Earth Day, 22 April 2019. As part of the #1point5toStayAlive Campaign that supports Caribbean and other vulnerable countries in the fight against climate change, Panos Caribbean has produced a new theme song, with lyrics by Saint Lucian poet and dramatist Kendel Hippolyte and music by musician and humanitarian Taj Weekes, who coordinated the production on behalf of Panos Caribbean.
The song features the voices of Linda “Chocolate” Berthier, Bushman, Kenyatta Hill, Kendel Hippolyte, Zara McFarlane, Sidney Mills, Jafe Faulino, Razia Said, Aaron Silk and Taj Weekes. It is distributed by Jatta/VP Records, and is available online on YouTube and SoundCloud.
Coinciding with the release of the song, Kendel Hippolyte has launched an appeal to artists and other concerned citizens to make their voices heard in the fight against climate change. In Hippolyte’s words, “we cannot look at our children, and their children, and tell them we did nothing”.
The Paris Agreement signed at the 2015 climate change conference called on all countries “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase … to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial average”. Global warming is on track to break the 1.5°C mark as early as 2040, and an increase of the average global temperature above 1.5°C will have disastrous impacts on the Caribbean and other vulnerable regions of the world.