korean act on the Billboard Hot 100 and the most-followed girl group on Spotify as its climate change ambassadors. Blackpink was also the first girl group from any country to make it to Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list.

In his letter, Johnson wrote: “Your recent video ‘Climate Action in Your Area #COP26’ was a huge success, being viewed over 10 million times across social media. Climate change is the most important issue of our generation” and it is welcoming that you have decided to speak up for this critical issue.”

In an interview with the BBC, members of Blackpink spoke about why they felt it important to raise their voice on the climate crisis. “Watching Sir David Attenborough’s documentary ‘A Life On Our Planet’ and various similar material helped us to learn more about what we could actually do to sustain our beautiful planet,” said Rosé, along with Jennie adding, “Basically that documentary showed how precious our planet is and how vulnerable it is right now, and how we are losing more of the natural world every day and with time running out, we felt like we needed to say something.” 

Lisa shared that the first step is to know what is happening with climate change because it affects all of us and that the band wants to learn more and hopes that their fans do too. The members concluded by expressing their happiness to be a part of such an important cause.

Simon Smith, the British Ambassador to Korea emphasized that the British Embassy in Seoul is happy to be working with BLACKPINK and the group’s manager YG Entertainment on the COP26. “We must act now to protect the earth and our future generation. We hope the BLINK around the globe will join our journey as well”.

The ‘A Life On Our Planet’ documentary that Rosé was speaking about premiered on Netflix late last year and it presents an important message from nonagenarian broadcaster and natural historian Attenborough that humans must make drastic changes to their diets in order to save the planet. In the trailer, Attenborough said: “I had the most extraordinary life. It’s only now I appreciate how extraordinary. The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. Yet, the way we humans live on earth is sending it into a decline. Human needs have overrun the world.”

And the impacts of the documentary can be felt with recent findings from a survey, showing that six in 10 Brits are thinking of switching to sustainability due to Attenborough and over a third of Brits are avoiding animal products due to this film as well as other documentaries like James The Game Changers, famously backed by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Also, research indicates that parts of the Amazon and other tropical forests are now emitting more CO2 than they absorb and this isn’t yet incorporated into climate models meaning it could put the temperature goals set by the Paris Agreement out of reach.

However, some researchers dismiss these findings, and Katarzyna Tokarska of ETH Zurich, with others, claim that models with extreme warming would not accurately “predict” the current climate. Hence, these are biased and unlikely to be realistic in their future predictions and that with “ambitious” action to reduce emissions, the world could meet the temperature target set by the Agreement.

Experts also warn that without a drastic reduction in global meat and dairy consumption emissions from our food system will again hinder us from achieving the agreement goals.

Lead image courtesy of YG Entertainment.